Once We Were Sisters - Inspirations

I first read about the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, the OSE, or Children's Rescue Society when I was researching a previous book, The Forgotten Children which was published in 2023. I was fascinated by the story of the OSE and was keen to write about it again. So, my latest book, Once We Were Sisters, is partly set in Chateau de Chabannes, near Limoges, which the OSE used to hide Jewish children during WW2.

The OSE was a charity, founded in 1912, to help Jewish children in Russia. It moved to Germany in 1923 and later to France. During the second world war, the OSE rescued many Jewish children from the Nazis, at first hiding them in remote chateau, and later smuggling them over the border to safety in Spain or Switzerland. Most of the chateaux were in the southern French Free Zone, ruled by Vichy, in areas of relative safety. But after November 1942 when the Nazis invaded the Free Zone, Jewish children were more at risk than ever. The Nazis carried out frequent raids on these homes, targeting the older children and taking them away to concentration camps. From that point on, the OSE began disbanding the homes. Some of the children were hidden with French families and others were smuggled over the borders via clandestine networks of passeurs, or people smugglers.

Chateau de Chabannes, La Creuse, France, 2025

The Chateau de Chabannes was one of the large houses where Jewish children from all over Europe were sheltered, and it's where I set part of the story of Once We Were Sisters. The chateau is in a tiny village north of Limoges, deep in rolling countryside. During the war it sheltered 284 Jewish children, and it was run by journalist and activist, Felix Chevrier and a staff of mostly Jewish teachers and helpers. Jewish holidays and festivals were observed and the children learned sports and other practical skills. Until 1942, they attended a local school where Renee Paillassou and her sister Irene, who were devoted to the Jewish children, were both teachers. The local community embraced the children and many sheltered them in their homes.

In August 1942, French gendarmes raided the chateau and arrested five of the older boys and a member of staff. Following a second raid in September, which was thwarted by the bravery and quick thinking of Felix Chevrier and the Paillassou sisters, the children were gradually sent away, either to be hidden with families or to be smuggled into Switzerland via the Garel underground network.

The Paillassou sisters and Felix Chevrier were later honoured by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority as Righteous among the Nations and there is a plaque outside the former village school to mark that honour.

Plaque outside the old school at Chabannes honouring Felix Chevrier and Irene and Renee Paillassou

I visited Chabannes in the summer of 2025 whilst researching Once We Were Sisters and I was struck by how remote the place was, and how tiny the community which took those desperate children to its heart. The chateau itself is abandoned and decaying, which struck me as sad, since it had played such a vital role in the lives of so many. After the children left in 1944, the building was used by the French Resistance until the end of the war.

Plaque honouring the local population for their bravery in working against racism and anti-semitism during WW2.

In Once We Were Sisters, I tried to convey what it must have been like for those children, torn from their homes, separated from their parents, and hunted by the Nazis, and for those brave men and women whose job it was to protect and care for them.

Once We Were Sisters was published by Bookouture on February 9th this year and can be found at this link.

Chained up gate and overgrown garden of the Chateau de Chabannes

Abandoned chateau