Gabrielle Petit

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Statue of Gabrielle Petit in the Saint-Jean square in Brussels

Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria Petit (born February 20, 1893 in Tournai , † April 1, 1916 in Brussels ) was a Belgian saleswoman and nurse who spied for the British secret service during the First World War . In 1916 she was executed by the Germans . After the end of the war she became a Belgian national heroine.

Life

Gabrielle Petit came from a working-class family and was raised in a Catholic boarding school in Brugelette after the early death of her mother . At the beginning of the First World War she lived in Brussels, worked as a saleswoman and immediately registered as a nurse for the Belgian Red Cross .

In 1914, when she helped her wounded fiancé, Maurice Gobert, flee to his regiment across the border into the Netherlands, her espionage activities began. What she learned about the German army during this trip , she passed on to the British secret service. He took her on and gave her a short training. With the help of a number of false identities, she gathered information about the German troop movements. She also distributed the Belgian underground newspaper La Libre Belgique , participated in the secret postal service Mot du Soldat and helped several young men across the Dutch border.

Gabrielle Petit was betrayed and captured by the Germans in February 1916. Despite the offer of a milder sentence, she refused to betray her fellow campaigners. She was only in St. Gilles Prison in Brussels. On April 1, 1916, she was brought before a firing squad , she is said to have shouted “Vous allez voir comment une femme belge sait mourir” (you will see how a Belgian woman knows how to die). Her body was buried on the site of the execution in Schaarbeek .

Unlike her contemporary, the English Edith Cavell , who was also shot by the Germans, her story only became really known after the war and she herself became a national heroine . In May 1919 there were national funerals and in the presence of the Belgian Queen Élisabeth , Cardinal Mercier and Prime Minister Léon Delacroix , their remains (together with those of two colleagues, A. Bodson and A. Smekens) were transferred to the Schaerbeek municipal cemetery .

In the Saint-Jean (Sint-Jans Plein) square in Brussels there is a statue in memory of the young heroine, and another in her birthplace, Tournai. The monument in Brussels was inaugurated on July 21, 1923, Belgium's national holiday. Queen Elisabeth, accompanied by Princess Marie-José, laid down a bouquet of white roses and carnations. Herbette, the ambassador of France, announced that the French President had posthumously appointed Gabrielle Petit Knight of the Legion of Honor and attached the red ribbon to the base of the pedestal. The monument is the work of the sculptor Égide Rombaux and the architect Adrien Blomme. At that time, bronze plaques with inscriptions were attached to the four sides of the base:

  • “A Gabrielle Petit, fusillée par les Allemands le 1er avril 1916, et à la memoire des femmes belges mortes pour la Patrie.” (For Gabrielle Petit, shot by the Germans on April 1, 1916, and in memory of the Belgian women who died for their fatherland.)
  • “Je viens d'etre condamnée à mort. Je serai fusilée demain. Vive le roi! Vive la Belgique! ”(I have just been sentenced to death. I will be shot tomorrow. Long live the King! Long live Belgium!)
  • "Je leur montrerai comment une femme belge sait mourir." (I will show you how a Belgian woman knows how to die.)
  • "Ce monument a été érigé par souscription nationale à l'initiative de la ligue des Patriotes." (This monument was erected on the initiative of the League of Patriots thanks to national drawings.)

On the 2005 list of the greatest Belgians, Gabrielle Petit was nominated by both Flanders (94th) and Wallonia (85th).

literature

Scientific secondary literature:

  • Pierre Ronvaux: Gabrielle Petit, la Mort En Face. Archival material with a short biography in French. In honor of the 100th birthday. Foreword by Ministre Pierre Mainil. For download, Izigem 1994,
  • Sophie De Schaepdrijver: Gabrielle Petit: The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War. Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New York 2015, ISBN 9781472590893 .

Literature of the time:

  • AF Stocq: Gabrielle Petit. Drame en 5 tableaux. Nivelles 1920.
  • Heinrich Binder: Espionage Center Brussels. The battle of the German army with the Belgian-English espionage and the master spy Gabriele Petit. From the papers of the secret agents EC and MA Hamburg 1929.
  • Cyrille van Overbergh: Gabrielle Petit. Heroine nationale, Brussels 1919.
  • Abraham Hans (pseud. = Jan Verbeke): Gabrielle Petit, our national heroine. Antwerp 1920.

Movie

  • Femme belge Gabrielle Petit. Director: FRANCIS MARTIN. Screenplay: Edouard Ehling. With Renée Liégeois as Gabrielle Petit. Black-and-white. Silent movie. Belgium, 1928.
  • Les funérailles de Gabrielle Petit - Begrafenis van Gabrielle Petit. Black-and-white. Silent movie. Belgium, 1919 (?)
  • Translation of the restes de Gabrielle Petit, de Bodson & de Smekens (fusillés par les Allemands). Le 1er juin 1919. Black and white. Silent movie. Belgium, 1919.

swell

personal data
SURNAME Petit, Gabrielle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petit, Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian saleswoman and nurse who spied for British intelligence during World War I.
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Tournai , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1916
Place of death Brussels , Belgium