A Jersey woman dubbed a "Jerrybag" for being married to a German soldier has been recognised as a Righteous Among Nations.

Dorothea Weber (née Le Brocq) was shunned by her fellow Channel Islanders during the war, having married an Austrian-born refugee who was later conscripted into the German army. Despite her social isolation, she risked her life to protect Hedwig Bercu - a Jewish Austrian who arrived in Jersey in 1938 - from the Nazis, when they occupied the island.

The two women, who lived in secret together for more than two years, spoke little of the experience after the war.

Yet now, more than 20 years after her death in 1993 aged 82, Mrs Weber has been recognised.

Administered by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the title is awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Second World War. Yet had it not been for the curiosity of a Cambridge University academic, Mrs Weber's bravery might have been overlooked. Historian Dr Gilly Carr contacted Yad Vashem after researching the story, which she first read about in a book by the former president of the Jersey Jewish Congregation.

Published in 2000, Frederick Cohen's Jews in the Channel Islands During the German Occupation, uncovered the story. As part of his research he tracked down Ms Bercu, who was then living in Germany.

Dr Carr, an expert on the German occupation of the Channel Islands, became fascinated with the story and last year visited the house in St Helier where they lived. Accompanied by two friends, she was surprised to find no plaque at the property. "We said we would make sure that it happens," she told the JC.

Earlier this year, Yad Vashem accepted Dr Carr's application - but said that the honour could only be conferred upon a living relative. After more research, she and her friends made contact with Pierre Landick, a second cousin of Mrs Weber, who never had children.

Last Sunday Mr Landick, who knew nothing of his cousin's heroism, received the award from Israel's Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, at a ceremony at the Occupation Tapestry Gallery in St Helier. Also in attendance were two of Ms Bercu's children and other descendants of both women. Mr Regev said: "It is perhaps the greatest possible honour that an Israeli diplomat can bestow, that I confer this incredibly special honour on the late Dorothea Le Brocq."

Mrs Weber, a clerk, took Ms Bercu into her home in 1943 when many of the Jews on the island were deported to Germany. She remained in hiding until May 1945 when Jersey was liberated.

Ms Bercu was wanted by the Germans after they discovered that she had faked her own death to evade capture. According to newspaper reports at the time, her clothes and a suicide note were found on a Jersey beach.

The two women subsisted on Mrs Weber's rations, and fish washed up on the beach. In her testimony to Mr Cohen, Ms Bercu also recalled eating a pig that the women had slaughtered.

Dr Carr - who said the ceremony was "healing" for Ms Bercu's family - also addressed the crowd.

"Dorothea knew the risks she was taking" she said. "She was a courageous woman, determined to help her friend to the bitter end."