Denise Vernay-Jacob (21 June 19244 March 2013) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II, who operated under the aliases of "Miarka" and "Annie" from 1941. She narrowly avoided the March 1944 roundup of Jews in Nice, France which resulted in the deportation of her parents to Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland. Captured less than three months later, she survived torture by the Gestapo and imprisonment at two Nazi concentration camps – Ravensbrück and Mauthausen. She was rescued by the Red Cross in April 1945 and returned home to France at the conclusion of the war."Denise Vernay-Jacob". Paris, France: Fondation de la Résistance, retrieved online April 21, 2018.
Although her sisters, Madeleine and Simone, survived imprisonment elsewhere, their parents and brother did not.Langer, Emily. "Simone Veil, French Holocaust survivor and stateswoman, dies at 89." Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post, June 30, 2017."Denise Vernay Testifies" (extract from her Franc-Tireur testimony, 23 August 1946), in "Histoire." Bordeaux, France: "Anonymes, Justes et Persécutés durant la période Nazie dans les communes de France" ("Anonymous, Righteous and Persecuted during the Nazi period in the communes of France"), April 27, 2013. Vernay-Jacob helped to establish the Fondation de la Résistance to provide support to survivors of the war and honor the memories of those who had perished – efforts which she continued to support throughout her life.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance. Her sister Simone Veil became the first president of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.Simone Veil, Ex-Minister Who Wrote France's Abortion Law, Dies at 89". New York, New York: The New York Times: June 30, 2017. Vernay-Jacob was honored with multiple awards for her valor.Langer, Simone Veil obituary, The Washington Post.
Formative years Born in Paris, France, on 21 June 1924 as Denise Jacob, she was a daughter of French Jewish architect André Jacob and his wife, Yvonne Jacob (née Steinmetz), who had given up her chemistry studies to begin her family. The second of four children, she moved with her parents and sister, Madeleine (born in 1922 and also known as "Snowy"), to Nice later in 1924 after her father received a promising business offer. Her younger brother, Jean, and sister, Simone Annie Liline, were born in 1925 and on 13 July 1927, respectively.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.
The family's financial situation changed, however, as the Great Depression took hold across France in 1931. By 1932, their parents made the decision to exchange the family's villa for an apartment in Nice.Langer, Simone Veil obituary, The Washington Post.
World War II
The Fall of France in the summer of 1940 led to the arrival of the Gestapo in Nice on September 9 and the enactment that autumn of the law on the status of Jews by the French Vichy Government. These events made daily life even more precarious for the Jacob family. The October 1940 Statut prepared by Raphaël Alibert"Pétain a durci le texte sur les Juifs, selon un document inédit". Paris, France: Le Point, October 3, 2010. "embraced the definition of a Jew established in the Nuremberg Laws",Yahil, Leni (1990). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. . and deprived Jewish people of their civil rights, including the right to work. As a result, Andrè Jacob lost his job. Sixteen-year-old Denise became a mathematics tutor to help support her family.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance. She also became more involved in the Girl Scouts, a source of freedom and hope for her – as well as the source of her nickname, "Miarka," the pseudonym she would initially use as a courier for the French Resistance.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.
Our mother was the soul of the house. Family, school and scouting were the three centres of our lives, which weren’t easy but so full of tenderness, friendship and different activities. The war broke out in September 1939. In May 1940 came the German invasion, the flow of refugees, the rout of our troops even though some of them were valiantly grouped together at certain defence sites, the debacle, Pétain’s quavering voice, the armistice, occupation and collaboration. I refused to believe that it was final, that our British allies had become our enemies overnight.Extract from Franc-Tireur, August 23, 1946.Denise Vernay's Franc-Tireur Testimony, in Pedagogical Factsheets for teachers: Victims of Nazism: A mosaic of Fates. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe, 2013.Denise Vernay Testifies (extract from her Franc-Tireur testimony, August 23, 1946, Anonymes, Justes et Persécutés durant la période Nazie dans les communes de France). Retrieved online April 21, 2018.
In 1941, Denise Jacob performed her first acts of resistance, distributing anti-fascist educational materials and listening to BBC Radio for news of the war, an activity which had been outlawed by the Vichy Government. The 17-year-old high school student then relayed that news to her teachers and classmates by posting it on blackboards at her school.Bell, Susan. "Sophie Marceau's new film sparks resistance." London, United Kingdom: The Telegraph, March 8, 2008. While she was away at a cheerleading camp in September 1943, she received word from her family that it was too dangerous for her to return home to Nice, so she moved to a friend's home in Isère.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.
Joining the Resistance
During autumn 1943, Denise, now 19 years old, was encouraged to become a full-fledged member of the French Resistance by joining one of its cells in Lyon. Adopting her old scouting nickname, she entered the underground movement as "Miarka", received training, and then began clandestinely transporting resistance messages by bicycle. After seven months of this work, she was urged to leave Lyon for safety reasons.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.
