NEW YORK (AP) -- Helene Deschamps Adams, a daring World War II spy and French Resistance fighter 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, has died.
She passed away on Saturday, but this is just hitting the public now, as far as I can see from the web. Deschamps Adams had a heck of a story, all the more compelling for being true. She left studies at a convent to join the Resistance: "She was fond of saying, 'I didn't like the idea of Nazis taking over my country,' her daughter said."
Her daughter's name is Karyn Anick Monget - "Anick" was her mother's code name in the OSS. It must mean "frickin' awesome" in some language.
She rescued downed US fliers before the Nazis could find them and guided groups of Jews to safety across the Spanish border... brazenly posed as a secretary at the Vichy headquarters of the ... French equivalent of the Gestapo... Another time, faced with the choice of being blown up or having her cover blown, she walked into a building where she knew a bomb had been planted. She barely escaped, bleeding and partially deafened, when it exploded.
That's my poor emphasis. Holy shamoly, is that ever amazing. And we thank you.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité!
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