On this day, resistance fighter Georges Loinger was born. At the age of 15, he joined the Hatikvah Zionist movement. In May 1940, the war divided France into two zones: The North Zone of Occupation, placed under German rule, and the South Free Zone under the Vichy government in France. In 1942, the German military seized control of the Free Zone; once the Germans occupied this territory, the lives of Jews in France worsened. Formed in 1940, the Resistance Movement (also known as the French Underground) started to gain traction and assisted Jews with all types of aid. At the outset of the war, Loinger took arms against the Nazis and became a German prisoner until he escaped captivity and joined the Resistance. Loinger contributed to the escape of about 350 Jewish children; For his efforts, he was honored in his hometown of Strasbourg, France, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre of France and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2013, at the age of 103, he was welcomed to Israel by Shimon Peres. Georges Loinger died in Paris in 2018, at the age of 108.