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

during the

Second World War 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 ...

. 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 (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

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

Early life

Andrée Madeleine Jacob was born on 22 July 1906 in the

3rd arrondissement of Paris The 3rd arrondissement of Paris (, ) is one of the 20 (districts) of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as "" () meaning "the third". Its postal code is 75003. It is governed locally to ...

into a family of shopkeepers who had converted from

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in the previous generation. Her cousin was the artist

, who 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 départements within the régi ...

'', 28 septembre 2013. She met her life partner, Éveline Garnier, through the Catholic circles which revolved around the philosopher

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

, who was Garnier's uncle. Jacob worked as a civil servant at the Palais de Chaillot Museum.

Second World War

Following the

Fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

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, or Oświęcim, 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 consisted of Auschw ...

concentration camp and their brother

died in

Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp () was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, German occupation of France duri ...

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 Garnier's family. Jacob helped to save Jews from

The Holocaust in France The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution began in 19 ...

and was very active in the NAP (Noyautage des administrations publiques) network, an arm of the

which aimed to infiltrate the

Vichy Government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

. 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 (, ), 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 ...

, Andrée Jacob (codename Danielle) and Éveline Garnier (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 (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

at the end of August 1944 during the

Liberation of Paris The liberation of Paris () was a 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 Germany since the signing of the Armisti ...

, where she arrested the Vichy director

Bernard Faÿ Marie Louis Emmanuel 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. During World War II he was an offic ...

at the head of a

French Forces of the Interior The French Forces of the Interior (FFI; ) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as F ...

platoon and saved the library's archives. Faÿ was later sentenced to Dégradation nationale.

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 locall ...

. 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 () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement of Paris, 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,00 ...

, 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 The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(1946) *

Officier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

(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 French Holocaust survivors The Holocaust in France People from Paris French historians French lesbian writers French LGBTQ journalists LGBTQ historians Lesbian journalists Knights of the Legion of Honour 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French LGBTQ people