Joseph Epstein (French Resistance leader)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Joseph Epstein (October 16, 1911 – April 11, 1944, Fort Mont-Valérien, France), also known as Colonel Gilles and as Joseph Andrej, was a Polish-born Jewish communist activist and a French Resistance leader during World War II. He was executed by the Germans. Joseph Epstein was born in Zamość, Congress Poland. He studied law at Warsaw University. There he became aware of the Polish Communist Party, and later he joined it. In 1931, he was arrested by the police after speaking at a communist rally, but he was released after a few weeks. He fled to Czechoslovakia, where he sought asylum, but his plea was rejected. Epstein returned to Poland, only long enough to be deported by the authorities. In Tours (France), where he organized immigrant laborers, Epstein met and married Paula Grynfeld, a Jewish pharmacy student from the city of Lodz in Poland. When the French police were informed by the Polish consulate about his participation in the Communist Party, Epstein was arrested and forced to leave Tours. He and his wife traveled to Bordeaux, where they continued their studies.