Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Château de la Guette, located in Villeneuve-Saint-Denis in Seine-et-Marne, has its origins in the 12th century. It is mentioned for the first time as property of Dreux la Guette, valet of room of King Philip the Bel in 1307. Over the centuries, he changed his hands several times, notably to John the Great, the king's bastard, and then to influential families such as Davy, Broc, and Passelaigne. These successions reflect its importance as seigneurial property and aristocratic residence.

In the 18th century, the castle was sold to Jacques Passelaigne and his wife, before becoming the property of the Count of Sénélé in the 19th century. In the 1920s, Renée Saffroy took possession of it, and the Rothschild family became its owner. In 1939, after the Night of Cristal, Baroness Germaine de Rothschild welcomed 130 Jewish children orphaned from Germany and Austria, under the direction of Alfred Brauner and a team dedicated to their rehabilitation.

During the Second World War, the castle was requisitioned by the State in 1941 and transformed into a children's house under the aegis of the National Relief, an organization linked to the Vichy regime. Despite this official framework, Germaine Le Henaff, her director, secretly hides Jewish children under false names, in collaboration with the Resistance. His commitment will earn him the title of Just Among the Nations in 1986. After the war, the castle was finally converted into 32 social housing units, marking a transition to a sustainable social vocation.

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