A prominent figure from France's World War II resistance movement, Solange Alexandre, has passed away at the age of 104. Born in 1922 in Sarthe, western France, Alexandre was a woman who, along with her future husband, led an anti-German unit during the war. After serving as a resistance courier from 1941, she established the Pas-de-Boeuf network near Ruillé-sur-Loir in 1944, commanding around 30 men and undertaking sabotage operations, sheltering Allied airmen, and joining the fight against German forces post D-Day.
President Emmanuel Macron was among many who paid tribute to Alexandre following her death at a nursing home in Le Mans. "She said she only ever did her duty. But her duty was our freedom. France will never forget. Thank you," Macron posted on social media. In her memoirs, Alexandre recalled the influence of her patriotic upbringing, having lost her mother's first husband and her father wounded in World War I.
In June 1940, she was inspired by General Charles de Gaulle's call for resistance against Germany. She joined the Resistance and worked as a courier under the code-name Corlay, gathering information and passing on messages across Le Mans region. In 1943, she met Guy Déliot, who had deserted from the French gendarmerie after refusing to arrest Jews. Together with their resistance group consisting of deserters, survivors, and airmen, they lived clandestinely in forested hills during the Allied invasion, eventually participating in Tours' liberation in September 1944. Alexandre ended the war as a sub-lieutenant in the French Interior Forces (FFI) and later worked as a teacher, following her husband on his postings as an officer of the gendarmerie in various overseas territories.
Despite twice turning down the Legion d'Honneur, citing that others were more deserving, she eventually accepted the award in 2024, stating, "It is a great pleasure and a great honor. I am very proud – even if it is only a few weeks, or a few months, before I die."