Simone Segouin: The Teenage French Resistance Fighter
FacebookSimone Segouin with other French Resistance fighters in Paris.
Like many resistance fighters on this list, Simone Segouin was still growing up as the Nazis rose to power. She was just eight years old when Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, and 14 when Nazi Germany invaded France.
Living in the countryside with her family, she eventually crossed paths with a French Resistance fighter named Roland Boursier in 1943. Boursier happened to be on the lookout for young French people to resist the Nazis.
“I studied her for a while to see what were her feelings,” Boursier said. “When I discovered she had French feelings I told her little by little about the work I was doing. I asked her if she would be scared to do such work. [Segouin] said, ‘No. It would please me to kill Boche [German soldiers].'”
After learning to fire a submachine gun, Segouin — then 18 years old — leaped into resistance activities. Codenamed “Nicole Minet,” she delivered messages between resistance groups, stood guard while other fighters sabotaged railroads, and even killed two Nazis as they bicycled past.
Wikimedia CommonsSimone Segouin in Chartres on August 23, 1944.
“One of the best days was when we arrested 25 German soldiers towards the end of the war,” Segouin later recalled. “It felt good as we knew we would soon have our country back from occupation.”
Unlike many other resistance fighters, Segouin survived the war. She went on to marry Boursier and have six children with him.
But although she was honored for her resistance activities with the Croix de Guerre, Segouin sees her response to the occupation as a normal reaction.
“I was fighting for the resistance, that’s all,” she later said. “If I had to start over, I would, because I have no regrets. The Germans were our enemies, and we were French.”
