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

Early life

Michelis was born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

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

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, 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 secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...

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 te ...

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

. 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 is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

, 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 ("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. History Initial ...

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, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

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 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 of waterboard ...

. 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 (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

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 pi ...

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 The Institut d’histoire du temps présent, also known as IHTP (), is a French research unit within the CNRS. Since September 2019 IHTP has been located on the Condorcet campus of the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis at Aubervilliers. ...

. A high school in

Amiens, France Amiens (English: or ; ; , 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 in the region ...

(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