Monique de Bissy (married Schimmelpenninck) was a French/Belgian resistant born March 13, 1923 in Schaerbeek (Belgium) and died November 17, 2009 in Montpellier (France) [1][2].
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Monique de Bissy started the war as a nurse for the Belgian Red Cross and then she enrolled in the Resistance after the Belgian defeat in 1940 (aged 17). She worked for several resistance groups, such as the « Brigade Blanche », the « Ailes Brisées » and the « Comète ». She organized and participated in the evasion to Spain of 20 Allies pilots after their aircraft had been shot by the German army around the Belgian city of Liège. She was arrested in 1944 after denunciation and was taken to the jail of Maastricht in Netherlands where she was tortured. After four months of detention she was liberated by U.S. troops in August 1944. She never gave any information to the Nazis during her captivity and she managed to keep her resistance partners safe by her brave silence.
Monique de Bissy enlisted as nurse in the French army in September 1944. After the war she continued to work as a nurse, first in Belgian Congo, then in Montpellier (south of France) after the independence of the Belgian colony.
In 1946 Monique de Bissy married Gerrit Schimmelpenninck with whom she had three children: Gérard (1947), Sonia (1956) and Joëlle (1958). She has had six grandchildren: Stéphanie (1980), Louis (1981), Sophie (1983), Astrid (1987), Xavier (1990) and Olivier (1991).
She died on November 17, 2009, six months after receiving the Légion d'Honneur from French Senator Jacqueline Gourault in the name of President Nicolas Sarkozy for her contribution to Peace and Freedom during World War II.
Numerous countries have expressed their gratitude through number of medals: