Annie of Montfort — Wikipedia

Annie de Montfort (1897-1944) is a French resistant and writer.

Responsible for the France Poland Association [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Arthimise Deguirmendjian-Shah-Vekil, known as Annie, was born on December 16, 1897 in Paris ( 9 ^{It is} arrondissement) ^{[ first ]} . His father and mother were born in Türkiye ^{[ 2 ]} and are of Armenian origin ^{[ 3 ]} . Annie Deguirmendjian studied medicine and settled in Paris during the first world conflict ^{[ 4 ]} .

She marries the February 3, 1919 Henri Archambault de Montfort, specialist in questions from the East European, professor at the Institute of Advanced International Studies and at the Center for Polish Studies in Paris, with which she will publish several books ^{[ 5 ]} . They will have four children: Claude, Marc ^{[ 6 ]} , Anne-Marie and François ^{[ 7 ]} .

Annie de Montfort was co-founder in 1919 of the France-Pologne association and is the general delegate ^{[ 8 ]} . Installed 5, rue Godot de Mauroy in Paris ( 9 ^{It is} Arrondissement) The association plays a cultural and diplomatic role. She has been publishing a bimonthly review since 1920, Poland , which has political, economic, literary and artistic content ^{[ 9 ]} , and whose musicologist Édouard Ganche, then very committed to promoting Polish culture in France, will be the administrator.

Annie de Montfort joined the Resistance with her husband Henri de Montfort, then director of services at the Institut de France, who creates France continues. The newspaper of the same name is organized around them.

France continues is a clandestine newspaper of the resistance of which thirteen issues appear between June 1941 And February 1942 . He welcomes Raymond Burgard, Émile Coornaert, Suzanne Feingold (future wife of Henri de Montfort), Marietta Martin and Paul Petit who was the inspirer.

The network is dismantled in February 1942 , with the arrest of several of its members such as Raymond Burgard, Marietta Martin and Paul Petit.

Annie de Montfort is arrested on 18 mars 1943 in Grenoble ^{[ ten ]} by the Gestapo for its resistance activities. Interned in Fresnes ^{[ 4 ]} , it is one of the 959 women deported by transport 175, who left the January 31, 1944 from Compiègne, to the Ravensbrück camp. In the concentration camp, she carries the number 27576 ^{[ 11 ]} .

In Ravensbrück, Annie de Montfort participates in the implementation of resistance structures ^{[ twelfth ]} . The instigators of this movement are carrying out an education action: “Several deportees are concerned with the return of their comrades. Aware of the immense difficulties to which women who had suffered so much, Émilie Tillion, Yvonne Le Roux, Annie de Montfort, Marie Talet to name a few, decide to form an organization. ^{[ 13 ]} ». Annie de Montfort organizes conferences on old Paris and the history of Poland ^{[ 4 ]} .

Sick, Annie de Montfort enters the Revier, the camp dispensary, the November 6th and dies there November 10, 1944 ^{[ 4 ]} . Sociologist Germaine Tillion, daughter of Émilie Tillion, also interned in Ravensbrück, testifies that Annie de Montfort “a few minutes before her end, called an imaginary driver ^{[ 14 ]} . »

Marietta Martin, another writer, also engaged in the “La France continues” movement, dies the next day in Francfort-sur-le-Main ^{[ 15 ]} .

Decorations [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Annie de Montfort received the following decorations after his death: military decorations:

Reconnaissance [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

A plaque was affixed in 1946 in the Saint-Martin church in Montmorency (Val-d’Oise) ^{[ 16 ]} . It brings the inscription “in memory of Annie Archambault de Montfort, general delegate of the France-Pologne association, who died for France and Poland on November 10, 1944 And has a bronze medallion melted in the center by the sculptor and engraver Henri Dropsy ^{[ 4 ]} .

A medal, reproducing the portrait carried out by Henri Dropsy, was edited. It has the following mention: “Annie de Montfort 1897-1944 – General delegate of the France Poland Association / Arrested in Grenoble by the Gestapo for her resistance / dead activities in Ravensbrück November 10, 1944 / Decorated military and posthumous of the Legion of Honor and the Polish Golden Cross of Merit with swords ^{[ 17 ]} . »

François de Montfort, son of Henri and Annie de Montfort, pays tribute to him in the preface to his book “Adolf Eichmann, get up ^{[ 18 ]} ! »

By decree of May 16, 1989 , the Secretary of State responsible for veterans and war victims of the French government decided to affix the mention “death in deportation” on the death certificate of Annie de Montfort. His name appears in the Memorial Book of the Deportees of France, under the title “Archambault de Montfort, arthémise née Deguirmendjian ^{[ 19 ]} . »

Annie de Montfort is one of the writers who died for France whose name appears to the Pantheon of Paris under a plaque mentioning: “Here are locked up the tributes paid the July 2, 1949 to writers who died for France during the 1939-1945 war » ^{[ 20 ]} .

• Polish women , Interallied Federation of Veterans (Fidac), Paris, 1933
• Annie and Henri de Montfort: Pologs , Hachette, coll. “Les Guides Bleus”, Paris, 1939,
• Rosa Bailly, Marcel Boll, Paul Cazin, Arthur Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Ganche, Charles Henry, Annie de Montfort, Henri de Montfort, André Thérive: Pologs , Faces du Monde collection, Horizons de France, 1940
• Annie de Montfort (Paul Wagret, dir.): Pologs , Nagel editions, Geneva, 1964

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