A Mass. Atty And The Woman Who Saved His Mom From Nazis
When Parker Scheer LLP co-founder Eric Parker gathers with his family for the holidays, the Boston personal injury attorney looks around to see more than 20 people coming together, including his mother, his siblings, their spouses and their children.
In many ways, it is a typical holiday celebration for a large family. But almost all the family members gathering would likely not exist but for the bravery of a woman who saved his mother’s life some 80 years ago.
Julia Nicaise-Pierre hid Parker’s mother, Henriette, for four years in her basement in a remote Belgian town during the Holocaust when Henriette was a child. A Christian woman who was unmarried and did not have children of her own, Nicaise-Pierre took Henriette to church every Sunday to try to hide the fact that Henriette was Jewish.
“It’s a story that has become part of the fabric of our family,” Parker said. “It really took a toll on my mother in a lot of ways. She went on to live a great life, but it was always a relevant subject.”
