Her name was Madeleine Riffaud, and she joined the Resistance in 1940 when she was a teenager. At one point during the war she was captured, tortured, and sent on train to the Ravensbruck concentration camp for execution, but she escaped on the way. In 1944 she and three comrades attacked a train, forcing the Germans to retreat into a tunnel. They then persuaded a retired engineer to detach the locomotive, leaving the Germans inside the tunnel. Eighty German soldiers surrendered.
She eventually became a poet and a journalist, supporting the North Vietnamese in their fight against the French colonialists. She met Ho Chi Minh in 1966 and had a long term relationship with the Vietnamese poet Nguyen Dinh Thi.
She downplayed her heroism. “I refuse to be a symbol. I was just a young girl caught up in history.”
She also said, “The essential was not to give in. When you resisted, you were already a victor. You had already won.”
Ms. Riffaud’s obituary, by Sam Roberts, was printed in today’s New York Times, p. B10. The emphasis is mine.
Note: I will be spending Thanksgiving in Maryland on the Eastern Shore. I often have trouble posting on trips, so don’t be surprised if I don’t post for the next two days. Enjoy the Holiday.
Resist!
ReplyDelete