Home > Gabrielle Weidner

The child of Dutch parents, she grew up in Collonges, France in the Ain département, near the Swiss border where her father served as the minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She was sent to secondary school in London, England and as a result of her background, spoke several languages.

A devoutly religious girl, she was living and doing church work in Paris, France at the outbreak of World War II. With the ensuing German occupation of France, Gabrielle Weidner fled to the south with her brother, Johan Hendrik WeidnerJohan Hendrik Weidner (French: Jean Henri English: John Henry ( October 22, 1912, Brussels, Belgium May 21, 1994, Monterey Park, California, United States) was a highly decorated hero of World War II. Johan Weidner, born to Dutch parents, grew up in Collo. Following the June 22, 1940 signing of the agreement with the Nazis to create Vichy FranceVichy France ( French: now called Regime de Vichy or Vichy called itself at the time tat Francais or French State) was the French state of 1940- 1944 which was a puppet government under Nazi influence, as opposed to the Free French Forces, based first in, she returned to Paris while he brother went to LyonThis article is about the French city. For other usages (as Lyons , see Lyons (disambiguation). Lyon Region Rhone-Alpes Departement Rhone Arrondissement Lyon Cantonschief town of 14 cantons Population (1999)453,187 Population of the metropolitan area aire where he established the "Dutch-Paris" underground.

In Paris, Gabrielle Weidner worked for the Seventh-day Adventist Church and secretly with her brother and other volunteers to help people escape from the Nazis. As one of the significant contributors to French ResistanceThe French Resistance was the resistance movement that fought military occupation of France by Nazi Germany and the resulting Vichy France during World War II after France surrendered in 1940. French Resistance cooperated with Allied secret services (see, their efforts would be responsible for the rescue of at least 1,000 persons, including 800 JewThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for as and more than 100 downed Allied airmen. However, on February 26, 1944 the Gestapo arrested her along with 140 other members of the escape network. She was interrogated and tortured in Fresnes prison in Paris, then shipped in a railway cattle car to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.

At Ravensbrück she was kept in horrific conditions, subjected to beatings, and used as slave labor. On February 17, 1945, Gabrielle Weidner died of malnutrition in a Ravensbrück sub camp a few days after being liberated by Soviet troops.

In Orry-la-Ville in the Oise département of France, she is recorded on a plaque dedicated to the Dutch line resistors.