August Bohny (July 9, 1919 - August 18, 2016) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, speech therapist and Righteous Among the Nations who operated in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Biography

Bohny was born in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

to a father who was a streetcar inspector. He studied at a gymnasium and played

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

. He was a member of

Service Civil International Service Civil International (SCI) is an international peace organisation. Since 1920, it organises international volunteering projects in the form of workcamps and it was the first organisation worldwide to do so. The organisation was founded by S ...

, an international non-governmental organization. Between 1939–1941 he studied at a teacher's seminary. He was also a graduate of the

Swiss army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...

recruit school.

During World War II

During the war, Bohny was active in a Swiss rescue organization called "Le Secours Suisse" (The Swiss Rescue), founded by

Maurice Dubois Maurice DuBois (born August 20, 1965) is an American television anchorman for WCBS-TV in New York City and the CBS network. Early life and education DuBois was born on Long Island, New York, the son of immigrants to the U.S. from Dominica, an ...

, who was later also recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. The organization operated in southern France, including in Toulouse, as well as in La Chambon-sur-Lignon,

. Bohny and his wife, Friedel Bohny-Reiter (who was also later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations), ran an institution in La Chambon where they sheltered about 800 children between 1941–1944. These children were rescued from concentration camps and hidden in the institution for periods of three to six months, until other hiding places were found for them. Some were orphans, some were Jewish, and some were persecuted for other reasons, such as having parents in the French Resistance. Bohny tried to keep the French police and Gestapo away from the institution and also to hide the presence of the Jewish children there.

After the War

Bohny was a teacher and speech therapist. In 1945 he co-founded a children's home in the Canton of Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden, Switzerland that operated according to the Pestalozzi method. He assisted in the rehabilitation of child survivors of Buchenwald and was also active in other frameworks for children, including Dutch children affected by the famine in the Netherlands in the winter of 1944–1945. Between 1979–1995 Bohny headed the Swiss organization for the blind. He died in Basel on August 18, 2016 at the age of 97.

Recognition

Bohny's story is documented in the archives of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1986 a reunion took place in La Chambon attended by many of the rescued children. In 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Bohny as Righteous Among the Nations. The rescue story was documented in several films, both documentary and fiction, including "Weapons of the Spirit" directed by Pierre Sauvage, as well as "The Hill of 1000 Children".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohny, August Swiss Righteous Among the Nations Speech and language pathologists 1919 births 2016 deaths Swiss educators