Nationality Belgian Name Andree Jongh Known for Belgian Resistance | Agent Comet Line Years active 1941–1945 | |
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Full Name Andree Eugenie Adrienne De Jongh Born November 30, 1916 ( 1916-11-30 ) Schaerbeek, Belgium Died October 13, 2007(2007-10-13) (aged 90)
Brussels, Belgium Title Honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Belgian Army. | ||
Andree de Jongh
Countess Andrée Eugénie Adrienne de Jongh (November 30, 1916 – October 13, 2007) was a member of the Belgian Resistance during World War II. She organized the Comet Line (Le Réseau Comète) for escaped Allied soldiers. After the war, she worked in leper hospitals in Africa.
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Later life
After the war, she moved first to the pre-independence Belgian Congo, then to Cameroon, next to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, working in leper hospitals and finally to Senegal. In failing health, she eventually retired to Brussels.
In Spring of 1959, while working at a leper colony in Coquilhatville, she met with English novelist, Graham Greene. Graham Greene recorded her candid account of her war experiences in his journal which was published in 1961. In In Search of a Character, Greene wrote that he asked her why she had come to the Congo. She replied, "Because from the age of fifteen I wanted to cure lepers. If I had delayed any longer it would have been too late."
King Baudouin ennobled her as a Countess in 1985.
Death
The Countess de Jongh died on Saturday, 13 October 2007, aged 90, at the University Clinic Woluwe-Saint-Lambert/Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, Brussels.
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