Simone Michel-Lévy (19 January 1906 – 13 April 1945) was a

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 ...

worker. She had several pseudonyms – Emma, Françoise, Madame Royale, Mademoiselle Flaubert or Madame Bertrand - and is one of 6 female compagnons de la Libération (decreed on 26 September 1945).

World War II

Joining the staff of the PTT in 1924, she was allowed into the rédacteurs course in 1941 and made regional director of telephones, in which role she got involved in the "commutation" of telephonic communication, in Paris. This was a strategic position, which she used to set up a clandestine information network, in particular communication with Normandy, where her activities allowed the establishment of a radio network later used at the time of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Her Resistance activity went further, however - she organised a courier system to get messages to England, diverted telegraph and telephone material to Resistance groups, and sabotaged departures for the

STO STO may refer to: Businesses and organizations Government * Science & Technology Organization, a NATO organization * ''Service du travail obligatoire'', French men & women between certain ages deported to Germany during WWII to work as slave la ...

. She was arrested by 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 ...

on 5 November 1943 and tortured by

Georges Delfanne Georges Delfanne, called Christian Masuy (22 January 1913 – 1 October 1947) was a Belgian collaborator and spy during the German occupation in World War II. Early life He was born January 22, 1913, in Brussels. Prior to the war, Delfanne ...

. Without having given away even her name, she was deported to Ravensbrück, then Flossenbürg, where she managed to organise a rising against the camp guards. It was for this that she was hanged ten days before the camp was liberated by the Allies.

Legacy

Simone Michel-Lévy was one of twenty-six Resistance members to be commemorated in the

Heroes of the Resistance Heroes of the Resistance is a set of twenty-three stamps issued from 1957 to 1961 by La Poste, commemorating 27 members of the French Resistance who died during the Occupation of France between 1940 and 1945 (apart from Edmond Debeaumarché, who d ...

postage stamp series. In 2006, la Place Simone Michel-Lévy was established in Paris to honor her contributions to the French Resistance movement.

Sources

* ''Messages des PTT, n° 342'', December 1984: "Quarante ans après l'histoire s'entrouvre. Les agents des PTT et la Résistance."

External links

*
Biography on the Ordre de la Libération site

* Page 197 describes deciphered messages ordering execution and reporting result. {{DEFAULTSORT:Michel-Levy, Simone 1906 births 1945 deaths People from Jura (department) French Resistance members Companions of the Liberation French people executed abroad People who died in Flossenbürg concentration camp Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps French civilians killed in World War II People executed by Nazi Germany by hanging French people executed in Nazi concentration camps Executed people from Franche-Comté Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany