Jeanne Barnier lived in the small town of Dieulefit in southeastern France. She worked as a municipal clerk in the local town hall, where her responsibilities included refugee admissions. From 1940 in particular, numerous people fled from the German occupiers in northern France to the still unoccupied south. Hundreds of Jews, communists, and intellectuals found refuge in Dieulefit.
The school director Marguerite Soubeyran first asked Jeanne Barnier for help at the beginning of 1941. She had taken several Jews into her school, for whom she needed forged papers. Barnier agreed and forged identity papers and ration coupons for food and clothing. Up to the end of the war, she forged hundreds of papers. She was in contact with Jewish and non-Jewish aid and resistance organizations, and arranged accommodation for people at risk. Barnier housed a Jewish girl, Cecilia Rosenbaum, in her own home for two years.
The mayor Pierre Pizot and the local police covered up Barnier’s activities and warned her of impending danger.
Jeanne Barnier was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1988.
Jeanne Barnier, Dieulefit, 1937. Source: Patrimoine Mémoire et Histoire, Dieulefit
Identity card forged by Jeanne Barnier for the actress Betty Isolani, Dieulefit, January 22, 1942. Source: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main, EB 88/120
Jeanne Barnier (right) and an unknown person in Vassieux-en-Vercors, a village destroyed by the Wehrmacht in 1944, southeastern France, 1945. Source: Patrimoine Mémoire et Histoire, Dieulefit, collection Catherine Descombes
Jeanne Barnier, presumably in rue du Savelas in Dieulefit, undated. Source: Patrimoine Mémoire et Histoire, Dieulefit, collection Catherine Descombes
