Father Marcel Camille Paternotte, Army Chaplin & member of the resistance group MNB, Belgium. Saved at least 25 Jews from deportation & helped 7 French resistance fighters escape. Recognized as Righteous Among the Nation by Yad Vashem. See description.

A very interesting group of awards to Father Marcel Camille Paternotte, Army Chaplin & member of the Belgian resistance group MNB.

In close association with Father Joseph Andre, of Namur/Namen, and concentrating his work in the Charleroi region, he saved at least twenty-five Jews from deportation by providing them with hiding-addresses, forged IDs, and money. Included among those helped by Father Paternotte are the three Luchs brothers (Jaques, Joseph & Max), Paulette and Marguerite Redlich, and Gregoire Burgman.

On one occasion, Marcel Paternotte learned that the head of a local private detective agency regularly supplied the Germans with the names of resistance fighters. After a brief struggle with his conscience, he ordered that the informer be liquidated. One hour after the traitor's execution, apparently betrayed, the Germans picked up Father Paternotte and jailed him, but even there his anti-Nazi activities did not end. It is reported that he helped seven French resistance fighters, condemned to death by the Germans, escape to freedom.

When deported Jews began returning to Belgium after the war, Father Paternotte was among those welcoming them. He found among the survivors of Auschwitz a young man in his early twenties, named Maurice Pioro, whom he had not known previously. However, when Paternotte learned that Pioro had lost his entire family and had nowhere to go, he took him to his own home where he cared for him for five months, nursing him back to health. Pioro was to become a leading personality within the Belgian-Jewish community.

On April 23, 1975, Yad Vashem recognized Father Marcel Paternotte as Righteous Among the Nation.