Muguette Myers

Muguette Szpajzer-Myers was born to a Jewish family in Paris, France that had emigrated from Poland. Her father died when she was a small child, and her mother Bella Szpajzer managed to obtain a work permit that enabled her to support Muguette and her older brother Jojo. Muguette was only seven when Nazi Germany invaded France in World War II. Thanks to one of her aunts, who worked at the Prefecture of Police and who warned them in time, Muguette's family escaped the Vel' d'Hiver roundup of Parisian Jews in July 1942. Bella and the two children fled Paris and eventually found shelter in Champlost, a small village in north central France. Muguette took on the identity of Marie Bella, went to school, and studied the catechism to blend in with the Catholic residents. The family survived the war to be liberated by U.S. troops in July 1944. In 1947, they emigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal. Muguette completed her education, married and started a family, and worked as a translator. In 2005, she returned to Champlost for a ceremony to honor four members of the community as Righteous Among the Nations for hiding her and her family during the war. Her memoir, Where Courage Lives (French translation, Les Lieux du courage) was published by the Azrieli Foundation in 2015.