Resistance Fighter: A Teenage Girl in World War II France

“On June 14 1940 Parisians awoke to the crunch of German boots marching down the Avenue des Champs Elysees . . . the beginning of the German occupation and a tragic chapter in the history of France.” One of the youngest members of the French Resistance during World War II Elisabeth Sevier was just turning 16 when she joined. She would not quietly acquiesce to German occupation and gradually and “unofficially” began small acts of sabotage — on foot and on her bicycle. “I could never see how submitting to the Nazis could help my country or my family. . . . From the first time I saw the cocky Germans in Paris I wanted them out of France.” Elisabeths resistance to the enemys takeover of Paris did not go unnoticed by the Germans. She had sensed the Gestapo watching her. A warning from her Red Cross supervisor saved her and sent Elisabeth to safety on a dark April night in 1944 along with a truckload of other clandestine resistance fighters. She was a witness to the brutal Gestapo tactics against French Jewish families and her Resistance comrades who were buried alive in a forest near Dijon — with only their heads left above ground. “In the clearing . . . human heads were scattered everywhere. At first we thought they were separated from their bodies. However when we drew closer I realized the bodies were buried up to their necks. . . .” Elisabeth was captured and tortured by the Gestapo when caught trying to blow up railroad tracks. The result of the torturous thumb screws used by the SS can still be seen on her left thumb. For her courage and defiance of the enemy her patriotism and her unwavering heroism Elisabeth received the coveted Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star one of the highest honors awarded by the French government.