Remembering the Unwavering Faith of Mother Maria Skobtsova
Early in the morning of June 8th, 1940, Parisians awoke to the distant roar of German artillery…
In the terrifying hours that followed, more than 2 million gathered what few possessions they could carry, and fled ahead of Hitler’s fast-approaching army.
Had she so desired, Mother Maria Skobtsova could well have taken flight with them…
Instead, she chose to stay in the city, where she resolved to assist those who were unable to flee.
Born to devout Russian Orthodox Christians, in December 1891, “Liza” — as Mother Maria was then known — spent her childhood immersed in the religious teachings that underpinned the foundations of the Russian Empire.
Violently expelled in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution, Liza and her family eventually settled in Paris, where, far from finding happiness, tragedy soon befell her…
First, her youngest daughter, Anastasia, fell victim to Meningits, and then, the ensuing emotional turmoil resulted in the breakup of her marriage.
Desperately in search of “a new meaning of life”, Liza found it in 1932 when, with the support of her bishop — Metropolitan Evlogii of Western Europe — she made her monastic vows, and became “Mother Maria”.
Devoting herself “unreservedly to social service”, Maria transformed her home into an open house, not just for the poor and needy but, when the persecution of French Jews began, in the summer of 1940, she opened her doors to helpless Jewish families.
Besides giving them food to eat and beds to sleep in, she also gave them fictitious baptismal certificates that, in turn, enabled countless numbers to evade arrest and deportation.
By 1942, Maria was providing lifesaving assistance to Jews from all four corners of German-occupied France; and yet, still, she didn’t feel she was doing enough to help them…
Forever determined to do more, she thus formed a committee of like-minded clergymen and women, whom, between them, not only ventured to so-called “reception camps” — where they smuggled supplies to Jewish detainees — but also established a vast network of escape routes for Jews in hiding.
Little did Maria know, though, her selfless activities had caught the perilous attention of the Gestapo, whose officers raided her property, in February 1943, and arrested her with her beloved son, Yuri.
Brutally separated from Yuri, she was then interrogated within the horrific confines of Gestapo headquarters, from where, she was later transported to the horrors of Ravensbrück…
There, she endured more than two years of starvation, disease, and murderous slave labor, before volunteering herself, on this day, in 1945, to take the place of another in the gas chambers.
Later honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile, one of Maria’s surviving companions expressed:
“Though she did not seek martyrdom, Maria didn’t fear it…”
Quite the contrary.
“As one whose faith in God’s mercy was unwavering, Maria embraced it knowing that death is just the beginning.”
- Addendum 1: -
Forced to work more than 12 hours a day on starvation rations, this photograph shows just one of the numerous back-breaking tasks Maria was made to perform during her incarceration at Ravensbrück.
By the end of December 1944, the murderous slave labor Maria endured caused her to be hospitalized in the camp’s infirmary.
From there, she was transferred to the so-called “Youth Camp”, where, unbeknown to her, the Germans not only conducted horrific medical experiments on women and children, but also murdered them when they’d “served their purpose.”
For more than five weeks, Maria survived the horrors of the “Jugendlager”, before volunteering herself, on this day, in 1945, to take the place of another in the gas chambers.
- Addendum 2: -
Here, some of the female sadists who guarded Mother Maria and her fellow prisoners at Ravensbrück can be seen.
Of the more than 3,000 who participated in the daily suffering, torture, and murder of concentration camp detainees, only 77 were brought to trial.
- Addendum 3: -
When Mother Maria arrived at Ravensbrück concentration camp, she was met by this man — SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Fritz Suhren.
Prior to becoming Kommandant of Ravensbrück, Suhren served as “Lagerführer” (Camp Leader) in Sachsenhausen.
There he garnered a fearsome reputation for his sadism, which, according to survivors’ testimony, “he more than lived up to” at Ravensbrück.
Upon taking command in 1942, he not only “perfected” the “Vernichtung durch Arbeit” (Extermination through labor) policy of Hitler’s Reich by increasing the hours worked by prisoners and reducing their already meager rations of food but, he also introduced a barbaric scheme of his own…
Knowing that Hitler’s Wehrmacht was making extensive use of so-called “comfort women” on the frontline, Suhren offered to replace their dwindling numbers by supplying female inmates of Ravensbrück to be used as sex slaves.
