LEA AND OSWALDO BARDONE
French Rescuers

Photograph of Lea Bardone with photo of her deceased husband Oswaldo, 1985

Born to a working class family in Northern Italy in 1916, Lea Bardone grew up in Brignoud, France, not very far from Grenoble. On the eve of the Second World War, Lea was a young married woman with a three year old son and one year old daughter. Her husband Oswaldo worked in an iron works factory where he was also a union leader.

For the duration of the war the couple ran a cafe restaurant, first in St. Etienne, later in nearby La Ricamarie. From the summer of 1942, this family business became a front for underground activities that helped save the lives of countless Jewish people, many of them children. Photograph of Lea and Oswaldo Bardone with their children, c.1940

When France fell to the German invaders, Oswaldo, along with several other young French men, was briefly taken prisoner for his political activities. Thus began his friendship with Leon Poliakov, who happened to be Jewish. In August 1942, when the roundups of Jews in France began in earnest, Poliakov fled Paris for the Bardone's cafe in the south of France. They provided him with every necessity for the remainder of the German occupation, during which time Poliakov was an active and effective worker in the French Resistance. Oswaldo soon became involved. Taking advantage of his friendship with a farmer whose land bordered the Swiss frontier, he and Poliakov organized and carried out the transport of numerous Jews hidden in Nice and Marseille, first to their region, then through the farmer's land to Switzerland.


Back to the Previous Page

Go to the Next Page