Charles Lederman

   Charles Lederman, born in Warsaw, Poland, arrived in Paris at the age of three months. His parents, who were factory workers, spoke only Yiddish. After becoming a lawyer in 1933, he began his professional career at the League for Human Rights, working in the department for foreigners. In 1934, he joined the Communist Party.

   He was called up when war was declared, fought at Dunkirk, was taken prisoner in June 1940, escaped, and made his way to Lyon.

   He joined the Resistance and became one of the leaders of the clandestine Jewish section of the M.O.I. in the southern zone. At the request of the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) in Montpellier—which was working to legally remove Jews from the internment camps—Charles Lederman became the first volunteer resident at the Rivesaltes camp.  

   In October 1941, suspected of having helped several Jews escape, he was removed from the camp. In November, he was appointed director of the OSE’s Lyon office, which very quickly began operating illegally by providing false papers and “hiding places” for Jewish families.

   Thanks to his connections with Abbé Glasberg and Father Chaillet, founder of *Témoignage Chrétien*, Charles Lederman, following the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundup, met Father de Lubac, the head of the Jesuits, who introduced him to the Archbishop of Toulouse, Monsignor Saliège. Charles Lederman informed him of the situation facing the Jews. And on August 23, 1942, in every church throughout the diocese, the pastoral letter was read from the pulpit: (…) “Jews are men, Jews are women… They are our brothers and sisters like so many others ( …).” This first public protest was echoed by other prelates.

   As director of the OSE in Lyon, Charles Lederman, working with this organization and members of Jewish and Christian social associations, orchestrated the rescue of 108 Jews interned at the Vénissieux camp, near Lyon, who were then taken in by families or convents. This was the largest rescue of Jewish children during the Occupation.

   Charles Lederman then went completely underground. He was one of the founders and leaders of the Mouvement National contre le Racisme (MNCR). Following the mass arrests in Paris of numerous leaders of the Jewish section of the M.O.I., Lederman was summoned to the northern zone and, throughout the war—in addition to his responsibilities with the MNCR—continued to write numerous leaflets and articles.

   In the spring of 1943, he co-founded the Union of Jews for Resistance and Mutual Aid (UJRE), of which he served as president until his death.

   After the Liberation, he returned to his career as a lawyer. He was elected as a Communist senator in 1977. Both in France and abroad, he fought until his death to defend the freedoms and rights of the oppressed.