Andrée Peel: The Heroine of the French Resistance Who Rescued 102 Allied Pilots
As Europe was consumed by war, a young woman running a beauty salon would become a major figure in the French Resistance of World War II. Andrée Peel, who was known as "Agent Rose," was one of the most highly decorated women to survive the war and helped save countless lives, including over 100 British and American pilots shot down over France. "At that time we were all putting our lives in danger but we did it because we were fighting for freedom," she later recalled. "It was a terrible time but looking back I am so proud of what I did and I'm glad to have helped defend the freedom of our future generations."
When France was occupied in 1940, Andrée Virot, as she was known then, was in her 30s and running a beauty salon in the port city of Brest. Her first act of resistance came even as the German soldiers marched into her city; she hid a group of fleeing French soldiers and found civilian clothes for them so that they would not be captured. When she heard General de Gaulle declare on the radio that "France has lost a battle, but she has not lost the war," she set her sights on joining the Resistance. She began circulating an underground newspaper, and within weeks, she was appointed head of an under-section of the Resistance, whose responsibilities included passing on information about German shipping and troop movements to the Allies and guiding Allied planes to secret nighttime landing strips by torchlight.
During her three years with the Resistance, Peel became known as Agent Rose. She and her team rescued many downed Allied pilots during this period — 102 by her count — ferrying them through a series of safe houses to isolated Brest beaches for transport to England. The work was dangerous, and Peel was forced to flee to Paris when a comrade, whose family had been tortured, gave the Gestapo her name. She was arrested there shortly after D-Day. The Gestapo tortured her, using methods that included simulated drowning and beating her throat; the damage she suffered from their interrogation would cause her pain for the rest of her life. However, she prided herself on refusing to answer their questions, despite it all: "I was born with courage," she later said. "I did not allow cruel people to find in me a person they could torture."
After the Gestapo were done with her, she was transported with other prisoners to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. Upon arrival, they were marched into what she later learned was a gas chamber, but for some reason, they were released instead of being killed. She was lucky twice more during her time at Ravensbrück: first when she fell ill with meningitis but miraculously recovered, and then when she was selected for the gas chamber on a daily roll call, but a fellow prisoner managed to snatch and hide the piece of paper with her number on it. In a famous portrait of Peel, she holds her camp uniform, with a red triangle emblem signifying an enemy spy or POW.
Eventually, she was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp. At first, life there was easier, but as liberating troops approached, it became obvious that the Nazis intended to eradicate the evidence of their crimes — including the people in the camps. In her most harrowing moment, she narrowly escaped death when American troops arrived to liberate Buchenwald just as Peel was being lined up to be executed by a Nazi firing squad.
Following the war, Peel received many commendations including 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 Medal of Freedom by the United States and the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct by Britain. At age 99, she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, France's highest honor. She eventually married Englishman John Peel, and settled in Bristol, England. In 2010, the heroic "Agent Rose" passed away at the age of 105.
Peel told her wartime story several times, including in a memoir called Miracles Do Happen! She took tremendous pride in her work for the Resistance, and never regretted it, despite the toll it took on her for the rest of her life. "I saved 102 pilots before being arrested, interrogated and tortured. I suffer still from that. I still have the pain," she said. "You don't know what freedom is if you have never lost it.... The only fear we had was of being tortured and of speaking under torture. I rarely thought of my personal safety. I just acted and did what I believed was the right thing."
Books About Women Of The Resistance And Female Spies Of World War II
The Butterfly
Ever since the Nazis marched into Monique's small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her, until the night Monique encounters the little ghost sitting at the end of her bed. She turns out to be a girl named Sevrine, who has been hiding from the Nazis in Monique's basement. Playing after dark, the two become friends, until, in a terrifying moment, they are discovered, sending both of their families into a nighttime flight.
"Based on the true experiences of the author's great aunt, Marcel Solliliage, this poignant story is a good introduction to the terrors of Nazism, racism, and World War II. The emphasis is on simple friendship and quiet heroism....Any child can relate to the bewilderment the two friends experience in the face of prejudice." -- Emilie Coulter, Amazon.com Reviews
The Whispering Town
In Denmark, the Resistance successfully saved nearly the entire Jewish population across the sea to safety in Sweden, and this picture book captures the suspense and heroism of this incredibly brave act. Anett's family lives in a small Danish fishing village, and they're concealing Carl and his aging mama, the last pair they need to get aboard a fishing boat and to safety. But with the occupying soldiers getting suspicious, and a cloudy sky that will prevent Carl from seeing which way is safe from patrols, it takes Anett's clever idea of a chain of whispers to smuggle them safely to the harbour.
Irena's Jars of Secrets
In Poland's Warsaw Ghetto during WWII, a young nurse and social worker went about her daily work, caring for the sick — and smuggling Jewish children out to safety. Irena Sendler knew what she was risking, but she couldn't bear to watch children suffer and do nothing. And after every child was safe — over 2,500 children in total — she meticulously recorded their name in hopes that, someday, they could be reunited with their families. This emotional picture book captures Sendler's remarkable heroism in the face of unthinkable consequences.
It’s Denmark in 1943, and word is leaking out that the Nazis intend to detain the Danish Jews before shipping them to concentration camps. 10-year-old Annemarie doesn’t know why anyone would want to hurt her neighbours, including her best friend, Ellen Rosen, who Annemarie’s family conceals as one of their own. With the efforts of the Danish Resistance — and the entire community — Annemarie looks on as the Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people is seen to safety on Sweden’s shores. This beautiful story of the heroism of ordinary people is sure to be thought-provoking.
In Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto, Tilar J. Mazzeo told Irena Sendler's incredible story of smuggling children out of the Jewish ghetto to foster families in order to keep them safe; this edition makes that story accessible to younger readers. Tweens and teens will be fascinated to read about the many ways Sendler helped children escape — from hiding them under her overcoat to slipping them through secret passages — and about her incredible determination not to reveal their names and locations, even under torture and risk of losing her life.
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