Women of the French Resistance

My husband and I dated in high school. When Wes approached his eighteenth birthday, he sat me down and reminded me that he would be required to register for the draft. With conflicts happening all over the globe, a real possibility existed that he could be called into the armed forces at any time. (Even at our young age, the Vietnam War seemed recent enough to put fear in our hearts.) He was never called up, but I often wonder how I would have responded if he’d been drafted.

As a result of my research the liberation of Paris for my upcoming release, Love’s Rescue, I also wonder how I would have responded if I lived in one of the countries overrun by one of the Axis powers. What would I have done if a hostile foreign power had taken over the government?

Would I have been brave enough to serve or resist?

Here are just a few of the French women who chose to resist during the four years of German occupation:

Lucie Aubrac

Lucie Aubrac was a history teacher who was part of a cell group performed two acts of sabotage on trains, helped produce and distribute the underground newspaper Libération, then helped her husband escape, not once, but twice after being arrested.

Helene Viannay helped her husband with the clandestine newspaper Défense de la France and helped coordinate communication between the various Maquis resistance groups within Paris. Her son was born while she and her husband were in hiding.

Suzanne Buisson was treasurer of the Comite d’action socialiste (Socialist Action Committee) until her arrest. Prior to that she traveled all over France distributing Resistance literature.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade headed a Resistance network by leading everyone to believe the true head was a man. Codenamed Hedgehog, she also worked on an espionage publication as well as recruited for spies.

Comtesse Lily Pastre

Cecile Rol-Tanguy worked as the personal Agent de Liaison for her husband and carried orders around Paris hidden in the bottom of a baby carriage.

Helene Studler organized networks for smuggling people out of France. It is thought that thousands of prisoners and Resistance members escaped because of her work.

Resistance was not relegated to the lower echelon of society. Comtesse Lily Pastré, heiress to the Noilly Prat vermouth fortune hid Jewish musicians at her chateau.

Kudos to these and the other stalwart women who put their own needs and fears aside to fight for what they believed in.

Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland she was born a stone's throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. Linda is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. She is a volunteer docent and archivist for the Wright Museum of WWII and a trustee for her local public library. To learn more about Linda and her books, visit her website. Receive a free short story, Love's Bloom when you sign up for her newsletter.