Andrée Raymonde Borrel (18 November 1919 – 6 July 1944), code named Denise, was a French woman who served in the
French Resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
and as an agent for Britain's clandestine
Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
, especially
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
Described by author Elizabeth Nicholas as a "towering figure" in the French Resistance, in September 1942, Borrel was the first female agent of SOE to arrive in France by parachute, which also made her the first female secret agent known to have parachuted into enemy territory. Based in Paris, she became a member of the SOE's
Prosper network (also called "circuit" and "''reseau'') in
occupied France
The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...
. She worked as a courier. Prosper was SOE's largest and most important network in France and Borrel was an important figure in its leadership. She was arrested by the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
in June 1943. She was subsequently executed in July 1944 at the
Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
Early life
Andrée Borrel was born into a working-class family in
Bécon-les-Bruyères, a north-western suburb of Paris, France. She was good at sports, while her older sister (Léone) described Borrel as a tom-boy who had the strength, endurance and interests of a boy and whose favourite pastimes were bicycling in the countryside, hiking and climbing.
Her father (Louis) died when she was 11, and to help support her family Borrel left school at 14 to work for a dress designer. When she was 16, her family moved to Paris, where Borrel spent two years as a shop assistant in Boulangerie Pajo, a bakery. After this she worked at the Bazar d'Amsterdam as a shop assistant which allowed her to have Sundays off so she could enjoy her passion for cycling. In October 1939, Borrel's mother (Eugenie) was advised to move to a warmer climate for her health, so took Andrée and her sister to
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department.
The Commune of Toulon h ...
on the Mediterranean coast where they had family friends.
Not long before World War II broke out, Borrel's socialist sympathies led her to travel to Spain to help the Republican government in its fight against the Nazi-backed fascists in Spain. However, she found that the war had all but been lost, and returned to France.
War work in Europe (1939–42)
When World War II broke out Borrel went to work with the
Red Cross
The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
to volunteer her services. She enrolled in a crash course in nursing that she completed on 20 January 1940, which qualified her to serve as a nurse in the Association des Dames Françaises. First at Hôpital Compliméntaire in
Nîmes
Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...
in early February, though Borrel was sent back 15 days later following a decree that nurses under the age of 21 were not allowed to serve in hospitals. This decree was revoked a few days later and she was sent to the Hôpital de Beaucaire in
Beaucaire. One of Borrel's co-workers there was Lieutenant Maurice Dufour, and when the hospital was closed they were both sent to Hôpital Compliméntaire. Towards the end of July that hospital was to be closed and, at the request of Dufour, Borrel was allowed to resign from this quasi-military institution, after which she immediately went to work with Dufour for the
Pat Line, an underground organisation which Dufour was involved in.
At the beginning of August 1941, Borrel and Dufour established the Villa Rene-Therese in
Canet-plage, on the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
coast just outside
Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...
near the Spanish border. This became the Pat Line's last safe house (before the hard and dangerous route over the Pyrénées), an escape network established by
Albert Guérisse (supported by
MI9
MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it had two principal tasks: assisting in the escape of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) held b ...
), which helped British airmen shot down over France, SOE agents, Jews and others escape German controlled France. The villa proved too small and at the beginning of October they rented the Villa Anita. Toward the end of December the escape network had been compromised by the Germans. Borrel and Dufour found other accommodation to avoid arrest until eventually escaping over the Pyrénées in mid-February to Spain and from there to
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
, where they flew to England (Dufour on 29 March 1942 and Borrel on 24 April 1942).
Arrival in England

Soon after landing in England, like all arrivals from the Continent, Borrel was taken to the
Royal Patriotic School, the
MI5
MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
security clearance centre. Their report concluded:
Mlle Borrel's story seems perfectly straightforward. It is corroborated by Dufour who, on arriving in England, vouched for her. She is an excellent type of country girl, who has intelligence and seems a keen patriot. From a security point of view, I can find nothing against Mlle Borrel and recommend her release to the FFF.
Borrel had wanted to join the
Free French Forces
__NOTOC__
The French Liberation Army ( ; AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (; FFL) during World War II. The military force of Free France, it participated ...
but they were not enthusiastic about French citizens who had worked with the British (who were deeply involved in the escape network Borrel had been working with), and were not interested in Borrel as she refused to divulge information about all her prior activities. Borrel was subsequently approached by the Special Operations Executive and joined it on 15 May 1942.
Special Operations Executive (1942–44)
SOE training
Borrel seemed like just the type of woman SOE needed for a field agent. Her SOE interviewer commented:
Since arriving in London, she attempted to join the Corps Féminin of the Free French movement but they have made it a condition that she should give them all the intelligence concerning the organization for which she was working in France. This she refuses to do and apparently they refuse to employ her unless she does. I think that she would make an excellent addition to our own Corps Féminin and it should not be difficult to get her… She said that she was perfectly willing to let us have the information she refuses to give to the Free French.
Borrel undertook training with SOE to become a field agent with their
F Section while officially an ensign in the
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (FANY (PRVC)) is a British independent all-female registered charity structured like a military reserve unit. which primarily provides surge relief to civil and military authoriti ...
(FANY). Upon the successful completion of her training, she was promoted to lieutenant. The commandant's report contained the following appraisal:
Of sound intelligence, if lacking somewhat in imagination. She has little organising ability and will do her best work under definite instructions. She is thoroughly tough and self-reliant with no nerves. Has plenty of common sense and is well able to look after herself in any circumstances and she is absolutely reliable. Has lost her attitude of over-confidence and has benefited enormously from the course and developed a thoroughly level headed approach towards problems. A very pleasant personality and she should eventually develop into a first class agent.
The men she trained with found her "informal by habit, lower-class, and scrappy." She was said to be "accessible, playful, easy to like, easy to share a smoke and a laugh with, but innocent too, neither hardened nor hurt by the rough wear of war."
One of her fellow agents recounted that she said she would kill a German when he was asleep by stabbing a pencil in his ear. The agent said he "had little doubt that she meant what she said."
Parachuted into France

On the night of 24 September 1942 (the night after their parachute drop was aborted due to the signals in the drop zone being incorrect), Borrel ("Denise") and
Lise de Baissac
Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE Croix de Guerre, CdeG (11 May 1905 – 29 March 2004), code names ''Odile'' and ''Marguerite,'' was a Mauritian agent in the United Kingdom's clandesti ...
("Odile") left England in a RAF
Whitley and become the first female SOE agents to parachute into German-occupied France early on the morning of 25 September, as part of operation "Whitebeam" to set up resistance networks in Paris and Northern France (circuits and sub-circuits). They were flown in from
RAF Tempsford
Royal Air Force Tempsford or more simply RAF Tempsford is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Sandy, Bedfordshire, England and south of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.
The airfield was home to 138 (Special Duty) Sq ...
. Borrel dropped first, while they both landed in a field in the village of
Saint-Laurent-Nouan, not far from the river
Loire
The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.
It rises in the so ...
, about southeast of Paris, and were picked up by members of a local resistance team. Years later de Baissac recalled the experience:
As it happens, we went twice. The pilot wouldn't drop us the first time because the lights of the landing field were not quite accurate, so we had to come all the way back, which was very trying. You were squashed in that little place with a parachute on your back and your legs drawn up, and, of course, there was the danger too. Back in England they told us the reception committee had a man missing so they couldn't place the lights for the signal the way they were supposed to. We went back again the next night. We sat on the floor of the airplane Whitley bomber"> Whitley bomber much too tense for conversation, which in any case was not possible because of the noise. I don't remember how long it was until the dispatcher opened the hole, which meant we were arriving. We crept nearer, getting our legs into position. We had drawn straws and luck gave Andrée the first jump. I went immediately after her. You had to jump very quickly, one right after the other, because the plane is going on and you might be dropped very far from each other.
Physician (Prosper) circuit
Because of Borrel's familiarity with Paris, it was natural that she be sent there to work as a courier for the new "
Prosper" circuit to be led by
Francis Suttill (officially named "
Physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
" but unofficially called "Prosper" after Suttill's codename). In early October 1942, Suttill and Borrel met in a Paris cafe she knew. With information supplied them by
Germaine Tambour of the
Carte network, Suttill and Borrell embarked on a tour of northern France to begin creating and organizing groups to resist the German occupation. They had early success and on 17/18 November Suttill, Borrel,
Yvonne Rudellat
Yvonne Claire Rudellat, MBE, (née Cerneau; 11 January 1897 – 23 or 24 April 1945), code name Jacqueline, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in World War II. The purpose of SOE in o ...
, and newly-arrived wireless operator,
Gilbert Norman
Gilbert Maurice Norman (7 April 1915 – 6 September 1944, Kindle edition. code name Archambaud, was an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. SOE was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espio ...
, received near
Étrépagny
Étrépagny () is a commune in the Eure department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Population
International relations
Since 1989, the town has been twinned with the Irish town of Trim which has a significant Norman heritage.
...
a parachute drop of
CLE Canister
The CLE Canister, or CLE Container was a standardized cylindrical container used by the British during World War II to airdrop supplies to troops on the ground. The name initially derived from the Central Landing Establishment that developed the ...
s with weapons for the resistance. It was the first of many over the next few months.
Suttill initially did not wish to have Borrel work with him because "as a married man" he "might find the enforced proximity a strain." However, SOE insisted she was the best person to serve as his courier. She became more than that. Suttill's French was not flawless and Borrel accompanied him everywhere on their tour, posing as his sister and doing most of the talking. The two of them had cover stories as salesmen for agricultural products. They had success in finding many recruits for resistance groups and farm fields suitable for clandestine landings of airplanes and drops of containers of arms. Borrel, Suttill, and the radio operator, Gilbert Norman, became an inseparable trio. Borrel and Norman became lovers. They were a pair in contrast. He was handsome, "upper-caste", and rich. She was "shrewd and common". Whilst working in Prosper she took part in a wide range of activities including the creation of circuits in Paris and northern France, sabotage, weapons training, and supervising weapons drops. Suttill was impressed with Borrel's performance. In a note to SOE in March 1943, Suttill wrote:
Everyone who has come into contact with her in her work agrees with myself that she is the best of us all. In J…'s absence, she acted as my Lieutenant. Shared every danger. Took part in a December reception committee with myself and some others. Has a perfect understanding of security and an imperturbable calmness. Thank you very much for having sent her to me.
Contrary to Suttill's opinion, Borrel's frequent
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
games with other SOE agents in a Paris cafe violated SOE's doctrine that for security reasons networks should be independent of each other with as little contact as possible between and among networks and even among members of the same network.
Madam Guépin, the wife of George Darling (who ran a resistance group in north-west France), said Borrel "Had a head on her shoulders and a will of iron", and was "utterly loyal and devoted to Prosper
uttill as her chief, and to Archambaud (
Gilbert Norman
Gilbert Maurice Norman (7 April 1915 – 6 September 1944, Kindle edition. code name Archambaud, was an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. SOE was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espio ...
)."
Arrest and execution
Problems of success
The Prosper network grew rapidly, and, in the words of
M.R.D. Foot, "its growth made catastrophe certain." The German occupiers were paying attention. In November 1942, a German agent stole a list of the names of more than 200 supporters of the resistance group called the
Carte network. Prosper engaged many of the same people on the list in building its resistance networks. The Germans did not take immediate action to suppress the resistors, but bided their time. The rapid growth of Prosper and the large number of people associated with the network, including nearly 30 SOE agents sent from Britain, resulted in loose security. At least 10 SOE agents used the apartment of Geraldine Tambour as a safe house and letter drop, violating SOE doctrine to avoid face-to-face contact among agents. One radio operator,
Jack Agazarian, claimed to have transmitted messages for 24 different agents, again violating SOE doctrine. SOE agents in groups frequented restaurants specializing in
black market
A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
luxuries. Moreover, a double agent,
Henri Déricourt, was providing information to the Germans about Prosper.
[ First published in 1966.]
Gestapo raid

German suppression of Prosper began in April 1943. On 23 and 24 June 1943, the
Sicherheitsdienst
' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...
, the intelligence agency of the
SS based at
84 Avenue Foch
84 Avenue Foch () was the Parisian headquarters of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the counter-intelligence branch of the SS during the German occupation of Paris in World War II.
Avenue Foch is a wide residential boulevard in the 16th arr ...
in Paris and headed by Major
Josef Kieffer, struck at Prosper's leadership. Borrel, Norman, and Suttill were arrested. Hundreds of others, including both French helpers and SOE agents, were also arrested in the ensuing months. Borrel was interrogated, but according to one author exhibited a fearless contempt for her captors, maintaining "a silence so disdainful that the Germans did not attempt to break it." Later transferred to the
Fresnes Prison, Borrel smuggled out notes to her mother written on cigarette paper hidden in lingerie she sent her sister for washing. Most messages were to reassure her mother and request items like a notebook and hairpins, ending with many kisses. Borrel's mother and sister lived in Paris.
Moved to Germany
On 13 May 1944, Borrel along with three other captured female SOE agents,
Vera Leigh,
Sonia Olschanezky
Sonia Olschanezky (25 December 1923 – 6 July 1944) was a member of the French Resistance and the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Olschanezky was a member of the SOE's SOE F Section networks#Juggler, Juggler circuit in occupied ...
and
Diana Rowden
Diana Hope Rowden (31 January 1915 – 6 July 1944) served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to recru ...
, were moved from Fresnes to 84 Avenue Foch along with four other women whose names were
Yolande Beekman
Yolande Elsa Maria Beekman (7 January 1911 – 13 September 1944) was a British spy in World War II who served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Special Operations Executive. She was a member of SOE's Musician circuit in occupied ...
,
Madeleine Damerment,
Eliane Plewman
Éliane Sophie Plewman (6 December 1917 – 13 September 1944) was a British agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and a member of the French Resistance working as a courier for the "MONK circuit" in occupied France during World War II ...
and
Odette Sansom
Odette Marie Léonie Céline Hallowes, (née Brailly; 28 April 1912 – 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Sansom, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in ...
, all of whom were F Section agents. Later that day they were taken to the railway station, and each handcuffed to a guard upon boarding the train. Sansom, in an interview after the war, said:
We were starting on this journey together in fear, but all of us hoping for something above all that we would remain together. We had all had a taste already of what things could be like, none of us did expect for anything very much, we all knew that they could put us to death. I was the only one officially condemned to death. The others were not. But there is always a fugitive ray of hope that some miracle will take place.
When the women arrived in Germany they were put into separate cells in the prison in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
(
Justizvollzugsanstalt Karlsruhe) – Sansom with a woman who had been in prison for three years because her own daughter (a member of the
Hitlerjugend
The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was t ...
) had denounced her for listening to the BBC, and
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...
. The agents were treated no differently from other prisoners – markedly better than those in concentration camps – and were given manual work to do, peeling potatoes, sewing, etc., which helped pass the time. Occasionally, through the high bars, they could hear Allied bombers headed for targets within Germany, so on the whole things looked good for them even if there was the possibility of dying in an air raid. The war was unmistakably coming closer to an end and they could reasonably expect to be liberated by the Allies before too long.
Execution at Natzweiler-Struthof

Between five and six in the morning on 6 July 1944, not quite two months after their arrival in Karlsruhe prison, Borrel, Leigh, Olschanezky and Rowden were taken to the reception room, given their personal possessions, and escorted by two Gestapo men 100 kilometres south-west by closed truck to the
Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France, where they arrived around three-thirty in the afternoon. The women's arrival was apparently unexpected as was the order by one of the women's escorts that the four women were to be executed immediately.
As women were a rarity in the camp their presence immediately attracted attention from both German guards and prisoners.
SS men led the four women through the center of the camp down to the cellblock at the bottom of the camp. They were held there until later that night. "One could see from their appearance that they hadn't come from a camp," said a French prisoner. "They seemed young, they were fairly well groomed, their clothes were not rubbish, their hair was brushed, and each had a case in their (''sic'') hand."
The four women were initially together but later put into individual cells. Through the windows, which faced those of the infirmary, they managed to communicate with several prisoners, including a Belgian prisoner, Dr Georges Boogaerts, who passed one of the women (whom he later identified as Borrel from a photograph) cigarettes through the window. Borrel threw him a little tobacco pouch containing some money.
Albert Guérisse, a Belgian army physician who had headed the
Pat O'Leary escape line in
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
, recognized Borrel as one of his former helpers. He exchanged a few words with another one of the women, who said she was English (Leigh or Rowden) before she disappeared into the cellblock building. At the post-war trial of the men charged with the execution of the four women, Guérisse stated that he was in the infirmary and had seen the women, one by one, being escorted by SS guards from the cellblock (''Zellenbau'') to the crematorium a few yards away. He told the court: "I saw the four women going to the crematorium, one after the other. One went, and two or three minutes later another went."
Inside the building housing the crematorium, each woman in turn was told to undress for a medical check and a doctor gave her an injection for what he told one of them was a vaccination against
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
, but was in fact a 10 cc dose of
phenol
Phenol (also known as carbolic acid, phenolic acid, or benzenol) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile and can catch fire.
The molecule consists of a phenyl group () ...
, which the doctor believed was lethal. When the woman became unconscious after the injection, she was inserted into the crematorium oven. Guérrise said, "The next morning the German prisoner in charge of the crematorium explained to me that each time the door of the oven was opened, the flames came out of the chimney and that meant a body had been put in the oven. I saw the flames four times."
The prisoner Guérisse referred to was Franz Berg, who assisted in the crematorium and had stoked the fire that night before being sent back to the room he shared with two other prisoners before the executions. The door was locked from the outside during the executions, but it was possible to see the corridor from a small window above the door, so the prisoner in the highest bunk was able to keep up a running commentary on what he saw. Berg said:
More than one witness talked of a struggle when the fourth woman was shoved into the furnace. According to a Polish prisoner named Walter Schultz, the SS medical orderly Emil Brüttel told him the following: "When the last woman was halfway in the oven (she had been put in feet first), she had come to her senses and struggled. As there were sufficient men there, they were able to push her into the oven, but not before she had resisted and scratched
eterStraub's face." The next day Schultz noticed that the face of the camp executioner (Straub) had been severely scratched.
The camp doctor,
Werner Rohde, was executed after the war. Franz Berg was sentenced to five years in prison but received the death penalty in another trial for a different crime and was hanged on the same day as Rohde. The camp commandant,
Fritz Hartjenstein, received a life sentence, while Straub was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Awards and honours

Following Borrel's arrest by the Gestapo, the SOE produced a citation for an award that stated the following:
This officer was parachuted into France in November 1942 as an assistant to an organiser in the Paris area. She proved herself an able and devoted lieutenant, and was appointed second in command of the organisation. Owing to her cool judgment she was always chosen for the most delicate and dangerous work such as recruiting and arranging rendezvous, and she acted as "cut-out" for her commanding officer.
Lt. Borrel was also given the task of organising parachute dropping operations, and took part in several coups de mains, notably an operation against the Chevilly power station in March 1943. She distinguished herself by her coolness and efficiency and always volunteered for the most dangerous tasks. Her commanding officer paid tribute to her great qualities, describing her as "a perfect lieutenant, an excellent organiser who shares all the dangers".
Lt Borrel was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1943. For her great bravery and devotion to duty during nine months of active underground work in France, it is recommended that she be appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (civil division).
Posthumously, France awarded Borrel the
Croix de Guerre
The (, ''Cross of War'') 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 first awarded during World ...
and the
Médaille de la Résistance
The Resistance Medal (, ) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 February 1943 "to recognize the ...
in recognition of her defence of France, while Britain awarded her the
King's Commendation for Brave Conduct
The Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct, formerly the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct, acknowledged brave acts by both civilians and members of the armed services in both war and peace, for gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. Est ...
(KCBC). The concentration camp where she died is a now a French government historical site, where a plaque to 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
The Valençay SOE Memorial is a monument in France to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who died working to liberate the country during World War II.
The memorial was unveiled in the town of Valençay, in the Departments o ...
in the town of
Valençay, in the
Indre
Indre (); is a department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administrative region of Cent ...
department of France. She is also commemorated on the
Tempsford Memorial
The Tempsford Memorial is a war memorial in the village of Tempsford in Bedfordshire. The village was the home of RAF Tempsford. The memorial commemorates the women who served as secret agents in occupied Europe during the Second World War, the RAF ...
in the village of
Tempsford
Tempsford is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about east north-east of the county town of Bedford.
The village is split by the A1 Great North Road and is located just bef ...
in the county of Bedfordshire in the
East of England
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...
. A later memorial, the SOE Agents Memorial in Lambeth Palace Road (Westminster, London), is dedicated to all SOE agents. Borrel is also commemorated in column 3 of panel 26 of the
Brookwood Memorial
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regi ...
as one of 3,500 "to whom war denied a known and honoured grave".
In 1985, SOE agent and painter
Brian Stonehouse, who saw 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.

A monument is erected in memory of Andrée Borrel and Marie-Lise de Baissac in the town of Saint-Laurent-Nouan (Loir-et-Cher) at a place called Bois-Renard, the place of their parachuting on the night of 24 to September 25, 1942. It was inaugurated on September 25, 2022. GPS coordinates: 47.664599,1.600769.
Related cultural works
* ''
Carve Her Name with Pride
''Carve Her Name with Pride'' is a 1958 British war Drama (film and television), drama film based on the book of the same name by R. J. Minney.
The film, directed by Lewis Gilbert, is based on the true story of Special Operations Executive agen ...
'' (1958)
:Movie based on the book by R.J. Minney about
Violette Szabo
Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC (née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission i ...
, starring
Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work. Scofield ...
and
Virginia McKenna
Dame Virginia Anne McKenna (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author, animal rights activist, and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films '' A Town Like Alice'' (1956), ''Carve Her Name with Pride'' (1958), ' ...
.
* ''Churchill's Spy School'' (2010)
:Documentary about the SOE "finishing school" on the Beaulieu estate in Hampshire.
* ''
Les Femmes de l'Ombre
''Female Agents'' () is a 2008 French historical drama film directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and starring Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillain, Déborah François, and Moritz Bleibtreu. Written by Salomé and Laurent Vachaud, the film is a ...
'' (aka ''Female Agents'') (2008)
:French film about five SOE female agents and their contribution towards the
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
invasions.
* ''Nancy Wake Codename: The White Mouse'' (1987)
:
Docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
about
Nancy Wake
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011), also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and b ...
's work for SOE, partly narrated by Wake (Wake was disappointed that the film was changed from an 8-hour resistance story to a 4-hour love story).
* ''
Now It Can Be Told'' (aka ''School for Danger'') (1946)
:Filming began in 1944 and starred real-life SOE agents Captain
Harry Rée
Harry Alfred Rée, DSO, OBE (15 October 1914 – 17 May 1991) was a British educationist and wartime member of the Special Operations Executive. Of the more than 400 SOE agents who worked in France during World War II, M.R.D. Foot, the offic ...
and
Jacqueline Nearne codenamed "Felix" and "Cat", respectively. The film tells the story of the training of agents for SOE and their operations in France. The training sequences were filmed using the SOE equipment at the training schools at Traigh and Garramor (South Morar) and at
Ringway.
* ''
Odette'' (1950)
:Movie based on the book by
Jerrard Tickell
Edward Jerrard Tickell (14 February 1905 – 27 March 1966) was an Irish writer, known for his novels and historical books on the Second World War.