Captured by American forces in May 1945, Suhren later escaped captivity, and spent several years on the run, before finally being recaptured in 1949.
Then put on trial by the French, it didn’t take them long to find Suhren guilty of crimes against humanity…
Sentenced to death by firing squad, the unrepentant Major was executed on June 12th, 1950.
- Addendum 4: -
Here, Jewish women can be seen bidding one final farewell to their husbands, who, after being summoned for “labor service” in May 1941, were transported to one of the so-called “reception camps” that Maria and her fellow helpers ventured to.
Just as their husbands were later deported to their deaths in the gas chambers, so too, these women and their children were ultimately sent to join them.
- Addendum 5: -
Here, a French Gendarme can be seen standing guard at the Drancy internment camp, where, for the duration that Mother Maria facilitated her lifesaving endeavor, she and her fellow helpers ventured to smuggle humanitarian supplies.
Established as a so-called “reception center”, in August 1941, more than 70,000 Jews were held within its horrific confines.
From there, they were deported either to other concentration camps or, directly to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Liberated by Allied forces in August 1944, successive post-war French governments refused to acknowledge the deplorable role that the Vichy-French regime played not only in operating camps such as Drancy, but also, in the mass deportation of their Jewish brethren.
Indeed, only in 1995 did the then-French President, Jacque Chirac, recognize the genocidal responsibility of Vichy when, during a speech in memory of the Jewish deportees, he apologized for the “criminal folly” of his country.
- Addendum 6: -
Maria’s surviving companion — Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt.
Jacqueline’s adult life began with tragedy when, less than a year after marrying her childhood sweetheart, Joseph d’Alincourt, the young lieutenant was killed during the Battle of France in the summer of 1940.
Shortly thereafter, Jacqueline moved to Paris, where, so outraged she became with the horrific treatment of her Jewish brethren, she joined the French Resistance.
Given the alias of “Violaine”, she not only worked in an intelligence-gathering capacity but, for more than a year, she also supported Mother Maria’s lifesaving activities.
Arrested by the Gestapo in September 1943, she was subjected to over a week of violent interrogations, before ultimately being deported to Ravensbrück.
There, Jacqueline was reunited with Mother Maria, whom she remained with until the latter’s selfless sacrifice.
Liberated in April 1945, she was later honored not just with the Croix de Guerre for her clandestine service, but also, her nation’s highest military accolade — the Légion d’Honneur.
Dedicating the rest of her life to keeping the blessed memory of the martyred alive, Jacqueline was laid to rest, aged 89, on April 21st, 2009.
- Addendum 7: -
Taken after her monastic vows, in March 1932, this photograph shows Mother Maria with His Holiness Metropolitan Evlogiy of Western Europe, and another great philanthropist — John Mott of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
Like Maria and her family, Metropolitan Evlogiy was violently expelled from his Motherland in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.
Subsequently arrested and imprisoned in both Ukraine and Poland, his freedom was secured thanks to the intervention of the French, whose diplomats not only negotiated his release, but also, safe passage to the then-Ottoman city of Constantinople.
Ultimately settling in Paris, it was there, he established the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, which, in turn, aided the philanthropic activities of the Russian Student Christian Movement.
For the duration of the Second World War, he staunchly supported Maria in her lifesaving endeavor, declaring it “the duty of all Christians to co-suffer” with their Jewish brethren.
Passing away just one year after the war’s end, in 1946, the good and blessed Bishop Evlogiy was laid to rest in the Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery, where, in 2020, he was joined by a magnificent monument unveiled in Maria’s blessed memory.
- Addendum 8: -
Here, one of the first clergymen who joined Maria in her lifesaving endeavor can be seen — Father Dimitri Klepinin.
Like Maria, Dimitri was also born into a family of devout Russian Orthodox Christians.
In addition to providing Maria with the fictitious baptismal certificates she gave to countless Jewish individuals and families, he insisted on accompanying her to the so-called “reception camps”, where they smuggled much-needed supplies.
