Andrée Raymonde Borrel, born in France on November 18, 1919 - died July 6, 1944 at Natzwiller, Bas-Rhin, France. The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... History The département was created on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution. ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ...

Andrée Borrel was born into a working-class family in the suburbs of Paris, growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities. At the age of fourteen she left school to work in a bakery shop but when World War II broke out, the then nineteen-year-old girl went to the Mediterranean port city of Toulon where she trained as a nurse's aid with the "Association des Dames de France" (ADF). Following her training, she worked in Beaucaire treating wounded soldiers. After France fell to the Germans in June 1940, the ADF came under the control of Marshal Petain, and Andrée Borrel, who was not willing to accept her country's defeat, joined the French Resistance helping British airmen shot down over France to escape through the "underground railway" back to Britain. With Maurice Dufour, she established a villa in Perpignan near the Spanish border and cooperated with the escape network of Albert Guerisse. Location within France Coat of Arms of Toulon Toulon (Tolon in Provençal) is a city in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. ... View down into Beaucaire and the marina from the bridge leading to Tarascon. ... Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain (April 24, 1856 - July 23, 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French soldier and Head of State of Vichy France. ... The French Resistance is the name used for resistance movements that fought military occupation of France by Nazi Germany and the resulting Vichy France during World War II after France surrendered in 1940. ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the G8, the European Union, and NATO. Usually known simply as the United Kingdom, the UK, or (inaccurately) as Great Britain or Britain, the UK has four constituent... Location within France Perpignan ( Catalan Perpinyà) is a commune and the préfecture (administrative capital city) of the Pyrénées-Orientales département in southern France, and was the capital of the former province of Roussillon (French Catalonia). ... The Kingdom of Spain or Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne dEspanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. ... Albert Guérisse (April 5, 1911_March 26, 1989) was a Belgian Resistance member who organized escape routes for downed Allied pilots during World War II. He used a name Pat OLeary. ...

In December of 1941 Borrel's resistance group was uncovered and she fled to Lisbon, Portugal. There, she worked at the Free French Propaganda Office for a short time until April of 1942 when she traveled to London. From General de Gaulle's Free French bureau she learned about the French Section of the Special Operations Executive and immediately signed up. Lisbon (in Portuguese, Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. ... The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters who decided to go on fighting against Germany after the Fall of France and German occupation and to fight against Vichy France in World War II. General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French Cabinet in... London — containing the City of London — is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England and a major world city. With over seven million inhabitants (Londoners) in Greater London area, it is amongst the most densely populated areas in Western Europe. ... Portrait of General Charles de Gaulle. ... The Special Operations Executive (SOE), often called the Baker Street Irregulars after Sherlock Holmess fictional group of spies, was a World War II organisation initiated by Winston Churchill in July of 1940 as a mechanism for conducting warfare by means other than direct military engagement. ...

On the night of September 24, 1942, Andrée Borrel and fellow SOE agent, Lise de Baissac (Odile) became the first female agents to be parachuted into occupied France. In the darkness, Baissac dropped near Poitiers while Borrel dropped into a field near the village of Mer, not far from the Loire River and was picked up by members of a local resistance team. Because of her intimate knowledge of Paris, Andrée Borrel was sent there to work as a courier for the new "Prosper" network run by Francis Suttill. Her boss was impressed with Borrel's performance and in the Spring of 1943 she was made second in command of the Paris network. Location within France Poitiers (population 85,000) is a city and commune in central France, préfecture (capital) of the Vienne département. ... The Loire is wide; here in Orléans, half of it is shown, up to a dividing half-flooded island. ...

Probably because of a traitor, in June of 1943 several members of the "Prosper" network were arrested by the Gestapo, including network leader Francis Suttill and Andrée Borrel. She was interrogated in the Gestapo's Parisian headquarters and then held in Fresnes prison. She remained there until May of 1944 when, together with three other captured female SOE agents, Vera Leigh, Sonya Olschanezky and Diana Rowden, Andrée Borrel was shipped to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace. Gestapo is a portmanteau contraction of the name of the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, Geheime Staatspolizei, (German for secret state police). During the reign of Nazi Germany, the Gestapo was the central intelligence agency of Germany, under the overall administration of the SS. It was administrated by... Fresnes Prison (Maison darrêt de Fresnes) is the largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne near the city of Paris. ... Vera Leigh was born Vera Glass on March 17, 1903 in Leeds, England. ... Sonya Olschanezky was born in Chemnitz, on 25th December, 1923. ... Diana Hope Rowden (January 31, 1915 - July 6, 1944) was an SOE member who was killed in a Nazi concentration camp. ... Camp entrance Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France about 50 km from the city of Strasbourg. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... The Vosges mountains are range of mountains in central-western Europe, stretching along the west side of the Rhine valley in a NNE direction, from Basel to Mainz, for a distance of 250 km (150 miles). ... Capital Strasbourg Area 8,280 km² Regional President Adrien Zeller Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 1,793,000 1,734,145 209/km² Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace ( French: Alsace; Alsatian/ German: Elsaß) is a région of France. ...

On July 6, 1944, 24-year-old Andrée Borrel and her three compatriots were injected with phenol and incinerated in the camp's crematorium. July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... Phenol or carbolic acid is a white crystalline solid, with a chemical formula of C6H5OH, a melting point of 43°C, and a boiling point of 182°C at the pressure of 1 atmosphere (or 101080 Pa). ... Cremation is the practice of disposing of a corpse by burning. ...

Posthumously, the government of France awarded her the Croix de Guerre in recognition of her heroic sacrifice for her country's freedom. The concentration camp where she died is a now a French government historical site and a plaque to Andrée Borrel and the three women who died with her is part of the Deportation Memorial on the site. As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of her country, Lieutenant Borrel is listed on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre département of France. The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of both Belgium and France which was first created in 1915. ... Indre is a département in the center of France named after the Indre River. ...

In 1985, SOE agent and painter Brian Stonehouse, who saw Andrée Borrel and the three other female SOE agents at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp just before their deaths, painted a poignant watercolour of the four women which now hangs in the Special Forces Club in London, England. Brian Julian Stonehouse (August 8, 1918 _ December 1998) was a British painter and Special Operations Executive agent during World War II. He was born in Torquay, England. ...