| Birth: | Nov. 30, 1916, Belgium | | Death: | Oct. 13, 2007
Brussels, Belgium | 
World War II Resistance Fighter. Countess Andree de Jongh, nicknamed Dedee, was born in Schaarbeek, Belgium. One of her earliest heroines was Edith Cavell, a British nurse shot by the Germans during the First World War for helping British troops escape from German custody. Following the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Dedee, who was trained as a nurse, moved to Brussels, where she helped to care for captured Allied troops. It was here that she began to develop the idea of creating a escape line for Allied POWs. Working with her Father, a school headmaster, and her aunt, she established an escape route known to British Intelligence as the "Comet Line". This route, based in southern France, brought Allied evaders to a series of safe houses over an exhausting route through the Pyrenees, and across the French-Spanish border, where they were delivered to the British Consulate. Both Dedee and her father were captured by the Gestapo in 1943. Her father was executed, but in spite of admitting, under torture, that she was in fact helping evaders to escape, she was allowed to live. Sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, she was eventually freed by the advancing Allied armies in 1945. In all, the Comet Line helped over 800 Allied troops escape German custody. For her wartime efforts, she was awarded the British George Medal, the United States Medal of Freedom, and the rank of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold, and was also granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Belgium Army. In 1984, she was made a countess. Following the war, she continued to work as a nurse in leper hospitals in the Congo, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. With her health failing, she moved back to Belgium, where she died at the University of Woluwe-St-Lambert in Brussels. (bio by: Steve Niederloh)
Search Amazon for Andree De Jongh | | | Burial:
Schaarbeek Cemetery
Schaarbeek
Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
Plot: de Jongh family crypt |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Steve Niederloh
Record added: Mar 20, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 49970671 |
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Added by: Anonymous | | | Photos may be scaled.
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Happy Birthday. You honor us all.................
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a sincere fan
Added: Nov. 30, 2012 |
Rest in peace, Countess. Yours was a remarkable life, marked by remarkable resourcefulness and courage. Thank you for your lifetime of service to humanity and noble causes. God bless you with eternal joy.
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Sharon
Added: Oct. 13, 2012 |
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CHARLES A. OSWALD
Added: Oct. 13, 2012 |
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(4.2 after 15 votes)