Eugénie Malika Djendi (1918 – 18 January 1945) was a French was a French soldier and resistance fighter during

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 ...

who was executed by the

Nazi government The government of Nazi Germany was a totalitarian dictatorship governed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party according to the . Nazi Germany was established in January 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, followed ...

Life

Djendi was born in 1918 and she lived with her parents in

Bône Annaba (), formerly known as Bon, Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to the border with Tunisia. Annaba is near the small Seybouse River and is in the Annaba Province. With a population of about 263,65 ...

, a former French département in Algeria, where in 1942 she joined the "Corps Féminin des Transmissions" (Women's Signal Corps) set up by General Lucien Merlin, and known as " Merlinettes" after their creator. Other recruits were Marie-Louise Cloarec, Pierrette Louin and Suzanne Mertzizen. All four were sent for training at

Staouéli Staouéli is a municipality in Algiers Province, Algeria. It is located in Zéralda district, on a Presque-isle on the Mediterranean Sea, hosting the resort town of Sidi Fredj Sidi Fredj, known under French rule as Sidi Ferruch, is a coas ...

, near Algiers. When a call went out for radio specialists all four women volunteered and were sent to London for further training as radio operatives by the British. The course, at St Albans and Manchester, covered such things as parachuting, management of explosives and unarmed combat as well as basic radio transmission. She was given false papers in the name of Jacqueline Dubreuil and prepared to be sent back to France as part of Mission Berlin. She flew from Tempsford airfield in a Halifax on 9 April 1944 and parachuted with two male colleagues into the area of Sully-sur-Loire, where she established radio contact with London and Algeria. They were arrested by the police the following day in possession of their radio equipment and she was later sent to

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...

, where she made contact with fellow operatives Marie-Louise Cloarec, Pierrette Louin and Suzanne Mertzizen who arrived 8 August 1944. After their demands to be transferred to a Prisoner of War camp were denied, the four women were executed by firing squad on 18 January 1945 and their bodies burnt and buried in the nearby forest. Djendi was declared "

Mort pour la France (, ) is a legal expression in France and an honour awarded to people who died during a conflict, usually in service of the country. Definition The term is defined in L.488 to L.492 (bis) of the ''Code of Military Disability Pensions and War ...

" and posthumously awarded the

Croix de Guerre avec Palme 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 Medal of the Resistance. She is commemorated by a garden in Paris (Le jardin Eugénie-Djendi) and her name is inscribed with those of her colleagues 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 ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Djendi, Eugénie 1918 births 1945 deaths French Resistance members Female resistance members of World War II People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Resistance Medal Female recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) French people executed in Nazi concentration camps French people who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp French women in World War II 20th-century French women