Wonder Woman of the Week: Andree de Jongh

I’m sitting in a concessions booth contemplating an escape plan as I write this week’s late blog post and I could think of only one woman to spotlight. This week’s Wonder Woman almost single handedly established the only escape route for WWII pilots shot down over Europe and essentially became the war’s equivalent of Harriet Tubman. This week’s Wonder Woman of the Week is Andree de Jongh.

In 2007, a Belgium woman rocked the obituaries with her death at 90 years old. Unbeknown to her neighbors, Andree de Jongh was the most badass figure of Belgian history- having fought the Nazis, spit in the Gestapo’s face, and- after WWII- treated lepers in Africa. De Jongh was born in 1916. At 24 years old, Andree was working as a commercial artist when her native Belgium surrendered to the Third Reich. She abandoned the art world and went to Belgium to become a nurse for the underground resistance. [1]

The nursing gig wasn’t extreme enough for de Jongh though. She had enough of handing band-aids to pilots with splinters. Instead, Andree began working with fallen airmen to bring them back to allied lands. Without a gun or even hiking boots, Andree would march disguised allied soldiers across the occupied fields of Belgium and France, over the Pyrenees Mountains, and into Spain. Most of the time she did it in a wind coats and street shoes. [2]

The Comet Line- de Jongh’s escape brought for downed airmen- was credited with over 700 confirmed escapees including British and American pilots. [3] Andree’s luck ran out when in 1943 she was captured by the Gestapo in a French farmhouse. After enduring twenty interrogations, she finally confessed to creating the escape route. Even the Gestapo didn’t believe her- thinking no woman could be that smart- and sent her to a concentration camp outside of Berlin. Andree survived the camp and received praise from the French, British, and American governments and was granted the title of Countess from the Belgian government. De Jongh however wanted none of the fame and left for Africa to help lepers in the Belgian Congo and Ethiopia. [4]

Andree de Jongh is died peacefully at 90 years old in 2007. In her last fifty years of life, none of the people in her community knew the secret life she lived during World War Two. She created and personally led the most successful allied escape route in Europe, held her own against the Gestapo, survived a concentration camp, and saved countless lives in the Congo and Ethiopia. De Jongh stands as one of the most badass Belgian ladies of history and is the Wonder Woman of the Week.

Van Der Vat, Dan. "Obituary: Countess Andrée De Jongh." The Guardian. October 1, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/22/guardianobituaries.obituaries.

"Andrée De Jongh." The Telegraph. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1566506/Andree-de-Jongh.html.

"Andrée De Jongh; Belgian Helped Airmen Avoid Nazis." Washington Post. October 16, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501218.html.

Corbett, Sara. "The Escape Artist." The New York Times. December 29, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30dejongh-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.