Through a network of monasteries and churches, Otilia Levi helped Jews hide from Nazis during WWII
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Through a network of monasteries and churches, Otilia Levi helped Jews hide from Nazis during WWII
By
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
June 12, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Otilia Levis life was defined by her courage.
Born Otilia Vainer in Galatz, Romania, in 1923, she was the daughter of a Jewish merchant. The family of four fled the country in 1941 after her father escaped a three-day pogrom in Bucharest. Upon settling in Lyon, France, Levi began hiding other Jews from the Nazis through a network of monasteries and churches.
Levis son Ron Levi said his mother often spoke of her experiences during World War II and had hoped to one day write a book. But it wasnt until he found file cards with her handwritten notes that he learned the depth of her heroism.
She wrote about wearing a disguise to get into a hospital where German soldiers were holding the wife of a Jewish man who sought her help, he said. My mom got her out and helped the couple flee. I never knew all of the details.
Those we have lost to the coronavirus in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. ... Levis family recalled her courage recently after she contracted the novel coronavirus and died May 23 in Gaithersburg, Md. She was 97.
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Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel covers the economics of education, writing about the financial lives of students, from when they take out student debt through their experiences in the job market. Before that, she wrote about the banking industry. Follow
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