Madeleine Truel: The Peruvian Heroine of World War Two

Madeleine seated front, 3rd from right 

Madeleine Truel was a Peruvian woman of French parentage who fought in the French Resistance as a document forger.

She was captured in 1944 and was tortured to extract information without success, following which she was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin 1945. She died in Stolpe, Germany on 3 May 1945, after being made to walk on a "death march" just a few hours before the Russian troops arrived.

Alexandre Léon Truel and Marguerite Larrabure, were French immigrants who had arrived in Peru in the second half of the 19th century. They had eight children of which Madeleine was the youngest daughter, born on 28 August 1904. Madeleine grew up in the family home located on the old 54 Arequipa street in Lima. Her father managed a hardware store located at 150 Jirón de la Unión. She came from an observant Catholic family and studied at the school San José de Cluny, located on the corner of the Boliva Street and Jiron Washington in downtown Lima. French was spoken in her home and this allowed her to perfect her command of French along with Spanish.

Both of Madeleine Truel's parents died before she was 20 years old. Her mother was the first to pass away from ill health. Then her father died on 6 May 1918, in the clinic Maison de Santé in Lima, due to an infected leg wound which he acquired whilst he was working for the fire brigade putting out a fire at the "El Pergamino" shop. Alexandre Truel was recognized as a hero of Fire Brigade Nº3 and was decorated with a gold medal.

The orphaned Truel children decided to return to France at the request of some family members in Paris in 1924. Madeleine decided to study philosophy at the Sorbonne University. She later found work as an administrative assistant in the first branch of the Spanish Bilbao bank, located on the Rue de Richelieu. She told her workmates anecdotes of her life in Peru, and explained the traditions as well as the current affairs. She also liked to cook traditional Peruvian dishes for her french friends.

In January 1942, Madeleine was knocked over by a Nazi army truck. She was diagnosed with multiple fractures to the cranium and legs and spent about a year in hospital recovering from her terrible injuries. Due to this accident she had a limp that stayed with her for the rest of her days.

The Book Madeleine Wrote

In 1943, she co-wrote the book L'Enfant du Metro  (The Boy of the Subway) along with her sister Lucha. The book narrates a story of a boy who travels through the stations of the Paris subway. The book was dedicated to Pascal, the son of a family of Jewish-Romanian origins who were friends of hers. Her sister Lucha drew the illustrations for the book and Madeleine wrote the text. The publishers were Editions du Chêne. The seemingly innocent story book was Madeleine's covert literary protest at the German occupation of Paris and the persecution of the Jews.

In June 1940 when the German forces had invaded Paris, a married couple - Pierre and Annie Hervé - who were friends of Madeleine introduced her to some members of The French Resistance and very soon she began working in order to help them. Madeleine´s job was to forge documents, especially passports, and travel papers which were delivered to many Jewish fugitives and allied soldiers that had parachuted over the French capital. She used the pseudonym "Marie" when carrying out her resistance work. All the papers, passports and travel documents were forged by hand and she was so good at it, her work was rarely spotted as fake by German soldiers, and subsequently she saved many hundreds of people's lives in this way. 

Documentary on Madeleine

On 19 June 1944, Truel was captured by three German agents when she was picking up ink in one of the resistance's hide-away houses. Days before, a resistance comrade called Annie had been captured and with the information they had gathered from her, the agents set a trap which led directly to Madeleine's capture.

After being arrested she was driven to the SS offices located on the Foch Avenue and then she was temporary transferred to the Fresnes prison.

She was tortured by force for many days by the SS in order  they could uncover more details about the plans and the people of the resistance she was working with - but she refused to co-operate and didn't give away any details. She kept telling them that she assumed all the responsibility for her acts. Her family visited her and the only thing they could leave her was a Bible.

She was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1945. In the concentration camp she lived in a very heroic and charitable manner. She re-distributed the small amount of food that she received, in order to help those who needed it most. 

Gates at Sachsenhausen

She maintained good spirits in spite of all the terrible hardships she suffered at Sachsenhausen  and liked to entertain her fellow prisoners with stories that she remembered about Peru. For this reason she received the affectionate name "Bird of the Isles" from her cell-mates.

As the end of the war drew near, the Soviet army was approaching from the east and the U.S. military from the west. German troops began to become very disorganized and started to flee.

Survivors of the concentration camps were moved in what was to become known as the "Death Marches" in late 1944 and early 1945.

Prisoners at Sachsenhausen

The Death March of prisoners from Sachsenhausen concentration camp to Lübeck, located just over 100 miles away, began on 22 April.

Many prisoners were exhausted by severe malnutrition and the bad living conditions and weather they had been forced to endure - most were not physically fit to march and many were dying along the way.

The purpose of these marches was to hide some of the evidence of the evil brutality suffered in the concentration camps. A German soldier who became impatient with the slowness of the marching prisoners began to beat some of them furiously with a steel rod. One of these victims was Madeleine.

A few hours later the Germans abandoned the marching prisoners and stripped off their uniforms in order to hide from the Russian troops that were now pursuing them. Madeleine lost consciousness and was carried on a stretcher by her fellow prisoners. In spite of her small stature it took six people to do the task because they were all so weak and malnourished themselves. Eventually the group of survivors arrived in a small German town called Stolpe. When she became consciousness again Madeleine complained of suffered a strong headache and a high fever, and then shortly afterwards, she died.

Women Prisoners at Sachsenhausen

The friends who accompanied her to her grave, dressed her in a red dress and sought a Catholic priest to pronounce the funeral prayers, in the confidence that Madeleine would have appreciated that gesture. Before being buried, one of the companions knotted her bracelet with the Star of David on Madeleine’s arm, so that she could later be identified as a victim of the Nazi concentration camp. Another, placed on her chest red and white geraniums in homage to her Peruvian flag and nationality and as a sign of gratitude for how much she had taught them about her country of birth.

In front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, there is a memorial of homage to all the people who were deported from France during World War II, the great majority of names on it are Jewish - but in that long list also appears the name of Madeleine Blanche Pauline Truel Larrabure - one of the few Peruvian heroines of World War Two.

At the end of 1946, a survivor from the concentration camp of who knew Madeleine well, wrote a testimonial article in Le Figaro Newspaper . It is from this article that the story of Madeleine Truel's life and death was uncovered. Over the last 70 years Madeleine's name has almost been forgotten - even by her fellow Peruvians who have never honoured her in any way. 

In Peru, journalist Hugo Coya published the book “Final Station” in 2010, where he tells the story of the Peruvians who died in the Nazi concentration camps. The chapter on Madeleine is the first Peruvian text that claims the merits of this authentic heroine of the twentieth century. It shows us how it is possible to transcend adversity, overcome courageously, find fortitude in misfortune, and fully assume the defense of universal values ​​through solidarity and a faithful respect for human rights.

There has also been a short  Peruvian documentary film made about Madeliene. You can watch both a short English Language clip and a 30 minute documentary on her life below - the second one is narrated in Spanish but you can click on the YouTube subtitles on bottom right of the video player to get English subtitles.

 SHORT CLIP ABOUT MADELEINE

 30 MINUTE PERUVIAN DOCUMENTARY ON MADELEINE