André Pierre

Martiré, Michel André, Pierre Henri Resnick and his wife Anna-Bella (née Kleidman) were Polish immigrants who received French citizenship in 1922. Their daughter Marguerite was born in 1908, and Yvette was born in 1919. In July 1942, a hunt for Jews began in Nancy. Henri and Anna-Bella refused to evacuate their home, but Marguerite, her husband Sam Spiegel and their son Jean-Maurice, as well as Yvette, all fled, and crossed the demarcation line after a number of failed attempts. They settled in Pallauau-sur-Indre (Indre), some 40km northwest of the region's capital, Châteauroux, renting an apartment from a local woman who believed they were "evacuees" from Lorraine. In April 1943, a local policeman and postmistress warned the family that the police chief, M. Givelet, was enquiring into their background from the Nancy authorities, and that they were in great danger of arrest. Yvette hurried to the police commissioner in Nancy, who rudely told her to leave within 48 hours. A friend of her brother-in-law, Ernest Petit, directed her to Pierre André – a policeman serving in Toucy (Yonne), who told her he would find refuge for her family. André, a member of the local underground, showed them to a small, unfurnished cabin in the woods close to a nearby hamlet. André then told his close friend, the town secretary Michel Martiré, about the family. Both André and Martiré took care of their wellbeing and safety, including giving false information to the authorities of their whereabouts. Once more, Yvette tried persuading her parents to join them, but they refused to leave their home. Anna-Bella was arrested in August 1943 and was eventually deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Henri was hidden in a local graveyard by a former employee. He reached Toucy two days later, where Pierre André met him and brought him to join his daughters. In December 1943, the threat of denouncement grew rapidly, and Martiré moved the Resnick-Spiegels to an isolatedfarm in Champignelles. He provided them with false identity papers and food ration books, and made sure their names did not appear in the local population registry. The five Jewish refugees stayed there until the area was liberated. After the war, Yvette Weisbecker (née Resnick) stayed in close contact with the André and Martiré families. In 2007, Weisbecker wrote to Yad Vashem with the request to honor her wartime rescuers. On January 21, 2009 Pierre André and Michel Martiré were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.