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Andree Borrel was born in France on 18th November 1919 and grew up on the outskirts of Paris. At the
age of fourteen she left school to become a dressmaker before moving into central Paris in 1933. At
the outbreak of war, Borrel moved with her mother to the safety of Toulon on the Mediterranean coast,
joining the Red Cross as a nurse. She completed her training on 20th January 1940, which qualified
her to serve as a nurse in the Association des Dames Françaises. She was sent directly to the
Hôpital Compliméntaire in Nîmes in February, but returned after 15 days as she was too young to
work in a hospital. Frustratingly, this law was revoked shortly after her return, so she was then sent to
the hospital in Beaucaire. There she forged a connection with Lieutenant Maurice Dufour. She moved
with him to Hopital Complimentaire, but when that was scheduled for closure in July 1940, Dufour
recruited her to work for the Resistance. In August 1941, Borrel and Dufour set up the Villa
Rene-Therese in just outside Perpignan near the Spanish border where it was the last safe house
before the Pyrenees escape route started. Due to the numbers heading for the mountain escape route,
the pair had to upgrade the village after a few months to the larger Villa Anita, but by the end of 1941,
the route had been compromised. Borrel and Dufour had to follow previous escapees over the
Pyrenees in mid-February 1942, arriving in Spain and from there to Portugal, where Borrel went to
work at the Free French Propaganda Office until she flew to England in April 1942. On her arrival Borrel
was interrogated in case she was a double agent. Despite holding strong socialist views, she was then
recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) as a British agent. Given the code name
“Deniseâ€, Borrel and another SOE agent Lise de Baissac, parachuted into France on 24th Sept,
1942, the first women to do so. They landed in the village of Boisrenard close to the town of Mer.
Borrel headed to Paris to join the recently formed Prosper Network that was to be led by Francis Suttill.
Suttill was impressed with Borrel and in March 1943 she was named second in command of the
network. He reported back that she - has a perfect understanding of security & an imperturbable
calmness. Thank you very much for having sent her to me. On 23rd June, 1943 Borrel was arrested
alongside Francis Suttill and Gilbert Norman after Prosper was compromised. She was taken to SD
headquarters in Paris based Avenue Foch. Here she managed to smuggle out notes to her mother
written on cigarette paper hidden in lingerie she sent her sister for washing. After being interrogated
where reports indicated that she displayed great bravery, she was sent to Fresnes Prison. On 13th
May 1944 the Germans transported Borrel and seven other Section F agents, Vera Leigh, Diana
Rowden, Sonya Olschanezky, Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plewman, Madeleine Damerment and
Odette Sansom, to Nazi Germany. On 6th July 1944, Borrel along with Vera Leigh, Diana Rowden
and Sonya Olschanezky, were taken to Natzweiler Concentration Camp. The same day they were
injected with phenol and put in the crematorium furnace. Madam Guépin, the wife of George Darling,
Resistance group leader in north-west France, said Borrel - Had a head on her shoulders and a will of
iron and was utterly loyal and devoted to Prosper.
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