June 27: Dodo Donoff, Resistance Fighter

David “Dodo” Donoff, 24, one of seven Donoff siblings involved in resisting Nazi rule in France through the Sixth Jewish Scouts of France, was shot near Lyons by the Gestapo on this date in 1944 while carrying false identity papers and food stamps. Donoff (alias André Donnet) died in the hospital but managed to protect his contacts. Earlier, he had helped several internees escape from the Gurs concentration camp, where he worked as a volunteer, and helped provided false documents and hideouts for some 110 children and young people in the south of France. He had also masterminded the transport of money, false id, and equipment for the British secret service and Swiss support networks. The two Donoff brothers were killed in the course of the war, while five sisters survived. The Jewish Scouts were one of the key groups in the Organisation Juive de Combat, which was dedicated not only to the liberation of France but to the rescue of French Jews.
“Out of a community of about three hundred thousand Jews in France on the eve of the war, 75,721, including 10,147 children, were deported. Most perished in the camps. Only about 3 percent returned. The consequences could have been even worse if not for the Jewish Resistance.” —Dr. Tsilla Hershco, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs