Marie-Madeleine Fourcade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909 - 1989) was, during the occupation of France in the Second World War, the leader of the French Resistance network Alliance, after the arrest of its former leader George Loustaunau-Lacau.
Arrested with her staff on November 10, 1942 she escaped to London, from where she continued to direct the network under the pseudonym 'Hedgehog' until the German defeat.
In 1945, she created and became president of the Association Amicale Alliance ( Friendly Association Alliance). She then took care of 3000 resistance agents, survivors or missing, as well as social works and the publication of Mémorial de l'Alliance, dedicated to the resistance group's 429 dead. Published in 1968 under the title Noah's Ark, the history of the group was a bestseller.
She chaired the Commitee of Resistance Action from 1962, as well as the jury of honour of Maurice Papon in 1981. Remarried, a mother of five children, commander of the Légion d'honneur, vice president of the International Union of Resistance and Deportation from 1960 and the National Association of Medal-holders from 1947, a member of the L.I.C.R.A., Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was represented at the assembly of the European Communities and in 1982 chaired the Defense of Interests in France and Europe. Her last fights were for the end of the Lebanese conflict and the Klaus Barbie lawsuit in Lyon.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade died on July 20, 1989 at the military hospital of Val-de-Grâce; the government and the few surivors of the resistance group paid an exceptional homage to her on July 26 at the time of her funeral in the Saint-Louis Church of the Invalids and her burial in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris.
[edit] Sources
- L'Arche de Noé - Marie-Madeleine Fourcade - Fayard - 1968
- Marie-Madeleine Fourcade , un chef de la Résistance - Michèle Cointet - Perrin - 2006
- Website
