Sabine Zlatin (13 January 1907 – 21 September 1996) was a Polish-born Jewish Frenchwoman who hid

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish children during World War II.

Life

Zlatin was born Sabine Chwast in a Jewish family in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. As a young woman she moved to France, where she married Miron Zlatin. With him she ran a poultry farm in

Landas Landas () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nord department of the French Republic. The communes cooperate in t ...

in the north of France. Both received French citizenship in 1939. Sabine Chwast was the last of twelve children. The father was an architect. He did not like the name given to his daughter, and decided to call her Yanka, a name she kept thereafter. Sabine could not abide the stifling home environment or the widespread anti-Semitism in Poland, so she decided in the mid-1920s to leave her homeland. Through her studies, she moved successively, to Danzig, Koenigsberg, Berlin, Brussels and finally arrived in Nancy, France, where she began studying art history. She met a young Jewish student from Russia, Miron Zlatin who was preparing a graduate degree in Agricultural University of Nancy. They were married July 31, 1927. The couple had no children. In 1929, Miron and Sabine acquired a poultry farm currently rue Miron-Zlatin to Landas in the North. After some difficulties, the operation proved a success. They were naturalized July 26, 1939. After the outbreak of World War II, Sabine Zlatin began to train with the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. When the Germans advanced into France, the Zlatins moved to

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, where Sabine Zlatin was posted to a

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

. After the formation of the

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

government in 1941, she was forced to leave. At the

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. Location Agde is located on the Hérault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi con ...

and

Rivesaltes Rivesaltes (; ca, Ribesaltes, which means the ''high shores'') is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Geography Rivesaltes is in the canton of La Vallée de l'Agly and in the arrondissement of Perpignan. ...

. When the Germans occupied the rest of the France in 1943, Zlatin took 17 children with her to the Italian-occupied zone. Through the recommendation of the sub-prefect of

Belley Belley () is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. History Belley is of Roman origin, and in the 5th century became an episcopal see. It was the capital of the province of Bugey, which was a dependency of Savoy till 1601, when i ...

, she received permission to use a house in

Izieu Izieu () is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It lies on the river Rhône, between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry. Site of World War II Jewish orphanage Izieu was the site of a Jewish orphanage during the Second World War ...

, 60 miles from Lyon in the

Rhône Valley The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

, and founded the Hérault refugee children's home ''La Maison d'Izieu'' ("Children's Home of Izieu), where Jewish children were hidden. However, on 6 April 1944, the

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

, led by

Klaus Barbie Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primari ...

, raided the house and took away all 44 of the children and the seven adults who were taking care of them. Zlatin herself was elsewhere at the time. Forty-two of the children and five of the adults were gassed at the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, while two of the teenage children and the home superintendent, Miron Zlatin, were executed by firing squad at

Reval Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. In 1987 Zlatin testified against Barbie in his war crimes trial. The same year she founded an association to create a museum for the Izieu victims. She received support from various sources, including from French president

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

. The museum opened on 4 April 1994 in the very house that she had used to try to protect the children.

References

Books

Serge Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...

(1984) ''The Children of Izieu: a human tragedy''; translated by Kenneth Jacobson. New York: Harry N. Abrams (Translation of: ''Les enfants d'Izieu'')

External links

Musée Memorial des Enfants d’Izieu (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zlatin, Sabine 1907 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Polish Jews Polish emigrants to France Jews in the French resistance Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery