Andrée Jacob (22 July 1906 - 6 February 2002) was a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Initially working in publishing, she played an active part in the French Resistance during the Second World War. Post war she became a journalist for the newspaper ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', and worked to preserve Parisian cultural heritage. She was the partner of fellow Resistance member

Éveline Garnier Éveline Geneviève Anna Garnier (6 May 1904 - 22 October 1989) was a significant figure in the Noyautage des administrations publiques, which aimed at infiltrating the French collaborationalist Vichy Government during the Second World War. She us ...

and the cousin of the artist

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...

Early life

Andrée Madeleine Jacob was born on 22 July 1906 in the

3rd arrondissement of Paris The 3rd arrondissement of Paris (''IIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements (districts) of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as the ''"troisième"'' meaning "third" in Fr ...

into a family of shopkeepers who had converted from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the previous generation. Her cousin was the artist

who himself later converted to Catholicism.Marie-Jo Bonnet raconte les résistantes oubliées
''

Ouest-France ''Ouest-France'' ( ; French for "West-France") is a daily French newspaper known for its emphasis on both local and national news. The paper is produced in 47 different editions covering events in different French départments within the régio ...

'', 28 septembre 2013. She met her life partner,

, through the Catholic circles which revolved around the latter's uncle, the philosopher

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aquinas fo ...

. Jacob worked as a civil servant at the Palais de Chaillot Museum.

Second World War

Following the

Fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

in the

, Jacobs lived under an assumed name, Marie-Thérèse Bourdon, to avoid having to wear the yellow star and the anti-semitic persecution, deportation and murder which people with Jewish ancestry suffered under the Vichy Regime. Members of her extended family were arrested, imprisoned and deported to concentration camps. Her cousins Gaston and Myrthe-Lea Jacob were arrested in January 1944, and deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

concentration camp and their brother

died in Drancy internment camp in March 1944. Jacob managed to smuggle her parents out of Paris into the Free French zone, where they were able to live in the home of Éveline Garnie's family. Jacob helped to save Jews from The Holocaust in France and was very active in the NAP (Noyautage des administrations publiques) network, an arm of the

which aimed to infiltrate the Vichy Government. NAP was based at the Palais de Chaillot, where she worked and Jacob played an active role in its undertakings. Of the 14 people in the original NAP network, only four escaped the

Gestapo The (), 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 Prussia into one organi ...

, Andrée Jacob (codename Danielle) and Éveline Garnie (codename Anne) were among them. Jacob's most publicised and best known resistance act during the war was during the liberation of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

at the end of August 1944 during the

Liberation of Paris The liberation of Paris (french: Libération de Paris) was a military battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germ ...

, where she arrested the Vichy director

Bernard Faÿ Bernard Faÿ (; 3 April 1893 – 31 December 1978) was a French historian of Franco-American relations, an anti-Masonic polemicist who believed in a worldwide Jewish-Freemason conspiracy (see: Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory) and during World ...

at the head of a French Forces of the Interior platoon and saved the library's archives. Faÿ was later sentenced to

Dégradation nationale The ''dégradation nationale'' ("National demotion") was a sentence introduced in France after the Liberation of France. It was applied during the ''épuration légale'' ("legal purge") which followed the fall of the Vichy regime. The ''dégrad ...

Post war

Andrée Jacob became head of the archives department at the ministère des Anciens combattants (Ministry of Veterans' Affairs). In 1963 she was elected deputy mayor of the

2nd arrondissement of Paris The 2nd arrondissement of Paris (''IIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''deuxième'' (second/the second). It is governed locally ...

. From 1965 to 1985, she worked as a journalist for the newspaper

, where she wrote a column ''Chronique sur le vieux Paris'' about the history of Paris in the past and Parisian urban planning. She joined the ''Société historique du VIe arrondissement'' in 1974, and was a director of the Society from 1978 to 2002. In 1986, Jacob became a member of the Commission du vieux Paris, a municipal organisation with a mission to consult on and support the protection of heritage within urban planning policies of the city of Paris. She wrote several books on the capital's heritage before 1991. Andrée Jacob died on 6 February 2002 in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. She was buried in the

Montparnasse Cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery (french: link=no, Cimetière du Montparnasse) is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery ...

, in grave no. 97 CC 1907 (24th division - 5th row from the north - 20th row from the east). Her grave was restored in spring 2022.

Honours

* Médaille de la Résistance française (1945) *

Croix de guerre 1939-1945 Croix (French for "cross") may refer to: Belgium * Croix-lez-Rouveroy, a village in municipality of Estinnes in the province of Hainaut France * Croix, Nord, in the Nord department * Croix, Territoire de Belfort, in the Territoire de Belfort depa ...

(1945) * Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1946) *

Officier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

(1965) * Officier de l'instruction publique *Officier de l'ordre du Mérite du Bénin * Chevalier des Arts et Lettres

Publications

*''Catalogue de l'exposition "La Presse à Paris: 1851-1981"'' Paris, BHVP, (1983) *''Guide de l'exposition "Paris vécu, Paris rêvé": victor Hugo 1885-1985"'' Paris, (1985) *''Vie et histoire du VIe arrondissement'' Paris, Hervas, (1986) *''Vie et histoire du VIIIe arrondissement'' (1987). *''Vie et histoire du IIe Arrondissement'' (1988). *''Il y a un siècle, quand les dames tenaient salon'' Paris, A. Seydoux, 1991]

Commemoration

On 29 August 2019, the 75th anniversary of the

, two tree lined avenue, l' :fr:Allée_Andrée-Jacob, allée Andrée-Jacob and l' allée Éveline-Garnier were inaugurated in the

in memory of Jacob and Garnier and their relationship of over half a century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Andrée 1906 births 2002 deaths Recipients of the Resistance Medal Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Officers of the Legion of Honour Le Monde writers French women journalists French women civil servants French women in politics Holocaust survivors The Holocaust in France People from Paris French historians French lesbian writers French LGBT journalists LGBT historians Lesbian journalists Knights of the Legion of Honour 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French LGBT people