Andrée Virot was a French spy and Resistance agent during World War II. She saved over one hundred Allied lives over the course of the war, surviving two concentration camp imprisonments.
Wartime work
During World War II, in her beauty salon in Brest, Virot helped French soldiers flee from German invaders by disguising themselves as civilians with men's clothes from her neighbours. As the Germans controlled the printed media, Virot decided to transcribe and distribute Charles de Gaulle's radio broadcast from London. Virot helped to distribute Brest's underground newspaper, as well as forwarding information learned by French dockworkers to the French Resistance. These actions led to her recruitment by a London agent.
Espionage
Working under the code name Rose, Virot was assigned to the Brittany Bureau of Information. Her task was to attain and forward information regarding German activity on the coast of the province; this included troop movements, equipment transportation, and the location of fortifications. As the French and British aerial attacks commenced, Virot and her team worked to rescue airmen downed by German antiaircraft attacks. The team would dispose of the parachute, supply civilian clothes, and locate safe houses to hide the soldiers while escape plans were established. Virot and her team soon expanded their work to Normandy. In Normandy, the team would direct plane landings and exchange information via the plane crew. In one of these exchanges, Virot received a personal letter of thanks from Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The letter read: "This last mission is the equivalent of a victory on the battlefield!" Unfortunately, for security purposes, the letter had to be destroyed immediately.
Arrest
A Resistance worker in Brest was captured by the Gestapo, and after watching his family members tortured, gave up the names of other Resistance workers. This included Virot's name. With hours to flee, Virot escaped to Paris disguised with blonde hair. Sadly, this did not last long. Her address in Paris was soon revealed as another Resistance agent was interrogated. On 10 May 1944, Virot was arrested. Under her arrest, Virot was interrogated, tortured, and detained in a cell. This torture would cause lifelong health problems.
Concentration camps
A few weeks after her arrest, Virot was transferred to Ravensbruck, a women's concentration camp. One day during roll call, a Nazi official wrote down her number to later take her to the gas chamber. One of Virot's Polish friends, however, crawled through the role call lines and stole the paper from the officer's pocket, saving Virot's life. Virot was moved to camp Buchenwald. As the Allied forces were encroaching, one afternoon Virot and the other prisoners were called to an afternoon roll call. Virot knew this was suspicious, and immediately realised that the prisoners were to be shot. Suddenly, the Nazi officers ran: the Americans, who had arrived to liberate the city, threatened to kill the officers if they shot the prisoners. The prisoners were spared. In response to her imprisonment and concentration camp, Virot explained "I suffer still from that. I still have the pain.”
Post-war life
Virot lost her brother while he was fighting with the Free French in Germany. Her father also killed during the war by a grenade that a German soldier was using to fish. After the war, Virot returned to Paris where she made a pilgrimage to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre. At this basilica, she gave thanks for her survival. Virot kept her uniform from the concentration camp as a reminder of her experience; she was quoted as saying "It was a terrible time but looking back I am so proud of what I did and I'm glad to have helped defend the freedom of our future generations." Virot worked as a restaurant manager in Paris; it was at this job where she met her husband John Peel. Her husband passed away in 2003; the two did not have children.
Virot published her memoir, Miracles Do Happen!, in 1999. In 2008, the British film about her life entitled Rose: Portrait of a Resistance Fighter was released.
