Colonel Paul Henri Michel Tzaut joined the Salvation Army in 1921.

Paul, a Swiss national, and Marguerite, known as Lily Tzaut, joined the Salvation Army in 1921. They were twenty years old at the time.

In May 1942, they were appointed directors of the organization's retirement home, “Soleil d'automne” (Autumn Sun), located on the Escoutet estate near Tonneins, between Agen and Marmande on the right bank of the Garonne River.

One evening in the summer of 1942, there was a knock at the door. The Hercocks, a Jewish couple of Polish origin, were asking for shelter.

On August 26, 1942, the Hercock family had been caught in the roundup that targeted several towns in the department where they had been sheltering since their escape from Lille. Before turning to the Tzaut couple, who would shleter them until the end of the war, the family experienced a nighttime escape, recounted by one of the daughters: “Around four in the morning, the French gendarnes banged their fists on the shutters. My heart stopped. Through a low window at the back of the house, barefoot, shoes in hand so as not to leave any trace, my mother, my sister, and I left the house while my father tried to 'talk' to the gendarnes, but in vain… My father was arrested and taken away while we walked through the countryside across the fields without knowing where we were going. In the distance, a cornfield came into view, and we went there because the stalks were high and we could hide. There, all day long, as we remained crouched on the bare ground without moving. As night fell, the farmer saw us, and my mother threw herself at her knees, begging her to hide us. This woman was overwhelmed by my mother and kindly agreed to hide us in a nearby cabin. This woman's name was Madame Montastruc.”

The house is full of boarders, but new arrivals are welcomed.

They are too young to be admitted as boarders. Paul and Lily Tzaut hire them. Mrs. Hercock is employed in the kitchen while her husband, Mr. Hercock, takes care of the garden, the polutry, and the establishment's cow.

Fifteen other fugitives will follow.

Paul and Lily Tzaut, with the complicity of their children, welcome them, hide them, or shelter them under false identities. Most will ultimately survive.

Paul and Else Gunzburg , Jews of German origin, are hidden from 1943 until the Liberation by performing various tasks on the estate.

But the Tzaut family was running an enormous risk, especially since a police academy was located nearby. Ration checks, suspicions, sleepless night. The tension reached its peak when a young German pilot made an emergency landing nearby. Two soldiers remained on site for several days to guard the aircraft, unaware that they were sharing the same roof as their intended victims.

When the Salvation Army was dissolved in 1943, the institution continued its work under the auspices of the Community of Deaconesses of Reuilly, awaiting the Liberation.

After the war, the Tzauts remained in contact for many years with those they had saved.

Honored by Yad Vashem in 1973. Medal presented in person on May 27, 1975, in Paris, France.

• Righteous Among the Nations