Jeannie Rousseau
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Jeannie Yvonne Ghislaine Rousseau, married name Jeannie de Clarens, (1 April 1919 – 23 August 2017) was an Allied
intelligence agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...
in occupied France 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 ...
, a member of the "Druids" network led by . Codenamed Amniarix, she evaded Gestapo agents while gathering crucial information on the Germans' emerging rocket weapons programs from behind enemy lines. Her intelligence reports, forwarded to London, led directly to the British raid on Peenemünde and to delays and disruptions in the V-1 and
V-2 The V2 (), with the technical name '' Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a " ven ...
programs, saving many thousands of lives in the West. Rousseau was captured twice and spent time in three concentration camps. After the war, she worked as a freelance interpreter.


Early life

Born on 1 April 1919 in
Saint-Brieuc Saint-Brieuc (, Breton language, Breton: ''Sant-Brieg'' , Gallo language, Gallo: ''Saent-Berioec'') is a city in the Côtes-d'Armor Departments of France, department in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France. History ...
,
Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor ( , ; ; , ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord until 1990 (, ), is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
veteran and a French foreign ministry official, and his wife Marie, née Le Charpentier. A brilliant linguist, she graduated in languages from
Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...
in 1939. After the outbreak of
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 ...
, she moved with her family to
Dinard Dinard (; , ; Gallo: ''Dinard'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, northwestern France. Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a holiday destination, and this has resul ...
, in
Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Ill-e-Vilaenn'', ) is a departments of France, department of France, located in the regions of France, region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named a ...
, where the mayor, a friend of her parents, asked her to work as an interpreter to facilitate negotiations between the local services and the German authorities.


Wartime work

Rousseau began gathering intelligence on German operations even before she made contact with Allied intelligence. She took a job at the French national chamber of commerce as a translator and soon became the organization's top staffer, meeting regularly with the German military commander's staff. She was a frequent visitor with the Germans, discussing commercial issues, such as complaints about Nazi commandeering or offers to sell them goods, such as steel and rubber. "I was storing my nuts, but I had no way to pass them on." She was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1941, but was later released for lack of evidence and was forced to leave the area, though prohibited from staying in the coastal area. In 1941 she moved to Paris where she began working for a Parisian company that supplied materials to the German war effort, thus positioning herself as a source of valuable information for the Allied forces. Her formal career as a spy began in 1941, with a chance meeting with Georges Lamarque on a night train from Paris to Vichy. Lamarque remembered Rousseau from the University of Paris, where she had shown talent in languages, including German, and finished first in her class, in 1939. He asked her to work for him, and she immediately agreed. During 1943, she filed, among other reports two particularly remarkable ones about Peenemünde. These reports led R.V. Jones, and ultimately, the rest of the British government and the rest of the Allies, directly to the missile and rocket development work going on there. Her collection and forwarding of this intelligence under very difficult circumstances led, through Jones' analysis and persuasive abilities in London, to British air raids on Peenemünde. Although several prominent sources incorrectly claim or imply that Rousseau's report led to the major raid on Peenemünde on August 17/18 1943, her report did not reach R.V. Jones until after that date. These accounts also falsely imply that her main contribution related to the V-2, but she was connected to Max Wachtel's V-1 group and it was her report that first revealed Wachtel's V-1 testing site on nearby Zempin, which was not targeted in the August 17th/18th raid. The Allies knew about the V-2s and Peenemünde before her first report. R.V. Jones relates that when he first inquired about the source of the extraordinary report that had originally tipped off the British government to what was going on at
Peenemünde Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...
, all he learned was that it came from "one of the most remarkable young women of her generation," part of a small espionage network reporting from occupied France. Shortly before
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, a plan to evacuate her and two other agents was foiled by the Gestapo: she was arrested at La Roche-Derrien on April 28, 1944. She was the first to be caught, but even as she was being captured she warned her comrades and one escaped. First imprisoned and interrogated at Jacques Cartier prison in Rennes, she was deported from Pantin in August 1944 to Ravensbrück. From there she was sent to the Torgau labour camp where she organised a demonstration to protest against the use of prisoners in the manufacture of ammunition. As Jones put it: "AMNIARIX's reports stand brilliantly in the history of intelligence, and three concentration camps — Ravensbruck, Königsberg (a punishment camp), and
Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...
could not break her." She was rescued by the Swedish Red Cross shortly before the end of the war.


Life after the war

While recovering in Sweden from
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
contracted during her imprisonment, Rousseau met Henri de Clarens, who had been in the
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
and
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 camps. The two married and had two children. De Clarens died in 1995. Rousseau worked as a freelance interpreter after the war, for the United Nations and other agencies. Avoiding interviews with reporters and historians, her story remained largely untold. In 1993, then as Madame Jeannie de Clarens, she agreed to accept the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
's
Agency Seal Medal The Agency Seal Medal (formerly Medallion) is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency to non-Agency personnel, including U.S. Government employees and private citizens, who have made significant contributions to the Agency's intelligence effort ...
. She revealed more details of her story to journalist David Ignatius in 1998. Other awards included the
Legion of Honour 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 ...
in 1955, supplemented by the grand officer medal in 2009. Rousseau also received the
Resistance Medal The Resistance Medal (, ) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 February 1943 "to recognize the ...
and the
Croix de guerre 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 ...
. Rousseau died on 23 August 2017 in Montaigu, in
Vendée Vendée () is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.V-1 and V-2 Intelligence Military intelligence on the V-1 flying bomb, V-1 and V-2 rocket, V-2 weapons developed by the Germans for attacks on the United Kingdom during the Second World War was important to countering them. Intelligence came from a number of sources and ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rousseau, Jeannie 1919 births 2017 deaths French spies Female wartime spies French Resistance members Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors People from Saint-Brieuc Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Resistance Medal Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Agency Seal Medal