Suzanne "Touty" Hiltermann-Souloumiac (1919-2001)

Suzanne "Touty" Hiltermann was born on 17 January 1919 in Amsterdam. At the age of 20, she left the Netherlands in order to follow studies in France on ethnology.

As the German Nazis occupied Paris, Suzanne joined the French Resistance. Following the denunciation of one of its members of the network, she was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Romainville and Fresnes. After repeated questioning, including the use of torture, she was deported to the concentration camp Ravensbrück and detained for more than 12 months. She was released by the White Buses of Count Bernadotte and brought to Sweden. A special plane of the U.S. Air Force then retrieved her from Goteborg to Paris.

The following year, she married Pierre Souloumiac, a captain of the Merchant Marines. Pierre actively participated in the defense of England throughout WWII and was one of the few survivors of the Cruel Sea.

In 1954, with her friend Germaine Tillion, Suzanne supported the independence of Algeria. Living in Hong Kong between 1961 and 1964, she had an influence on China's recognition by General de Gaulle. At the same time, she founded the Hong Kong French school, which became Asia's largest French high school.

In 1981, she retired to Désaignes Ardèche. She had multiple mail exchanges, especially with the United States and various other parts of the world from her home at Les Baux du Peyron.

The archives of the Ministry of Defense established that her network (Dutch-Paris) saved the lives of a large number of allied pilots during WWII. To acknowledge her acts of resistance against the Nazis and her services to allies, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Harry S. Truman.

On 2 October 2001, Suzanne put an end to her life. Her ashes were scattered on the mountains of the Ardèche she had loved so much.

Yvette Marie-Jose Wilborts-Chombart de Lauwe (1923-)

Yvette Marie-Jose "Marie-Jo" Wilborts, daughter of Adrien and Suzanne Wilborts, was born in Paris on 31 May 1923. As a young woman, she spent her holidays in the Cotes d'Armor in Brehat, home of her paternal grandmother. During the summer of 1940, German troops landed at Behat and requisitioned the homes there.

In the fall of 1941, Mary-Jo began studying medicine in Rennes and held an Ausweis (pass) that allowed her to circulate in closed areas of the coast where her mother had created the Bande a Sidonie network. Despite the danger, Marie-Jo began to carry messages that were slipped into her anatomical notebooks and transported to the Allies in England.

"Despite my age, I did not do it naively. The executions happened very quickly, the context was heavy, we measure risk."

Resistance activities on the coast were stopped in 1941, though Rennes network members continued to meet. Their new liaison "Georges", who was a double agent working for the Abwehr, renounced the group. Marie-Jo was arrested on 22 May 1942 and eventually transferred to Prison Health for questioning by the Gestapo. She was sentenced to death and deported to Ravensbruck on 26 July 1943 with her mother and 56 other French women. All 58 were placed in the 32 NN block (Nacht und Nebel).

On 2 March 1945 they were transferred to another NN at Mauthausen. They were released on April 21, and evacuated to Switzerland, by the International Red Cross as a result of negotiations between Himmler and Count Folke Bernadotte on behalf of the Swedish Red Cross and the "White Bus" operation

Mary-Jo returned to Brehat in May 1945 and resumed her medical studies. She married Paul-Henry Chombard de Lauwe with whom she had four children Marie, Noelle, Jean-Marie and Pascal.

Marie-Louise "Zim" Zimberlin (-1945)

Marie-Louise "Zim" Zimberlin was an English teacher from Cluny (in Burgundy). Cluny was the home of an active force of the French resistance movement.

Using her English (learned in Scotland), Marie-Louise interpreted messages sent by signal from England when parachutists were about to land and then took them to Resistance cells around Cluny.

She was caught by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck before being transferred to Buchenwald where she spent nearly one year. She was released by the White Buses of Count Bernadotte and brought to Annemasse, France where she died on 13 April 1945, her sister by her side.