Helene Adams, 85, French Resistance hero
Posted: Thursday, September 21st, 2006 7:04 am
Helene Deschamps Adams, a hero of the French Resistance who saved American fliers from capture and Jews from execution by the Nazis, and played a role in secret preparations for Allied invasions of France, died in Manhattan Saturday of heart failure.
When asked why she took on the dangerous role of secret agent, “she was fond of saying, ‘I didn’t like the idea of Nazis taking over my country,’” according to her daughter, Karyn Anick Monget.
Helene Deschamps was born into a French military family at Tientsin, China, in 1921, and grew up in colonial outposts. Studying at a convent when Germany invaded France in 1940, she joined the Resistance. Her duties ranged from being a courier to gathering information on German troop strength, airfields and coastal installations in preparation for the Allied invasion of southern France in 1944. She rescued downed U.S.fliers before the Nazis could find them and guided groups of Jews to safety across the Spanish border in the Pyrenees mountains. … Read full obituary
