Andrée Borrel
Encyclopedia
Andrée Raymonde Borrel was a French
heroine of World War II
.
, Yvelines
in the suburbs of Paris
, growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities. At the age of fourteen she left school to work in a bakery shop.
where she trained as a nurse's aid with the "Association des Dames de France" (ADF). Following her training, she worked in Beaucaire
treating wounded soldiers. After France fell to the German
s in June 1940, the ADF came under the control of Marshal Pétain
, and Borrel, who was not willing to accept her country's defeat, joined the French Resistance
helping British
airmen shot down over France to escape through the "underground railway" back to Britain. With Maurice Dufour, she established a villa in Perpignan
near the Spanish
border and co-operated with the escape network of Albert Guérisse
.
In December 1941 Borrel's resistance group was uncovered and she fled to Lisbon, Portugal. There, she worked at the Free French Propaganda Office for a short time until April 1942 when she travelled to London
. From General de Gaulle
's Free French bureau she learned about the French Section of the Special Operations Executive
and immediately signed up.
On the night of 24 September 1942, Borrel and fellow SOE agent, Lise de Baissac
(Odile) became the first female agents to be parachuted into occupied France. They were flown in from RAF Tempsford
. Borrel dropped first. In the darkness, Baissac dropped near Poitiers
while Borrel dropped into a field near the village of Mer
, not far from the Loire River and was picked up by members of a local resistance team. Because of her intimate knowledge of Paris, Borrel was sent there to work as a courier for the new "Prosper" network run by Francis Suttill
. She made contact in Paris with Germaine and Madeleine Tambour. Suttill was impressed with Borrel's performance and in the Spring of 1943 she was made second in command of the Paris network. Whilst working in the Prosper network she took part in sabotage, especially raiding a power station, and supervising weapons drops.
Probably because of a traitor, in June 1943 several members of the "Prosper" network were arrested by the Gestapo
on 23 June 1943, including network leader Francis Suttill and Andrée Borrel. She was interrogated in the Gestapo's Parisian headquarters and then held in Fresnes prison
. She remained there until May 1944 when, together with three other captured female SOE agents, Vera Leigh
, Sonya Olschanezky
and Diana Rowden
, Borrel was shipped to the Natzweiler-Struthof
concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains
of Alsace
.
On 6 July 1944, 24-year-old Andrée Borrel and her three compatriots were given lethal injection
s of phenol
, then incinerated in the camp's crematorium. Evidence collected immediately after the war by Squadron Officer Vera Atkins
and Major Bill Barkworth of the SAS War Crimes investigation team (included in the Justice - SAS Style program in the television series Nazi Hunters ), indicates that Borrel regained consciousness before being placed in the cremation oven and fought to save her life, facially scarring the camp executioner who was placing her in the oven. However, she was unable to escape and was put into the flames whilst still alive. Both the doctor who administered the injection and the camp executioner were later executed by the Allies for war crimes.
in recognition of her heroic sacrifice for her country's freedom. The concentration camp where she died is a now a French government historical site. A plaque to Andrée Borrel and the three women who died with her is part of the Deportation Memorial on the site. As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of her country, Lieutenant Borrel is listed on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valençay SOE Memorial
in the town of Valençay
, in the Indre
département of France.
In 1985, SOE agent and painter Brian Stonehouse
, who saw Andrée Borrel and the three other female SOE agents at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp just before their deaths, painted a poignant watercolour of the four women which now hangs in the Special Forces Club
in London, England.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
heroine of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Early life
Andrée Borrel was born into a working-class family in LouveciennesLouveciennes
Louveciennes is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, between Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and adjacent to Marly-le-Roi.-Sights:...
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
in the suburbs of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities. At the age of fourteen she left school to work in a bakery shop.
War Work & Special Operations Executive
When World War II broke out, the then nineteen-year-old girl went to the Mediterranean port city of ToulonToulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
where she trained as a nurse's aid with the "Association des Dames de France" (ADF). Following her training, she worked in Beaucaire
Beaucaire
Beaucaire is a commune in the Gard department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-Geography:Beaucaire is located on the Rhône River, opposite the town of Tarascon, which is in Bouches-du-Rhône department of Provence.Neighboring communes:...
treating wounded soldiers. After France fell to the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
s in June 1940, the ADF came under the control of Marshal Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
, and Borrel, who was not willing to accept her country's defeat, joined the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
helping British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
airmen shot down over France to escape through the "underground railway" back to Britain. With Maurice Dufour, she established a villa in Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
near the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
border and co-operated with the escape network of Albert Guérisse
Albert Guérisse
Major-General Comte Albert-Marie Edmond Guérisse, GC, KBE, DSO was a Belgian Resistance member who organized escape routes for downed Allied pilots during World War II under the alias of Patrick Albert "Pat" O'Leary, the name of a Canadian friend...
