Madeleine Damerment | |
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Memorial in Dachau to Damerment and fellow agents Yolande Beekman, Noorunisa Inayat Khan, Eliane Plewman
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Nickname(s) | Agent Bricklayer, Solange, Dancer, Martine |
Born |
Lille, France |
11 November 1917
Died | 13 September 1944 Dachau concentration camp, Germany |
(aged 26)
Allegiance | United Kingdom, France |
Service/branch | Special Operations Executive, French Resistance |
Years of service | 1944 |
Rank | Field agent and guerrilla commander |
Commands held | SOE F Section networks#Bricklayer |
Awards | Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance |
Madeleine Zoe Damerment (11 November 1917 – 13 September 1944) was a World War II spy and Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent.
Madeleine Damerment was born in Lille, the daughter of the city's postmaster. Following the occupation of France by the Germans in World War II, her family became actively involved with the French resistance. Twenty-two-year-old Madeleine worked as an assistant to Michael Trotobas on the escape line set up by Albert Guérisse. She helped downed British airmen and others to escape France until 1942, when it is believed that one of her fellow resistance workers, Harold Cole, betrayed the group and she had to flee to England.
Once in England, Damerment volunteered to work with the Special Operations Executive. Trained to be a courier for the "Bricklayer" network, on the night of 28 February 1944, she and agents France Antelme and Lionel Lee were parachuted into a field near the city of Chartres in France. However, they had been betrayed and the waiting Gestapo arrested them on landing.
Shipped to Gestapo headquarters on the Avenue Foch in Paris, Damerment was subjected to examination and torture. On 12 May 1944 she was sent with several other captured SOE agents to the civilian prison for women at Karlsruhe, Germany. She was held there under horrific conditions until 11 September when she was abruptly transferred to Dachau concentration camp with fellow agents Eliane Plewman, Yolande Beekman, and Noor Inayat Khan.