Arrested the day after Maria, on February 8th, 1943, he was promised release if he pledged “never again to aid ‘Jüdische Schweine’…”
Telling his interrogators that, “as a Christian”, he could “say no such thing”, he was then incarcerated with Maria’s beloved son, Yuri, in Royallieu-Compiègne, from where he was deported to the horrors of Buchenwald.
There, he was selected to work as slave labor at the Dora-Mittelbau complex in the mountains of Thuringia, where, on February 9th, 1944, he tragically fell victim to pneumonia.
Although, for decades, his selfless sacrifice went unrecognized, that all changed in 1985…
Then honored as a posthumous Righteous Gentile, Father Dimitri was hailed by Yad Vashem as “an unwavering protector of Jewish lives.”
- Addendum 9: -
Soon after celebrating her fourteenth birthday, Mother Maria was devastated by the tragic loss of her beloved father, Yuri.
Causing her to lose faith in God, she not only turned to atheism but, on turning 19 years of age, she even married a Bolshevik.
By 1913, however, Maria’s marriage to her alcoholic husband had ended in tragedy, and she, in turn, had begun to rediscover Christianity.
Leading her to pursue a course of study in theology, Maria won a coveted place as the first female student here, at St. Petersburg’s majestic Theological Academy of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
- Addendum 10: -
Upon graduating from St. Petersburg’s Theological Academy, Mother Maria returned to the Crimea, where, soon after being elected mayor of her childhood town — Anapa — she was arrested on fallacious charges of being a Leninist.
Subsequently acquitted by her judge, Daniel Skobtsova, Maria went on to fall in love and marry Daniel; only for their married life to be violently interrupted when Crimea fell to the Bolsheviks…
Then forced to flee the peninsular, the beloved couple embarked upon a long and arduous odyssey, which, in 1923, finally came to an end when they arrived in Paris.
There, they raised their three cherished children, whom Maria can be seen with in this photograph.
When the ensuing emotional turmoil of losing five-year-old Anastasia (seen as a baby in Maria’s arms) caused the breakup of her and Daniel’s marriage, sadly, it also resulted in the separation of their surviving children, Yuri and Gaiana.
While Yuri went to live with his father, Gaiana was sent to a religious boarding school in Belgium, from where, she later returned as an adult to Russia.
Shortly thereafter, tragedy struck again when, in June 1936, Maria received a letter informing her that her dearest Gaiana had passed away from Typhus.
- Addendum 11: -
Mother Maria’s beloved son, Yuri.
For the duration that Maria facilitated her lifesaving endeavor, Yuri worked with her.
Taking it upon himself not only to deliver fictitious baptismal certificates to Jews in hiding but also, to finding additional places of shelter for them, Yuri was arrested alongside his mother, and taken with her to Gestapo headquarters for interrogation.
Then transported to the horrific confines of the Royallieu-Compiègne internment camp in northern France, Yuri was later deported to the horrors of Buchenwald.
There, he was selected to work as slave labor at the Dora-Mittelbau complex in the mountains of Thuringia, where, mere weeks before it was liberated by American forces, in April 1945, Yuri was brutally murdered by his German captors.
- Addendum 12: -
A post-war photograph of the property Mother Maria transformed into a safe haven for Jewish individuals and families — №77 Rue de Lourmel in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris. There, Maria also founded and operated a charity she christened: “Orthodox Action”.
Dedicated to helping the unemployed, the vulnerable, and the elderly, Maria kept the organization going through to her arrest in February 1943.
Today, nothing remains of Maria’s refuge.
Sadly, it was torn down and replaced with a mixed-use building comprising apartments and shops.
- Addendum 13: -
Honored as a posthumous Righteous Gentile on August 12th, 1987, this photograph shows Mother Maria’s Righteous Among the Nations ceremony in Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance, atop Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, Eretz Israel.
- Addendum 14: -
Here, staff members of Yad Vashem can be seen planting Mother Maria’s memorial tree in Jerusalem’s Garden of the Righteous, on August 12th, 1987.
- Addendum 15: -
Prior to the Russian Revolution, Maria and her family lived in the White Russian stronghold of Crimea. There, she completed her schooling at an all-girls high school in the city of Yalta, where, today, this memorial plaque stands in her honor.
