80 Jewish Boys Essay

80 jewish boys. From 1942 to 1944 a boarding school in the province of Luxembourg became home to 83 jewish boys between the ages of three and 16, some of who were rescued by and brought to the school by Joseph Andre, Ida Sterno and her companion Andre Geulen The home was run by a retired army officer and his wife named major Emile Taquet and Marie Taquet who was not only responsible for the home’s finances,food source and hiding the children but he was also responsible for all the region’s underground resistance movement. Along with many other teachers Ivon Filot was responsible for educating the boys both jewish and gentile. All the boys, jewish and non-jewish were put into multiple groups led by a counselor. The jewish boys were treated and acted just as their non- jewish pupils, they went to mass and participated in the afternoon activities. When the German soldiers raided the school Emile protected the children without hesitation. These people put their lives on the line and asked for nothing in return. They not only protected and gave shelter to the children through the Nazi threat but they educated them too.

Marie Taquet was a mother figure to the boys, she thought of them as her own children, she understood them. She also helped her husband with providing food and clothes for the boys. The

I read about people with disabilities being killed by the thousands which hit especially hard since I myself have a disability, it made me tear up, knowing that something that these innocent people had no control of got them killed. Something that could have brought people together and made them celebrate their differences instead divided them and caused them to be killed. I truly have a deeper understanding of all that jews and righteous gentiles sacrificed, i’ve learned to choose kindness when hate is so tempting, and to do the right thing no matter how