She participated in the Demonstration of 11 November 1940 of high school and college students at Place de l'Étoile and was imprisoned as a Jew for three months in Fresnes Prison.
[2] Lili Garel, as a courier between Nice and Lyon, participated in the rescue of Jewish children, with her husband, Georges.
After the war, Georges Garel became firstly director general, then president of l'Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE).
At 20 years of age, she had just been hired in the OSE office in Lyon, as a part-time secretary and as a social worker.
[12] Historian Valérie Perthuis-Portheret made a film which chronicles the life of Lili Garel, and in particular her role in the "night of Vénissieux".