Photo: SWNS

Andree Peel, a remarkable heroine of WW II, died March 5, 2010 at age 105. She was in her 30s, and ran a beauty salon in Brest, when the Germans invaded. Her first act of resistance was to hide French soldiers and help them elude capture. As the occupation dragged on, Peel found herself becoming more and more involved with the resistance movement.

The U.K. Telegraph has a wonderful story on it. Here are some excerpts:

“When General de Gaulle declared in his famous broadcast of June 18 1940 that “France has lost a battle, but she has not lost the war,” Andrée and some friends got together to type out the message and slip copies through people’s letterboxes. She soon became involved in the Resistance, circulating the organisation’s clandestine newspaper. Within weeks she was made head of an under-section of the organisation, responsible for sending information to the Allies… “

“During her three years with the Resistance – during which she was known first as Agent X and then as Agent Rose – Andrée helped save the lives of more than 100 Allied pilots. Her team used torches to guide Allied planes to improvised landing strips and smuggled fugitive airmen aboard submarines and gunboats on remote parts of the coast, often feeling their way in the dark past German coastal shelters.

The work was extremely dangerous. Any family found harbouring an Allied airman risked being shot and in 1943 Andrée herself was forced to leave Brest after a comrade (who had been forced to watch his family being tortured by the Gestapo) informed on her… “

Andree “…fled to Paris and assumed another identity, but a week after D-Day she was again betrayed by a comrade, who confessed under torture. She was arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters where she was stripped naked, interrogated and subjected to a series of tortures, including simulated drowning and being savagely beaten around the throat…”

She was taken to Ravensbruck, and marched in the gas chamber, but for some reason, her group was not gassed. She nearly died of meningitis, but recovered only to be sentenced to the gas chamber once again. A fellow inmate saved her by sliding the piece of paper with Andree’s number on it off the table.

She was transferred to Buchenwald, and in 1945, when the Allies were closing in, the Nazis were crazily trying to finish the genocide and clean up all traces. Andree and other prisoners were lined up against a wall to be shot, the Americans arrived to liberate the camp. She was spared.

“Andrée Peel was awarded the Croix de Guerre (with palm), the Croix de Guerre (silver star), the Cross of the Voluntary Fighter, the Medal of the Resistance, the Liberation Cross – all French awards – as well as the American Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Eisenhower, and the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct, given by George VI.

After the war she received a personal letter from Winston Churchill congratulating her on her work. Much later, at age of 99, she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honour, receiving the award from her own brother, General Maurice Virot, a retired four-star general.”

Andree moved to Paris, where she met John Peel. She never intended to write a book about her experiences, but was urged to do so, and did, writing “Miracles Do Happen” in 1999.

“On her 100th birthday, she said: “I still feel like a woman of 50. I think that time has forgotten me.” The secret to a happy life, she observed, was a good companion – and eating the main meal of the day at lunchtime.”