My hometown paper, The New York Times, routinely publishes obituaries of people one has likely never heard of - but upon reading the obituary are glad the Times has written about them. (I’ve heard bits and pieces about the editorial process by which the Times identifies people, during their lifetimes, and keeps a “morgue” file - but I don’t know enough to explain it). From their obituary of Andrée de Jongh, of the Belgian resistance, who ran the “Comet” escape line for downed Allied fighters - so named because it was so fast.
Andrée de Jongh, whose youth and even younger appearance belied her courage and ingenuity when she became a World War II legend ushering many downed Allied airmen on a treacherous, 1,000-mile path from occupied Belgium to safety, died Saturday in Brussels. She was 90.
Her death was announced by a Web site for former resistance fighters, verzet.org. There was no information about survivors.
Derek Shuff, in his book ”Evader” (2007), told of three British crewmen whose bomber made a forced landing in 1941. They found their way to the Underground and were ensconced in a safe house when a slip of a young woman appeared.
”My name is Andrée,” the 24-year-old woman said, ”but I would like you to call me by my code name, which is Dédée, which means little mother. From here on I will be your little mother, and you will be my little children. It will be my job to get my children to Spain and freedom.”
She left and the three sat in stunned silence. One finally spoke. ”Our lives are going to depend on a schoolgirl,” he said.
Two of the men survived the grueling trek along what became known as the Comet escape line, because of the speed with which soldiers were hustled along it.
Ms. de Jongh eventually led 24 to 33 expeditions across occupied France, over the Pyrenees to Gibraltar. She herself escorted 118 servicemen to safety. At least 300 more escaped along the Comet line.
When the Germans captured her in 1943, it was her youth that saved her. When she truthfully confessed responsibility for the entire scheme, they refused to believe her.
The citation of her Medal of Freedom With Golden Palm, the highest award the United States presented to foreigners who helped the American effort in World War II, said Ms. de Jongh ”chose one of the most perilous assignments of the war.”
