Marie Médard

Marie Médard
Marie Médard in 1946
Born(1921-04-04)4 April 1921
Paris, France
Died27 April 2013(2013-04-27) (aged 92)
Tours, France
Allegiance France
Service / branchFrench Resistance
Years of service1942–1945
UnitSpecial Operations Executive
Spindle network
Battles / warsSecond World War
AwardsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur
Spouse(s)René Fillet (1953–96)

Marie Suzanne Médard (4 April 1921 – 27 April 2013) was a French librarian and a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War.

Early life

Médard was born in Paris's 4th arrondissement, into a Protestant family.[1] Her father, Jean, was a minister of the Reformed Church of France, who ministered first at Le Fleix and later at Rouen, where the family was living when war broke out. Her mother was Alice (née Hermann).[2]

Resistance activities

In 1940, while studying history at the Sorbonne, she joined the Fédé (Fédération française des associations chrétiennes d'étudiants), and in 1942 they protested against Nazism by wearing false stars like those imposed on the Jewish population.[3] One of her acquaintances, Hélène Berr, introduced Médard to the Resistance.[4] She began conducting Jewish children to the Zone libre, then, in 1944, she joined the "Jonque" network. One of her tasks was to deliver documents around Paris, by bicycle.[2] She was arrested on 23 June 1944 and tortured without revealing anything.[5] She was kept at Fresnes prison along with other captured Resistance workers and then sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp.[6] (Berr, who was arrested later in the year, was sent to Bergen-Belsen and died there.) Médard later testified that, during this time, she prayed and did not despair.[2] She was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross on 23 April 1945.

Post-war

After the war, Médard worked for reconciliation and joined in a "de-Nazification" exercise, run by Klaus von Bismarck at Vlotho.[7] She became a librarian, working for a time under Yvonne Oddon at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

In 1953, she married the librarian René Fillet. Both worked at the Municipal Library in Tours, but in 1978, Marie went to work at the Cujas Library in Paris, retiring in 1983. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 and made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Jacques Poujol, Protestants dans la France en guerre. 1939–1945, éditions de Paris, 2000, p. 68-69.
  2. ^ a b c "Marie Médard". ajpn.org (in French). Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  3. ^ Cédric Gruat et Cécile Leblanc, Amis des Juifs. Les résistants aux étoiles, éditions Tirésias, 2005, p. 123-130.
  4. ^ INA, Mémoires de la Shoah, interview of 3 October 2005, chapters 8–11.
  5. ^ Marie-Josèphe Bonnet, Tortionnaires, truands et collabos. La bande de la rue de la Pompe, éditions Ouest-France, 2013, p. 52-54.
  6. ^ Christian Bernadac, Kommandos de femmes, éditions France-Empire, 1973, p. 188-189.
  7. ^ Annika Friedbert, The project of reconciliation : journalists and religious activists in Polish-German relations. 1956–1972, thèse de doctorat, 2008.
  • Témoignage de Marie Fillet, Mémoires de la Shoah, INA, 3 October 2005 [1]
  • Annika Friedbert, The project of reconciliation : journalists and religious activists in Polish-German relations. 1956–1972, doctoral thesis, 2008, p. 164 (citation de Klaus von Bismarck à propos de Marie Médard) [2]