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She helped dozens of airmen to escape: last tribute to the resistant Geneviève Le Berre

2021-06-12T11:43:13.272Z


This inhabitant of Berthecourt (Oise) will receive posthumously, this Saturday, the Gold Merit Cross with palm from the National Memorial Association


However, it was not the medals that Geneviève Le Berre lacked. Died at the end of 2018, at the age of 98, this renowned resistance fighter was already an Officer of the Legion of Honor, but also holder of numerous decorations: military medal, Croix de Guerre, medal of the Resistance, Croix des Combattants Volunteers of the Resistance, medal for escapees, Combatant's Cross or the King's medal for Courage (United Kingdom) and the Medal of Freedom (United States). And it's not over. This Saturday, she will receive posthumously, in Berthecourt (Oise), the Croix du Mérite Or with palm. This is the highest distinction of the National Association of Memories of Mont-Valérien.

"She would have been particularly proud of it," said her daughter, Françoise D'Hardivillé.

Because this cross, in addition to her actions of resistance within the Burgundy network, where she participated in the escape of ten Allied airmen, highlights her numerous interventions in the name of the duty of memory.

“It was his reason for living,” insists his daughter.

"A great little lady respected by all"

It was in September 1943 that Geneviève Le Berre, then Geneviève Crosson, aged 22, joined the Resistance, where she took the nickname of Jacqueline. She was quickly given the mission of convoying, by train, to the Spanish border and through occupied France, Allied airmen whose aircraft had been shot down. "We were going to take the tickets at the Gare d'Austerlitz, which was a rather delicate and dangerous process: taking several tickets for a destination like Perpignan

(Editor's note, forbidden zone since border)

risked making us spotted", she mentioned in his book published in 2009, "Convoyeuse du Réseau évasion Bourgogne".

Geneviève Le Berre was nicknamed "Jacqueline" or "la Gamine" in the Resistance networks in which she became involved at the age of 23.

Family archives 

“Everything was done without a word, without a look.

The soldiers spotted it thanks to a distinctive sign and followed it ”, details, admiringly, Jean-Paul Rocourt, the president of Mémoire et future citizen, an association of young flag-bearers who had known Geneviève Le Berre for ten years.

"A great little lady, respected by all," he sums up, evoking the featherweight allure of the resistant.

After the war, she became involved in numerous associations of former soldiers, but also in community and local life.

As through her three mandates as an assistant in her village of Berthecourt, where she had settled with her family in the 1960s. But it is above all her commitment to young audiences for the duty of memory that will have animated the rest of his life.

"She never stopped, she was exhausting", says her daughter

"There would be too much to say about her for it to fit into a few sentences," smiles Dominique Lecompte, president of the Association of Rescuers of Aviators of the Oise.

I remember in particular a meeting in a high school in Senlis with the descendants of pilots she had saved, a particularly moving moment.

To listen to those close to him, Geneviève Le Berre was part of all the demonstrations.

“She never stopped, she was exhausting, laughs again Françoise, her daughter.

She took no praise from it all, but she needed to tell the story so it wouldn't happen again.

"And this until an advanced age:" At 98 years old and with the neck of the femur broken, she still went in a wheelchair.

She might be tired going, but still transfigured in front of an audience.

"

After a mission in England, the couple returned by crossing the Channel in a boat.

And if it is Geneviève who is in the spotlight today, her husband, Pierre Le Berre, who died in 2003, also has an illustrious past.

He was involved in the same Resistance movement as his future wife.

They were married in London in 1944, where it had been decided to pass certain members of the Burgundy network after the Landing of June 1944. "They will return by crossing the Channel in a boat", narrates Françoise.

In the post-war period, Pierre Le Berre joined Sdece (External documentation and counter-espionage service).

Between a father in the secret service and a very resistant mother, the couple's two daughters grow up in a special environment.

“But we weren't careful,” says Françoise.

We lived it a bit detached, from afar, that was their story.

Maybe it was too heavy and we put a distance?

"

Read alsoThe Resistance finally has a museum worthy of the name

It is Jean-Paul Rocourt who is at the origin of the posthumous distinction awarded this Saturday. A decision matured by chance of a meeting with Stéphane Cérabino, regional manager of the National Association of memories of Mont-Valérien. “We did not know of his career, so it will unfortunately be posthumously, regrets the latter. But it was impossible not to recognize this great lady in the Pantheon of the Resistance. "

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-06-12

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