.
In December 1941 Borrel's resistance group was uncovered and she fled to Lisbon, Portugal. There, she worked at the Free French Propaganda Office for a short time until April 1942 when she travelled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. From General de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's Free French bureau she learned about the French Section of the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
and immediately signed up.
On the night of 24 September 1942, Borrel and fellow SOE agent, Lise de Baissac
Lisé de Baissac
Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac was born in Mauritius of French descent and British nationality. She was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, a special agent who risked her life running her own operations, but was denied a gallantry award after the war.-Escape...
(Odile) became the first female agents to be parachuted into occupied France. They were flown in from RAF Tempsford
RAF Tempsford
RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire, England was perhaps the most secret Royal Air Force airfield in World War II. It was home to the Special Duties Squadrons, No. 138, which dropped Special Operations Executive agents and their supplies into occupied Europe, and No...
. Borrel dropped first. In the darkness, Baissac dropped near Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
while Borrel dropped into a field near the village of Mer
Mer, Loir-et-Cher
Mer is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-External links:*...
, not far from the Loire River and was picked up by members of a local resistance team. Because of her intimate knowledge of Paris, Borrel was sent there to work as a courier for the new "Prosper" network run by Francis Suttill
Francis Suttill
Major Francis Alfred Suttill DSO was a British special agent who worked for the Special Operations Executive inside France. He organized and coordinated the Physician network, better known by his own code name Prosper...
. She made contact in Paris with Germaine and Madeleine Tambour. Suttill was impressed with Borrel's performance and in the Spring of 1943 she was made second in command of the Paris network. Whilst working in the Prosper network she took part in sabotage, especially raiding a power station, and supervising weapons drops.
Probably because of a traitor, in June 1943 several members of the "Prosper" network were arrested by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
on 23 June 1943, including network leader Francis Suttill and Andrée Borrel. She was interrogated in the Gestapo's Parisian headquarters and then held in Fresnes prison
Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne South of Paris...
. She remained there until May 1944 when, together with three other captured female SOE agents, Vera Leigh
Vera Leigh
Vera Leigh was a British spy during World War II who assisted the French Resistance. In 1944 she was captured by the Germans and executed.-Early life:...
, Sonya Olschanezky
Sonya Olschanezky
Sonya Olschanezky was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. The daughter of a Russian Jew, Eli Olschanezky, a chemical engineer who worked as a sales representative for a manufacturer of ladies' stockings, she was seven years old when the family moved to Paris, France and her...
and Diana Rowden
Diana Rowden
Diana Hope Rowden MBE was a Special Operations Executive member who was executed in a Nazi concentration camp.-Early life:...
, Borrel was shipped to the Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg....
concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains
Vosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
of Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
.
On 6 July 1944, 24-year-old Andrée Borrel and her three compatriots were given lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
s of phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...
, then incinerated in the camp's crematorium. Evidence collected immediately after the war by Squadron Officer Vera Atkins
Vera Atkins
Vera Atkins, CBE was a British Intelligence Officer during World War II.-Early life:...
and Major Bill Barkworth of the SAS War Crimes investigation team (included in the Justice - SAS Style program in the television series Nazi Hunters ), indicates that Borrel regained consciousness before being placed in the cremation oven and fought to save her life, facially scarring the camp executioner who was placing her in the oven. However, she was unable to escape and was put into the flames whilst still alive. Both the doctor who administered the injection and the camp executioner were later executed by the Allies for war crimes.
Awards and honours
Posthumously, the government of France awarded her the Croix de GuerreCroix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
in recognition of her heroic sacrifice for her country's freedom. The concentration camp where she died is a now a French government historical site. A plaque to Andrée Borrel and the three women who died with her is part of the Deportation Memorial on the site. As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of her country, Lieutenant Borrel is listed on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valençay SOE Memorial
Valençay SOE Memorial
The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who lost their lives for the liberation of France. The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay in the Indre département of France on May 6, 1991, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the...
in the town of Valençay
Valençay
Valençay is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-Geography:Valençay is situated in the Loire Valley on a hillside overlooking the River Nahon.-History:...
, in the Indre
Indre
Indre is a department in the center of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens.-History:Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
département of France.
In 1985, SOE agent and painter Brian Stonehouse
Brian Stonehouse
Brian Julian Stonehouse MBE was a British painter and Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.He was born in Torquay, England. When his family moved to France, he went to school in Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais...
, who saw Andrée Borrel and the three other female SOE agents at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp just before their deaths, painted a poignant watercolour of the four women which now hangs in the Special Forces Club
Special Forces Club
The Special Forces Club was founded by surviving members of the Special Operations Executive , in 1946. "The Club", as it is simply known by its members, was established for all secret agents as a home in London....
in London, England.