Born: 20 February 1893, Belgium
Died: 1 April 1916
Country most active: Belgium
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
A national heroine, born at Tournai. She was of very modest origin, but was very intelligent in spite of having received so little school education. In 1914, at the beginning of the World War, through patriotism, she agreed to take part in the spy system in favor of the allied armies. She traveled around Tournai, Lile, Mons, Aulnoye, and Namur, finally settling in Brussels, where she helped numerous young men who wanted to serve in the Belgian army, to pass the frontier. She was active in the distribution of the Libre Belgique and Mot du Soldat and other literature. The information she sent out of Belgium was judicious and valuable. She was arrested February 2, 1916 and imprisoned at St, Gilles. During the investigation and trial, she refused to name her accomplices. She was sentenced to death March 3, shortly after the execution of Miss Cavelle, and was shot April 1. Despite urgent entreaties she refused to sign a petition for commutation of her sentence as she did not wish to ask any favor of the Germans; to the last, she persisted in her refusal to give them any information that would have saved her life. With indomitable courage, she defied her prosecutors to the end. She refused to have her eyes covered and died standing, facing the guns — a victim of duty and love for her country. One quotes as coming from her the following expressions, which attest to the nobility of her character:
“It is with the humble that one makes the heroes of liberty.”
“One has never given enough when one has not given everything.”
“My country! I had never thought of it, I nearly ignored it. I did not feel that I loved it. But since the enemies martyrize it I see it all over (everywhere). At present it lives in me, I live in it.”
“Before I loved my neighbor only in his person, now I love him in what surrounds him, in the fatherland.”
“I will die for the fatherland singing.”