Rosa (Rösli) Naef (Näf)

Rösli Näf, or Rosa Näf (born May 9, 1911 in Glarus Centre , in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland, where she died on September 15, 1996) , was a Swiss nurse, who worked with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarénéin Gabon (1936-1939), before becoming director of the children's home at the Château de La Hille (Ariège), a refuge house for Jewish orphans, under the control of the "Secours aux Enfants” linked to the Swiss Red Cross (1939-1944).
On August 26, 1942, 45 young people over 16 from the orphanage, and three Jewish employees there, were arrested by the gendarmerie, following the orders of the Nazis to be deported to the Vernet camp, north of Pamiers ( Ariège ) to be sent to Awschwitz Extermination Camp. Rösli Näf tried to intervene, without success. The Red Cross emblem had no effect. The children were later saved by Maurice Dubois through his connections with a member of the Vichy authorities.
Upon the arrival of the young children, Rösli Näf immediately organized their rescue, with passage to Spain and to Switzerland. The rescue to Switzerland of about twenty children was a personal initiative of Rösli Näf. The authorities of the Swiss Red Cross, having not been consulted, demanded his resignation. The other children took refuge in farms in the region. A dozen of them joined the resistance. One of them, Egon Berlin, aged 16, died in combat near Roquefixade ( Ariège ) and was buried in the Pamiers cemetery. A dozen children were arrested on their flight from La Hille, were deported and died in Auschwitz.