Madeleine Michelis (22 August 1913 – 15 or 16 February 1944) was a French teacher and 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 ...

Early life

Michelis was born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

; her father was an Italian cobbler and her mother, a governess, was from

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, her parents having left the region in the 1870s in order to retain French nationality. Her brother, Jean, was four years her junior. She was educated first at the local girls' school, then at the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

in Paris and finally at the

École normale supérieure de jeunes filles The ''École normale supérieure de jeunes filles'' (also, ''École normale supérieure de Sèvres'') was a French institute of higher education, in Sèvres, now a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The school educated girls only, especially as tea ...

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for i ...

. She was a member of the Jeunesse Étudiante Chrétienne, a Christian youth organisation.

Wartime activities

Her first teaching post was at the Lycée de jeunes filles at

le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

, but she was forced to leave in 1940 because of the bombing. She was transferred to the Lycée Victor Duruy in Paris, and subsequently to the Lycée d’État de Jeunes Filles d'Amiens, later renamed the Lycée Madeleine Michelis d'Amiens in her honour. In 1942, she gave shelter to a Jewish girl, Claude Dalsace, whose father had been deported; Michelis managed to get her to safety in the "zone libre". As a member of the

Libération-Nord ''Libération-Nord'' ("Liberation-North") was one of the principal resistance movements in the northern occupied zone of France during the Second World War. It was one of the eight great networks making up the National Council of the Resistance. ...

and the "Shelburn" network, Michelis was involved in the rescue of airmen and escaped prisoners who found their way to the countryside of Picardy. It was for her actions in the period between November 1943 and February 1944 that she was posthumously awarded the

Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

by the United States. She was arrested at Amiens railway station on 12 February 1944 and taken to the Gestapo headquarters at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris for questioning. The official version of her death given by her superiors in the Resistance was that she had committed suicide on 15 February rather than face further interrogation. Two other teachers arrested at around the same time,

Thérèse Pierre Thérèse Madeleine Pierre (; 5 November 1908 – 26 October 1943) was a French Resistance fighter. She died after she was tortured by the German Gestapo. Early life Thérèse Pierre was born on 5 November 1908 in Épernay, Marne (departme ...

and Suzanne Blin, also died while under arrest. The tortures inflicted on her included

waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...

. On 15 February, she told other prisoners that she had been placed in an icy bath and could not warm up afterwards. Some stated that, the next day, she was again taken for interrogation; she was never seen alive again. Yet another version of her death was given by General

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

in her medal citation: that she was strangled by her captors. Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, a member of the Free French Forces, stated that he was notified of this by

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

Legacy

The state of Israel posthumously conferred on her the title of Righteous Among the Nations, on 24 November 1997. Streets in Paris and her home town of Neuilly-sur-Seine have been named Rue Madeleine Michelis in her honour. Letters written by Michelis are now held by the Institut d'histoire du temps présent. A high school in

Amiens, France Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department i ...

(Lycée Madeleine Michelis) is named after her.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michelis, Madeleine 1913 births 1944 deaths Knights of the Legion of Honour French Resistance members French Righteous Among the Nations Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) French people of Italian descent