Dorothea Weber (née Le Brocq) was ostracised because her Austrian-born husband was fighting in the German Army, yet she gave sanctuary to Hedwig Bercu, an Austrian refugee who fled to England and then Jersey to escape Nazi oppression.
Bercu made a new home for herself in the Island in 1938, but found herself again at the mercy of Hitler’s racial extermination policy following the Occupation two years later.
In a moving ceremony held under tight security in the Occupation Tapestry Galley, relatives of the two women from the Island, Germany, Israel and the UK, joined local dignitaries and invited guests to see Mrs Weber conferred with one of Israel’s highest honours, Righteous Among the Nations.
The presentation was made by Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, who was accompanied by bodyguards and driven around the Island by armoured vehicles from the Isreali embassy fleet in London which were brought over specially for the day.
Full report in Monday’s JEP.
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