Testifying in 1946 about her war-time experiences, she noted that her departure had been prompted by a wave of arrests of United Resistance Movement members. In an attempt to mask her appearance to facilitate her escape, she exchanged coats with one of her comrades, but preserved her sense of self by refusing to cut off her blonde braids.Extract of Denise Vernay's Franc-Tireur testimony from August 23, 1946 , in "Personal Accounts: Deportation, in Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp." Natzweiler, Germany: KZ-Natzweiler Museum, retrieved online April 21, 2018.
Arriving in Nice on 18 March, in time for birthday celebrations for her older sister, she enjoyed only the briefest of reunions with her family before returning to Lyon. Ten days later, her parents, brother and two sisters were arrested in Nice as part of a roundup of Jewish residents, and sent to the internment camp at Drancy and then on to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She learned of their fate from a letter retrieved from the Lyon post office.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.Denise Vernay's 1946 Franc-Tireur Testimony, Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp.
She then proceeded to immerse herself in the French Resistance as a member of Franc-tireur (not to be confused with the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans). The Franc-tireur movement had launched in Lyon as an outgrowth of a clandestine resistance newspaper established by Jean-Pierre Lévy. It was one of the major resistance efforts in the south of France at the time, along with Maverick, Combat and Liberation. As Franc-tireur and the other resistance efforts continued to expand in the south of France, their respective leaders decided to combine forces, and les Mouvements Unis de Résistance (also known as les MUR, "the United Resistance Movements") was born.Denise Vernay-Jacob, Fondation de la Résistance.Bell, Sophie Marceau's new film sparks resistance, The Telegraph.
Now I asked to fight with weapons. The United Movements of Haute-Savoie were looking for a liaison agent. I left for Annecy in early April. I became "Annie" instead of "Miarka", my alias in Lyon. I bicycled through Annecy and the department with its varied relief. The maquis were nearby.Denise Vernay's 1946 Franc-Tireur Testimony, Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp.Rodrigue, Dona. "Les sanglots longs des violons " ("The long sobs of the violins"). Eklablog: April 15, 2013.
Inspired by the Allied landing on 6 June 1944, she chose, on 14 June, to serve as "an agent liaison for the Secret Army, which held the Glières Plateau with the F.T.P. (Francs-Tireurs et Partisans)".Denise Vernay's 1946 Franc-Tireur Testimony, Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp. Retrieved online April 21, 2018.Rodrigue, "Les sanglots longs des violons" ("The long sobs of the violins").
A parachute drop fell in Saône-et-Loire and it was necessary to pick up two radio transmitters and their equipment, a large amount of money, and two suitcases containing the personal belongings of the two men who had parachuted at the same time: the head of the Secret Army, "Cantinier", and an American observer, "Niveau." I volunteered.
Bicycling 240 km to Cluny on 14 June and then to the Saône-et-Loire maquis command post at Brançion on 16 June, she recovered the supplies, and took a taxi to a friend's home in Caluire. Moving on the next day, she headed for the Aix-les-Bains railway station, where she planned to drop the suitcases at the lost luggage area, but she never made it. As her taxi reached a "Feldgendarmerie roadblock between Bourgoin and La Tour du Pin, halfway from [her] goal," she and her driver were subjected to what, for most other travelers, would have been a routine search. When the police discovered what she was transporting, they arrested her.Denise Vernay's 1946 Franc-Tireur Testimony, Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp.Rodrigue, "Les sanglots longs des violons" ("The long sobs of the violins").
Imprisonment at Ravensbrück and Mauthausen Following her arrest at the roadblock, Denise Jacob was transferred to the custody of the Geheime Staatspolizei, the Nazi Secret State Police unit more commonly known as the Gestapo. At this point, she was still known by her alias "Annie."
I was handed over to the Gestapo in Lyon: a grueling interrogation (the bathtub) in Place Bellecour, 10 days in Montluc fort, 10 days of transit to Romainville fort and then Ravensbrück on 26 July. I was registered in convoy no. 46,800. On 2 March 1945 I left Ravensbrück for Mauthausen in a night and fog (N. N.) convoy that also transported gypsies.Denise Vernay's 1946 Franc-Tireur Testimony, Struthof: Site of the former Natzweiler concentration camp.
"The torture of the bathtub," according to historian Jacques Delarue, would have involved "plunging the patient into a bath of icy water ... hands handcuffed behind [the] back, and keeping [the victim's] head under water until [she] was on the point of drowning." Denise Jacob would then have been "dragged to the surface by the hair and, if [she] still refused to speak [would have been] immediately plunged under water again." Often, "when the patient was on the point of losing consciousness," he or she would be revived by the Gestapo agent with coffee or brandy before the torture session was resumed.