Elisabeth Eidenbenz

Elisabeth Eidenbenz ( Wila , Switzerland , June 12 , 1913 - Zurich , May 23 , 2011 ) was a teacher and nurse , founder of the Elna Maternity Hospital , who between 1939 and 1944 managed to save approximately 600 children among Spanish Republican refugees. and Jews fleeing the Nazi invasion .

Biography

She worked as a teacher in different schools in Switzerland and Denmark until she decided to join the Association for Aid to Children of War.

She arrived in Madrid on April 24 , 1937 as a volunteer to help mothers and children in the French concentration camp during the Spanish civil war , as part of a shipment of human and material aid. After the fall of the republic, the exiles had to take refuge in the French camps , where many of them died from malnutrition , disease and other types of miseries. Because of this, any pregnant woman was doomed to lose her child, or worse, to die in childbirth .. For this reason, Elizabeth decided to convert an abandoned mansion, near the town of Elna (and next to the Argelès-sur-Mer field) into a maternity home .

At first, maternity was maintained thanks to voluntary donations that came from Europe , but after the start of World War II , the funds dwindled and refugees from France and the rest of Europe began to arrive. They were mainly Jewish women fleeing the Nazi occupation. For this reason, maternity was forced to have to associate maternity with the Red Cross and abide by its policy on neutrality . This prevented the maternity hospital from hosting political refugees , especially Jews, and for this reason it was decided to falsify the identity of a large part of them in order to circumvent these laws. They were very harassed by the Gestapo, getting to be arrested Elizabeth on one occasion.

They saved approximately 400 Spanish children and 200 Jews from Europe.

Retired in the town of Rekawinkel , 30 km from Vienna ( Austria ), from 2002 recognition began to arrive for her work, with the publication of several books about her feat and the granting of various individual distinctions. She passed away in Zurich on May 23 , 2011 , at the age of 97.

Distinctions

• 2002, Righteous Among the Nations Medal , awarded by the State of Israel .
• 2006, Gold Cross of the Civil Order of Social Solidarity , of the Government of Spain .
• 2006, Cross of Saint George Award , from the Generalitat of Catalonia .
• 2007, Legion of Honor , awarded by the French Government .