Biography
Jerrard Tickell was born in Dublin and educated in Tipperary and, from 1919 until 1922 ...
about
Odette Sansom
Odette Marie Léonie Céline Hallowes, (née Brailly; 28 April 1912 – 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Sansom, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in ...
, starring
Anna Neagle
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer.
She was a successful box-office draw in British cinema for 2 ...
and
Trevor Howard
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...
. The film includes an interview with
Maurice Buckmaster
Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster (11 January 1902 – 17 April 1992) was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the '' Croix de Guerre''.
Apart from his war service, Buckmaster was a corporate manager ...
, head of SOE's F-Section.
* ''Robert and the Shadows'' (2004)
:French documentary on
France Télévisions
France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...
. Did General De Gaulle tell the whole truth about the French resistance? This is the purpose of this documentary. Jean Marie Barrere, the French director, uses the story of his own grandfather (Robert) to tell the French what SOE did at that time. Robert was a French teacher based in the southwest of France, who worked with SOE agent
George Reginald Starr (codenamed "Hilaire", in charge of the "Wheelwright" circuit).
* ''
Wish Me Luck
''Wish Me Luck'' is a British television drama about the exploits of civilian women who became undercover agents in Occupied France during the Second World War. The series was made by London Weekend Television for the ITV network between 17 Ja ...
'' (1987)
:Television series that was broadcast between 1987 and 1990 featuring the exploits of the women and, less frequently, the men of SOE, which was renamed the 'Outfit'.
See also
*
British military history of World War II
*
Military history of France during World War II
From 1939 to 1940, the French Third Republic was at war with Nazi Germany. In 1940, the German forces defeated the French in the Battle of France. The Germans occupied the north and west of French territory and a collaborationist régime under P ...
*
Resistance during World War II
During World War II, resistance movements operated in German-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* ''Documents Atkins' post-war search for missing SOE agents including Borrel.''
* ''Focus on the four female SOE agents (Borrel, Leigh, Olschanezky and Rowden) executed in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.''
* ''A thorough overview of SOE.''
* ''Overview of the scores of female SOE agents sent into occupied Europe during WW2 including Borrel.''
* ''A source of information about the dozens of female agents sent into France during WW2 including Borrel.''
* ''Documents the activities of female SOE agents in France including Borrel.''
* ''Overview of the 39 female SOE agents.''
* ''Overview of SOE activities.''
Further reading
* ''Substantive history of the French Resistance.''
* ''A once classified report compiled in 1946 by a former member of SOE's F Section, Major Robert Bourne-Patterson, who was a planning officer.''
* ''Buckmaster was the head of SOE's F Section, who infamously ignored security checks by captured SOE wireless operators that indicated their capture, resulting in agents being captured and executed.''
* ''Comprehensive coverage of the French Resistance.''
* ''Information about female SOE agents in France including Borrel.''
* ''Overview of SOE (Foot won the ''Croix de Guerre'' as a SAS operative in Brittany, later becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University and an official historian of the SOE).''
* ''Comprehensive coverage of the German occupation of France.''
* ''Overview of Atkins' activity at SOE (served as Buckmaster's intelligence officer in the F Section).''
* ''Written by the son of Major Francis Suttill, the Prosper network chief executed by the Nazis in 1945.''
* ''Documents the activities of female OSS and SOE agents in France including Borrel.''
* ''Documents RAF small aircraft landings in France during WW2 (author was one of the pilots).''
*
External links
*Listverse
10 Amazing Female Spies Who Brought Down The Nazis*Spartacus Educational
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrel, Andree
1919 births
1944 deaths
People from Yvelines
French Resistance members
Executed spies
French people who died in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp
Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
Female wartime spies
French people executed in Nazi concentration camps
People executed by Germany by burning
French Special Operations Executive personnel
Female resistance members of World War II
French women in World War II
Recipients of the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct
Special Operations Executive personnel killed in World War II
Red Cross personnel
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry people