Jean Georges Ruelle
Jean Georges Ruelle is a four-year-old Jewish boy whose life is saved by Vianne Mauriac during a Nazi roundup in Carriveau. His mother, Hélène Ruelle, thrusts him into Vianne's arms at the moment of her own deportation, forcing Vianne to hide him under a false identity and ultimately deliver him to the convent orphanage. He becomes one of nineteen children Vianne rescues during the war, a symbol of the impossible choices forced upon ordinary women and the fragile, desperate bonds of survival.
Identity and Background
Jean Georges Ruelle is the younger son of Hélène Ruelle, the baker's wife in Carriveau. He is four years old in June 1942, the same age as Daniel (Ari de Champlain), the Jewish boy Vianne is already hiding. His older brother is old enough to insist on staying with their mother during the roundup, declaring, "Papa told me to take care of you. I am not leaving you." Jean Georges is too young to understand the danger; he cries for his mother and has no memory of any other life.
The Moment of Rescue
On a day of mass deportation in Carriveau, Vianne finds herself trapped in the town square as buses disgorge Jewish families. Hélène Ruelle, wearing a yellow star and carrying a small leather suitcase, spots Vianne and desperately shoves her younger son into Vianne's arms, pushing him hard against Daniel. She says, "He is Jean Georges, like his uncle. Four years old this June. My husband's people are in Burgundy." Vianne protests that she has no papers for him and that she will be killed if she takes him, but Hélène is already being grabbed by a Nazi and dragged away with her older son. Jean Georges is left wailing, "Maman!" and sobbing, clinging to Vianne.
Hiding and False Identity
Vianne immediately takes Jean Georges home, where Sturmbannführer Von Richter is billeted. When Von Richter sees the crying boy and asks who he is, Vianne lies, saying he is a friend's boy whose mother died of tuberculosis. Von Richter recoils in fear of disease and orders her to take the child to the orphanage immediately. Vianne obeys, but instead of abandoning him, she takes him to Mother Superior Marie-Therese at the Abbaye de la Trinité. There, she forges a new birth certificate for him, naming him Emile Duvall, and creates a secret fiche card that records his true identity, his false name, and his hiding place. She hides one copy of the fiche in a dirty jar in the shed, another in an old paint can in the barn, and a third in a box in the chicken coop, and leaves a fourth with Mother Superior.
Life at the Orphanage
Jean Georges, now known as Emile, becomes one of the children Vianne teaches at the orphanage. By the end of the war, Vianne has hidden nineteen Jewish children there, all with forged papers and false identities. Jean Georges, like the others, is coached to say that his mother "died because she got sick" and has no memory of being Jean Georges Ruelle. He is six years old by June 1944 and never mentions his maman anymore. He is one of the children Vianne takes swimming at the pond, one of the children who sings songs and plays games, a child who has been remade by the war.
After the War
After the liberation, Vianne compiles a list of the nineteen hidden children and gives it to an OSE worker at the Hôtel Lutetia in Paris. The worker, Phillipe Horowitz, tells her that most of these children are now orphans, their parents dead in the camps. Jean Georges Ruelle's mother, Hélène, was deported; his father and older brother were also taken. Vianne does not learn his ultimate fate in the novel, but the list she provides is meant to reunite him with any surviving family. He is one of the children who, as Phillipe says, "would have died in the camps along with their parents" if not for Vianne's courage.
