Landi Giuseppe & Henriette (Forlino); Daughter: Borowski Yvonne (Landi)

Landi, Guiseppe Landi, Henriette Borowski,(Landi) Yvonne Boudou, Juliette The Borowski family—Avraham (b. 1891), Rivka (b. 1890), and their three children, George (b. 1910), Leon (b. 1912), and Robert (b. 1919)—emigrated from Poland in 1922. They settled in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, where their fourth son, Benjamin, was born in 1925. In 1928 the family petitioned for and received French citizenship. Avraham made a living manufacturing leather handbags. In spring 1941 the local police began arresting Jewish men of foreign origin. Two of the brothers, George and Robert, decided to move to Free France, settling in Avignon, where they worked at the Artigue leather handbag factory. A year later, in August 1942, they were joined there by their other two brothers. In Avignon, Robert frequently ate at the Chez Astier restaurant, where he met a waitress named Yvonne Landi. She helped the brothers secure a rental apartment in which to live. In September 1942 their parents, rattled by the notorious Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in Paris and concerned they would be stripped of their citizenship, fled to Avignon and rented a room one floor above their sons. The Borowskis had additional relatives requiring assistance, and Yvonne traveled to Paris to bring them to safety. Samuel and Marcel Topeza, aged 7 and 8 at the time, were placed with a Spanish woman, Juliette Boudou, who lived near Yvonne’s parents, Guiseppe and Henriette. Later the sister of one of the cousins, Lota Topeza, found shelter with Juliette as well; Juliette also found forged papers for Lota to use to escape arrest. On March 30, 1944, at 4:00 a.m., two Gestapo agents knocked on the brothers’ door and instructed them to gather their belongings and accompany them. While they waited outside, the brothers escaped through the window and climbed from roof to roof to avoid capture. A few hours later, once they were certain that the Gestapo had left, they returned to the apartment and, together with their parents, went to the home of Guiseppe and Henriette Landi, who accepted the family without hesitation. Benjamin Borowski later recalled that Guiseppe, who worked for the French railway system (SNCF), would sleep near the front door with a large knife and a grenade, in case Gestapo agents came by. In May 1944 the brothers made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the border into Spain, and they were forced to return to Avignon. A month later, with Yvonne’s help they rented an apartment, where they stayed until Avignon was liberated. Yvonne Landi was badly injured during a bombing raid in August 1944. She and Robert Borowski married a few months later. Tragically, Yvonne passed away in 1957, at the age of 35. On September 11, 2012, Guiseppe and Henriette Landi, Yvonne Borowski, and Juliette Boudou were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.