Andree de jongh biography of william

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The Germans, who interrogated her more than 20 times, at first refused to believe the one admission she made, that the whole affair was entirely her own responsibility. During its three years of operation, more than 770 people were smuggled, using various transportation routes. They had been betrayed, probably by a local farm worker.

Andrée was sent first to Fresnes prison in Paris and eventually to Ravensbrück concentration camp and Mauthausen.

She spent a year studying the many German regulations about control of movement, helping wounded Allied soldiers in Belgian hospitals to send letters home through the Red Cross and sounding out close friends about setting up an escape organisation. The vice-consul was sceptical, at first fearing a German plot. She might have gone on doing that were it not for the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940.

She was awarded the British George Medal, the U.S. Medal of Freedom, and the Belgian Croix de Guerre for her exceptional bravery and contribution to the Allied cause. She married fellow resistance member Florentino Iñiguez and moved to the Congo, where she dedicated herself to humanitarian work by working amongst people affected by leprosy. Her passion for justice and her indomitable spirit led her to conceive the idea of an escape route for downed Allied pilots and soldiers, a network that would become known as the Comet Line.

The Comet Line

Established in 1941, the Comet Line was a clandestine organization dedicated to rescuing and aiding Allied servicemen trapped in German-occupied Belgium and France.

What set the Comet Line apart was its innovative approach. Then Cavell did more than just assist them to send letters home.

De Jongh’s father, Frédéric, was a teacher and a headmaster and had an idea. They laughed. By confessing.

Andrée Eugénie Adrienne de Jongh was born on November 30, 1916, in Schaerbeek, Belgium. De Jongh told everyone she offered to help they faced a long and arduous journey ahead.

Airmen she accompanied spoke repeatedly of how much they admired her combination of energy and discretion. She also worked in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Senegal before ill health brought her back to Belgium.

In 1985, she was made a Countess in the Belgian nobility by King Baudouin. Almost all were young; none had had any training in secret work.

It is thought that she successfully escorted around 118 downed airmen across the border into Spain in 1941 and 1942, in up to 24 round trips.

None refused.

“It was her eyes,” said Bob Frost, a bomber crew member whom de Jongh helped. She made friends with a vast, bearlike Basque guide who knew every footpath in the mountains and business became brisk. This adaptability and creativity were key to the Comet Line’s ability to operate successfully for several years.

A life full of danger

Her level of commitment to this work was astounding.

Helping downed Allied pilots escape Nazi-occupied Europe. There she managed to get lost in the shaven crowds on the verge of starvation, so that when they came back to requestion her they could not find her.

(3) Dan van der Vat, The Guardian (22nd October, 2007)

De Jongh was born in occupied Brussels in 1916, a year after the British Red Cross hospital matron Edith Cavell was shot by the Germans for helping some 200 first world war soldiers to escape from Belgium to the neutral Netherlands.