Simone Segouin

Simone Segouin, August 23, 1944. Image by a US Army photographer.

Simone Segouin (born October 3, 1925 in Thivars near Chartres , Eure-et-Loir ), also known by her code name Nicole Minet , was a French resistance fighter during World War II.

biography

Segouin was working on her family's farm when World War II broke out.

Her father, a local councilor and himself a member of the resistance, was asked one day to draw up a list of the young, unemployed girls who were supposed to work for the Germans in the castle of Spoir for the German occupation forces. Her father listed her as a seamstress so that she would not be called up for work . However, this camouflage was blown when Germans showed up on the farm and left clothes to be changed. Segouin then left Thivars to work in a shop for her aunt in Paris.

In resistance

Segouin was 19 years old when she joined the resistance in 1944, following the example of her father. She took on a new identity, that of Nicole Minet. The Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) provided Minet with the necessary identification papers - since the Dunkirk civil registry office had been bombed, like many other resistance fighters, they took Dunkirk as their fictional birthplace.

Her first assignment was to steal the bike from a German messenger. After repainting the bike, she used it as her own bike. The FTP advised her shortly thereafter to train in armed struggle. After training in arms, she took part in the liberation of Chartres and its surroundings.

In 1946 she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and received the rank of sub-lieutenant . Segouin never married, and her six children therefore bear her single name.

literature

• James Murray: 'I was proud to march into Paris as Resistance fighter' says Simone Segouin. In: Daily Express . April 17, 2016, accessed July 31, 2020 . 
• Philippe Poisson: Simone Segouin: La jeune femme courageuse, qui deviendra rapidement un symbols de la résistance féminine à travers le monde . In: criminocorpus . 2018, ISSN  1776-0720 .