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French Resistance Hero Who Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children Dies at 108
(AFP-Guardian-UK) Georges Loinger, a French Resistance hero who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, has died at the age of 108. Loinger smuggled small groups of children across the Swiss border by throwing a ball and telling them to run after it. Another ruse involved dressing children up as mourners and taking them to a cemetery next to the border. With the help of a gravedigger's ladder, the "mourners" clambered over the cemetery wall and headed for the border just feet away. Loinger alone is credited with saving at least 350 children. In 1940, while serving with the French army, Loinger was taken prisoner by German forces and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Due to his blond hair and blue eyes, his captors did not suspect that he was Jewish and he managed to escape and return to France.