On the eve of the anniversary of the death of Eleanor Roosevelt, a little known story has come to light concerning the role of America’s wartime First Lady. It concerns her involvement with hundreds of Jewish refugee children in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, a remote Château tucked away in the vineyards of the Languedoc-Roussillon, and the departure of the legendary Exodus from the picturesque fishing village of Sète in the south of France.

The story was uncovered by an English couple, Laurie and Alex Hussey, almost entirely by chance. "We can’t quite believe what we have stumbled upon", Mrs Hussey told Living France last week. The Husseys purchased the Château in 1996 and now run the elegant premises as self-contained flats for tourists, English for the most part. It is situated in the tiny hamlet of Viols-en-Laval – whose electoral roll today contains less than one hundred names. "It’s all quite incredible – and when we heard about it we became all the keener to acquire the Château."

The Husseys had noticed a small plaque on an outside wall of the 13^th century Château proclaiming that the 29-bedroom house was ‘a site at the centre of the Resistance’. But they were puzzled by the remains of two large stone houses, tucked away at the end of the garden. Further research revealed that there were 10 such buildings in the area which, between 1942 and 1947, housed more than 500 Jewish children. The project was one of a network of refuges in the south of France funded by Eleanor Roosevelt and which came under the auspices of a Foundation that bore her name.

"We now know that many of the children were sheltered here and protected from going to concentration camps. Others, who survived the camps, were brought here after the war", Laurie Hussey relates.

The refugee housing for the Jewish children was set up in a region of unoccupied France only months before the Germans moved into the area in November 1942. The Allies drove out the Germans in 1944.

Key players in the subsequent proceedings were each and every member of the Pascal family – a Protestant family from the nearby town of Ganges - similarly tucked away in the rambling vineyards of the Cévennes. Having heard of their courageous role during the war years in heading up the famous Julien network of the French resistance (when hundreds of Jews were saved from certain death by being provided with safe passage on their way to Latin America) Eleanor Roosevelt met with the Pascals in May 1947. And she singled out Monsieur Pascal for a secret mission: the task of getting over 300 Jewish orphans then housed both in and within the grounds of the Château de Cambous to the fishing port of Sète – some 35 miles away. Easier said than done. For although the Mayor of Sète, Jules Moch, was involved in the clandestine plan – British intelligence was equally active in attempting to prevent all illegal immigration into Palestine.

The transfers began during the last days of June 1947. Although only 14 years old at the time, Monsieur Pascal’s son vividly recalls over two dozen secret journeys through the winding country roads in his father’s white Bedford van. Disguised as boy scouts and girl guides the children were given strict instructions: no singing en route.

"We made sure that we avoided the city of Montpellier – and in order to justify our trips we would load up with empty oil barrels on the way back – so that we would have some plausible explanation should we happen to be stopped", Pascal recalls, unsuccessfully fighting back his tears. The children were left in the vegetable market hangars on the Paul-Riquat quay after which Mossad agents took care of them. Together with over four thousand other souls, the children would all eventually set sail out into the Mediterranean on the President Warfield – better known as The Exodus – on 11^th July 1947 – and into history. The Exodus was but one of dozens of ships used to carry Jewish refugees towards Palestine after the war. It became a focus of international attention when it was turned back by the British authorities – its passengers being held aboard for months while the authorities disputed which country would take them. And all of which was instrumental in the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. The key work carried out by the Pascal family has now been recognised by Yad Vashem. And today Georges Pascal heads up the Montpellier branch of the France-Israel Association – and is happy to classify himself as the most ardent Zionist in the south of France.

"It might all sound très posh" Laurie Hussey admits. "But neither of us was exactly born with a silver spoon in our mouth. Hardly - Alex is from Bermondsey – and I am from Lewisham. My mother lived in Canning Town. And rubbing shoulders with the local population was about as much as we had to do with anything Jewish. But it’s a very special feeling being here – knowing that the Château was home to these children – that they lived here and played in the grounds."

Do not be lulled into thinking, however, that the history books have been closed. For in the few years since the Husseys have owned the Château de Cambous dozens of the children housed there have returned to visit their former home.

"Its not our intention to turn our home into any kind of shrine", Laurie concludes. "Of course not. But when the former refugees come back out here – on a kind of ‘pilgrimage’, I guess – it’s very emotional indeed. We always have a box of Kleenex to hand. And not just for our Israeli friends, I can tell you."

"We came out here for a quiet retirement in the sunshine. And what have we stumbled upon? This most incredible story of Eleanor Roosevelt coming to visit the Château to oversee her work, of resistance during the war, of secret journeys to Sète, of the Exodus – and so on. Who on earth would have believed that all of this happened just a blink in time ago in this sleepy, sunny village in the south of France? Not I, for one."