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Gabriel Piguet

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Gabriel Piguet (French pronunciation: [ɡabʁijɛl piɡɛ]; (24 Feb 1887 at Mâcon, died 3 July 1952 at Clermont-Ferrand) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Involved in Catholic resistance to Nazism, he was imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

Gabriel Piguet
Bishop of Clermont
Church Catholic Church
Diocese Diocese of Clermont-Ferrand
Appointed 7 April,1933
Installed 7 December,1933
Term ended 3 July,1952
Predecessor Jean-François-Etienne Marnas
Successor Pierre-Abel-Louis Chappot de la Chanonie
Orders
Ordination 2 July,1910
Consecration 27 February,1934
by Hyacinthe-Jean Chassagnon
Personal details
Born Gabriel Emmanuel Joseph Piguet
24 February, 1887
Mâcon, France
Died 3 July, 1952
Clermont-Ferrand, France

He was honoured as a Righteous Gentile on 22 June 2001, by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.[1]

During the Second World War, Piguet allowed Jewish children to be hidden from the Nazis at the Saint Marguerite Catholic boarding school in Clermont-Ferrand. He was arrested by German police in his Cathedral on 28 May 1944 for the crime of giving aid to a priest wanted by the Gestapo. Imprisoned first in Clermont-Ferrand, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp in September.[2]

At Dachau, Piguet presided over the secret ordination of Blessed Karl Leisner, who died soon after the liberation of the camp.[3][4] He survived his imprisonment, though physically diminished - he had lost 35 kg. He died seven years later.[5]

See also

References

  1. Back to citation Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238
  2. Back to citation Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238
  3. Back to citation Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933-1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; p.154-5.
  4. Back to citation Karl Leisner; German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013
  5. Back to citation Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238