She#the saviour

 ENGLISH CIA-3 ASSIGNMENT

NAME                   : TAHIYA ANWAR AHMED MIYA

COMBINATION   : NCZ

HALL TICKET NO : 120420464026


SHE THE SAVIOUR – ANDREE DE JONGH

                                                                     

          Countess Andrée Eugénie Adrienne de Jongh (30th November 1916 – 13th October 2007) was a member of the Belgian resistance during the Second World War. She organized and led the comet line to assist allied soldiers and airmen to escape from Nazi - occupied Belgium. The airmen were survivors of military airplanes shot down over Belgium or other European countries. Between August 1941 and December 1942, she escorted 118 people, including more than 80 airmen from Belgium to neutral Spain from where they were transported to the United Kingdom. Arrested by the Nazis in January 1943, she was incarcerated for the remainder of World War II. After the war, she worked in leper hospitals in Africa.

         De Jongh was the recipient of the George Medal from the United Kingdom and the medal of freedom with golden palms from the United States and many other medals for her work during World War II. In 1985 she was made a countess by the king of Belgium. Her exploits were described in or inspired several books, movies and television shows.

         De Jongh was born in occupied Brussels in 1916. The younger daughter of schoolmaster Frédéric de Jongh, was 24 and working as a commercial artist in Malmédy at the time of the Belgian surrender to the Nazis. She threw up her job, moved to Brussels and became a nurse. Some of her patients were British servicemen, whom she helped to send letters home via the Red Cross.

         The construction of what was called the Comet escape line was methodical from the outset. De Jongh arranged a series of safe houses in and around Brussels, where evading soldiers and aircrew could await escort out of the country along a complicated route. She found plenty of helpers, even though such activity was subject to the death penalty. Her first escape group comprised 11 men, who were sent via Paris and further Nazi - occupied French territory to the Pyrenees, which they crossed on foot into neutral but pro - Nazi Spain.

        This first sortie ended badly. All members of the party were arrested by the Spanish authorities. Only two ultimately managed to reach England. So, De Jongh decided to lead the next group, two Belgian soldiers and a Scot, to Spain herself. They eventually stole into the British consulate in Bilbao, a success that proved to be the breakthrough.

        Meanwhile, Andrée disappeared from view. She finished her nursing studies and travelled, working for the colonial administration, first to the Congo, to care for leprosy patients, then to a jungle leprosarium in Cameroun, on to Addis Ababa, and finally to Senegal. At the Gate Clinic in Addis Ababa she worked together with Miss Thérèse de Wael, who watched over Andrée’s health, which had been severely affected by her time in the prison camps. There the two women helped care for the 4 000 and more leprosy patients who wandered the city and attended the Clinic to be treated, and to have their wounds and sores bandaged.

         Few who met Andrée during her years of service to leprosy patients in Africa knew of her extraordinary and heroic war - time exploits. But when she returned to Belgium, she was given the title of Countess by King Baudouin for her dedicated contributions to the resistance and to the care of leprosy patients.


        Andrée de Jongh, who was created a countess by the King of the Belgians, died at the University Clinic Woluwe - Saint - Lambert, Brussels on 13th October, 2007.


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