Pierre Aline

Grandjean, Gaston Grandjean, Frédérique Pierre, Aline Moszek Haïm Hepner and his wife Feiga emigrated from Poland to France in 1923. Their daughter Sarah was born in 1926. The Hepners owned a tailoring workshop in their apartment in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. One of their employees was Aline Pierre, a childless woman in whom the couple had complete confidence. Their neighbors were Gaston and Frédérique Grandjean. The Grandjeans were affiliated with the Communist Party, and strongly opposed the new regime and anti-Jewish policies promoted by Marshall Philippe Pétain. Gaston had adopted Frédérique’s two children from her first marriage. Their daughter Rolande was Sarah Hepner’s classmate. In August 1941, Moszek was saved from arrest by a neighborhood tobacco shop owner, who warned him that the police were coming to verify the papers of residents in his street's quarter. In July 1942, during the mass round-up of foreign Jews by the French police, Aline Pierre offered to hide the three Hepners in her apartment. They stayed there for a whole year. In 1943, Pierre rented a one-room apartment in the building where the Hepners used to live, in her own name. The building had eight different entrances and seventy apartments and workshops, so the fugitives remained anonymous. Pierre paid the rent, but was reimbursed by the Hepners. The concierge and the Grandjeans were the only people who knew of their presence in the building. In February 1944, Moszek began to suffer from piercing headaches. As his condition worsened, the Grandjeans called for a doctor who told them that he needed urgent hospitalization. In order to prevent the discovery of the hide-out, the Grandjeans moved Moszek to their own apartment and then called for an ambulance to take him to the Jewish Rothschild Hospital. Since it was dangerous for his wife and daughter to travel through Paris, the Grandjeans visited him almost every day. Sadly, Moszek soon succumbed to bacterialmeningitis. The Grandjeans took care of his burial in a Jewish cemetery, and covered all of the costs. They also continued to support Feiga and Sarah until the end of the war, when the Jewish women were able to visit Moszek's grave for the first time. The two families remained in close contact for many more years. On 3 May 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Gaston and Frédérique Grandjean and Aline Pierre as Righteous Among the Nations.