Geneviève de Galard terracotta

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Geneviève de Galard Terraub (born April 21, 1925 in Paris ) was an officer in the French medical service in the Indochina War . She was also called the Angel of Dien Bien Phu because of her special commitment .

Life

Genevieve de Galard is the descendant of a family in Gascon that gave birth to famous historical nobles in the Middle Ages. Such was Hector de Galard a contemporary of Joan of Arc , in the battle of Orleans fought on their side.

She spent most of her childhood in Paris, where she attended the "Louise de Bettignies" school. During the Second World War , the family moved to Toulouse . There she attended a Dominican convent school . In Paris, she continued her education in fine arts at the École du Louvre . After graduating from the Sorbonne University in 1948 with an English diploma, she spent some time in Great Britain .

From 1950 she decided to start training in the field of nursing. In doing so, she took the branch of the "flying sister" and passed the corresponding exam. In Africa and Indochina she then served in the medical service of the French armed forces from 1952.

From January 1954 she participated in the care of the wounded in Indochina. On March 27, 1954, she could no longer fly out of the pocket of Điện Biên Phủ and took care of the wounded and dying until the surrender of the French fortress on May 7, 1954. Contrary to what is often claimed, she was not the only woman in the besieged Điện Biên Phủ, as there were also two mobile field brothels with Vietnamese and Algerian prostitutes.

During the battle, she was awarded the Croix de guerre . She stayed with the prisoners voluntarily after the surrender and only left them on orders on May 24, 1954. Subsequently, she refused to take any position in Hanoi and protested against commercial use of her experiences. The medical corps of the French armed forces awarded her the silver medal of honor. From Pope Pius XII. she received a personal letter with a rosary.

In 1954, she was received as a state guest of the USA by President Eisenhower , who awarded her the Medal of Freedom . In the USA it was also given the legendary name "Angel of Điện Biên Phủ". Before that, the French President René Coty had made her a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

In 2004 she received the Commander's Cross from the French President Jacques Chirac and in 2014 the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hector de Galard in the French Wikipedia
  2. ↑ Visiting the school in Paris ( Memento des Originals of March 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / biografien-news.blog.de
  3. ↑ Gerd Kröncke, Der Engel von Dien Bien Phu , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 10, 2004
personal data
SURNAME Galard Terraub, Geneviève de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French officer, "Angel of Dien Bien Phu"
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris