Belgium resistance fighter dead at 91

15 October 2007

BRUSSELS – A Belgium resistance fighter of World War II, Andree De Jongh, who founded a group that saved some 800 Allied aviators, has died at the age of 91, according to her family cited by the press Sunday.

De Jongh, founder of the “Comet” escape network during the war, died in Brussels on Saturday. The network helped more than 800 British pilots get back home, according to www.cometeline.org, an Internet site run by former resistance members.

Working under the pseudonym “Dedee”, De Jongh helped hide Allied aviators hidden in Belgian homes return to Britain via France, the Pyrenees mountains and Spain. She also enlisted the help of the British consul in Bilbao.

Hunted by the Gestapo, she left Brussels to continue her activities from Paris and passed through the Pyrenees with aviators more than 30 times with the help of a Basque guide.
She was arrested in January 1943 when she was stopped while crossing the Pyrenees with three aviators. De Jongh was sent to a number of prisons, ending up in the Ravensbrueck and Mauthausen concentration camps.

Her father, Frederic De Jongh, director of a primary school, was also very active in the resistance. He was arrested in June 1943, jailed in Fresnes, and shot at Mount Valerien in March 1944.

After the war, Andree De Jongh received the George Medal awarded to civilians for heroic actions and was received in London by the Queen of England. She dedicated many years to helping lepers in Africa.