Annie de Montfort

Annie de Montfort (16 December 1897 – 10 November 1944) was a French writer and physician and a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War.

Early life

She was born Arthémise Deguirmendjian-Shah-Vekil in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.[1] Her parents were born in Turkey and were Armenian in origin.[2] She studied medicine before the First World War.[3]

On 3 February 1919, Annie married Henri de Montfort, a historian and academic who worked at the Institut de France, and they had four children: Claude, Marc, Anne-Marie and François.[4] Marc de Montfort (1923-1998) was a lawyer who would become noted for his humanitarian work with Polish dissidents.[5] Also in 1919, Annie de Montfort was a co-founder of the Association France-Pologne, which had a diplomatic and cultural role and published a journal called La Pologne from 1920.

Wartime activities

In 1939, Hachette published Pologne, a work jointly produced by Henri and Annie de Montfort.[6] In 1941, the couple launched an underground Resistance publication called La France continue.[7]

On 18 March 1943, Annie was arrested at Grenoble, and interned at Fresnes Prison. Along with nearly a thousand other women, she was deported to a concentration camp, with transport 175, leaving Paris on 31 January 1944. Her husband continued his Resistance activities despite the breakup of his network as a result of the arrests of key members such as Paul Petit and Marietta Martin; Petit, Martin and others were executed in Germany during 1944.

Along with other inmates of the camp, Annie de Montfort began creating an international cultural association for the prisoners.[8] On 6 November she was admitted to the camp's sick bay, where she died a few days later. Her death was witnessed by a fellow Resistance worker, Germaine Tillion.[9]

Death and legacy

A plaque in honour of Annie de Montfort was erected at the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin de Montmorency.[10] The inscription reads, "À la mémoire de Annie Archambault de Montfort, déléguée générale de l'association France-Pologne, morte pour la France et la Pologne le 10 novembre 1944" (In memory of Annie Archambault de Montfort, general delegate of the France-Poland Association, who died for France and Poland on 10 November 1944.The central bronze medallion was designed by sculptor Henri Dropsy.[11]

Her name is listed with those of other French writers at the Panthéon in Paris. She was posthumously awarded the Légion d'honneur. Her son, François de Montfort, recorded her achievements in his 1961 book Adolf Eichmann, levez-vous![12]

References
  1. Acte de naissance, Archives de Paris online, Paris 9, V4E 8835, vue 23/26, acte 1685 (in French)
  2. Claude Bellanger, Histoire générale de la presse française, Volume 4, Presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1969 (in French)
  3. Mémoires de la Société historique et archéologique de l'arrondissement de Pontoise et du Vexin, Volumes 56-63, 1957
  4. Who's Who in Finance and Industry: 1972-1973. Vol. 27. Providence: Éditeur Marquis Who's Who, 1973.
  5. Amnesty International (1976). Amnesty International Report. Amnesty International Publications. ISBN 978-0-900058-31-8.
  6. Henri Archambault de Montfort; Annie de Montfort; Marcel Monmarché (1939). Pologne: par Annie et Henri de Montfort. Avant-propos par Fortunat Strowski, ... [Préface de Marcel Monmarché.]. Hachette.
  7. Henri Noguères : Histoire de la Résistance en France de 1940 à 1945, Robert Laffont, Paris 1967. (in French)
  8. Sarah Helm (15 January 2015). If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 333–. ISBN 978-0-7481-1243-2.
  9. Germaine Tillion Ravensbrück, Seuil, Paris, 1973
  10. François Monmarché : Ile de France: environs de Paris, Hachette, 1968 (in French)
  11. René Baillargeat; Paulette Regnault (1972). Les Tombeaux de Saint-Martin de Montmorency. A. et J. Picard.
  12. Notice dans la Revue internationale de criminologie et de police technique, Page 51, vol. 14-15, Centre international d'études criminologiques, 1960 ; Presses de la Cité, Paris, 1961
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