Andrée ‘Nadine' Dumon, Comet line heroine who rescued Allied airmen but was betrayed to the Nazis

Yahoo

07-02-2025

Andrée 'Nadine' Dumon, codename 'Nadine', who has died aged 102, was a Belgian courier on the Comet Escape Line, who helped save the lives of dozens of Allied airmen, taking evaders through checkpoints and to the South West of France before they were escorted across the Pyrenees.
She was born in Brussels on September 5 1922 and spent six years in the Belgian Congo, where her father was a physician. On return to Belgium she was educated at the Royal Athenaeum in Uccle.
As a 17-year-old student, Andrée was shocked and saddened at the rapid capitulation of Belgium following the German invasion on May 10 1940. Her family soon joined the emerging resistance movement, with Andrée beginning her underground work in a modest way by distributing leaflets. With the encouragement of her father, she joined her elder sister Micheline in the Comète in December 1941.
Le Réseau Comète was a resistance network that aided the escape of Allied airmen shot down behind enemy lines, resistance fighters in danger of betrayal or imminent arrest, and secret agents who had landed in occupied territory and accomplished their mission. The group was co-founded by another legendary Brussels resistance woman, Andrée de Jongh, alias Dédée. The escape line ran from Brussels to Paris and on foot across the Basque Pyrenees to San Sebastian. Those not interned by the Spanish were taken on to Gibraltar before being returned to Britain.
Travelling on false papers, Nadine guided dozens of British, Canadian, Australian and American airmen from Brussels to Paris, where she handed them over to the next escort. Her young and innocent appearance – some said she looked 15 – was an asset, but she still had to be extremely alert, ready with cover stories if questioned by police or customs officials, often explaining that her companions were deaf-mutes.
The Germans soon became aware that local people were assisting airmen who had baled out of their aircraft and the Gestapo increased its efforts to find the underground helpers. More than 700 Comète resistance fighters were arrested, often after betrayal. Nearly 300 of them died by execution, torture or ill-treatment in the concentration camps.
Fate struck on August 11 1942, when Nadine and several others were betrayed by an informant. The Secret Field Police knocked at her grandparents' door, in the adjacent house. He shouted a warning, but Nadine and her parents were arrested. She was subjected to brutal beatings, threatened with execution and blackmailed with a threat to arrest her elderly grandparents.
She did not break, however, and was categorised under the Nacht and Nebel (Night and Fog) orders, a decree (alluding to a Wagnerian spell) issued by Hitler targeting political activists and resistance 'helpers'. Families were not aware of their whereabouts and most died in captivity.
On the deportation train from Brussels Nadine suddenly had the chance to see her father for the first time since their arrest. He was also being transported as a Nacht und Nebel prisoner. They were able to speak briefly but their happiness was shortlived, as it was their last conversation. Eugène Dumon died on February 9 1945 in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
For Nadine, Nacht und Nebel marked the beginning of a dreadful ordeal. She was used as forced labour in the prisons of Trier, Cologne, Mesum, Zweibrücken and Essen. She was then transferred to the Gross-Strehlitz concentration camp, where she met Nina Vankerkhove, an acquaintance from the resistance. Together, they attempted an escape. But within just two hours, a local farmer discovered them and informed the camp guards, and they were soon back in prison.
Nadine was subsequently deported to Ravensbrück, the concentration camp for women, and from there she was sent to Mauthausen in Austria. The journey lasted four days, in bitter cold and with hardly any food or drink. Upon arrival she was a shadow of her former self. Completely exhausted, she collapsed into the snow. With the help of fellow prisoners she managed to get back on her feet and limp onward, since exhausted prisoners were shot .
In early May 1945 Nadine was met by her mother Marie at Brussels station, their first meeting in three years. Both were shocked by each other's appearance. Marie, dressed in black, was emaciated and looked years older. Nadine was so bad that she took two years to recover. Infested with typhoid and paratyphoid, she spent the first few months after returning home in the hospital.
After the war, she married Gustave Antoine; they built a successful textile company together and had two children. But the memories of the war and the resistance never left her. She became involved in the Royal Union of Intelligence and Action Services (RUSRA-KUIAD) and played an active role in the recognition and compensation of the Intelligence and Action Agents. Given the large number of women who were active in the Comète network, she also fought for the recognition of female resistance fighters.
For many years, Nadine rarely spoke of her wartime experiences and did not break her silence until she was 70. She started to speak in schools, took part in debates and television programmes and became actively committed to memorial projects. Until the age of 98 she continued to support the Belgian Intelligence Studies Centre.
More than 800 airmen and 300 soldiers owed their freedom to the men and women of the Comet Line. Among the many airmen Andrée 'Nadine' Dumon assisted was the RAF pilot Robert Horsley. When his daughter Erica was born, she was given Andrée as her middle name. They remained in regular contact, and she was present at Nadine's 100th birthday. Erica commented: 'Today I am honoured to carry a name that is connected to such an important part of our history.'
Nadine remained in contact with many pilots and soldiers she saved and regularly invited them to Belgium. In turn, she travelled to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States to meet them. She was a regular visitor to Britain and to the annual reunions of the Royal Air Force Escaping Society and its successor, the Escape Lines Memorial Society.
With her unwavering courage and lifelong commitment, Andrée 'Nadine' Dumon is remembered as one of the great resistance heroines of Belgium.
She was highly decorated by Belgium and by France. The British appointed her OBE and awarded her the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom. She was also decorated by the United States.
Andrée 'Nadine' Dumon, born September 5 1922, died January 30 2025
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