‘Rose’: Portrait of a Resistance Fighter

bristol | miscellaneous | event notice Tuesday July 22, 2008 11:20 by Nick Thomas - The Pierian Centre info at pieriancentre dot com The Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA 0117 924 4512

A film by William Ennals

This Sunday’s Film Night at the Pierian Centre unearths an extraordinary story of war-time heroism on our doorstep. Andrée Peel is now 103 and living in Long Ashton – but her array of medals reveals a career of unbelievable courage in the French Resistance. William Ennals’ film ‘Rose’: Portrait of a Resistance Fighter is an account of Andrée’s life and the vivid years she spent risking death at the hands of the Nazis.

The young 'Rose'

Resistance to Nazi occupation brought the agent code-named ‘Rose’ a number of rewards – a personal letter of congratulation from Winston Churchill, betrayal by collaborators, death sentence by gas chamber at Ravensbruck and by firing squad at Buchenwald, a last-minute rescue and an array of medals including the Croix de Guerre, the American Medal of Freedom, and 2 Legions d’Honneurs. But the final reward was the discovery of a gift for healing – and the dedication of the rest of her life to helping people overcome pain and distress.

Young Andrée Virot was running her own beauty salon in the Brittany port of Brest when the Germans invaded. Inspired by de Gaulle, she fought the occupying forces not with bullets and bombs but with information. At first she was involved in simply distributing clandestine newspapers, but soon she was made Head of an Under-Section in the Resistance, reporting on troop movements, naval installations and the results of Allied attacks. Agent ‘Rose’ and her team used torches to guide Allied planes to improvised landing-strips, and smuggled fugitive airmen onto submarines and gun-boats on remote parts of the coast. Her information gathering prompted Churchill himself to write a personal letter of congratulation – to be destroyed immediately after reading!

But her luck couldn’t last forever, and in 1943 she was betrayed and captured. Sent to the labour camp at Ravensbruck, she was only saved from the gas chamber by the almost miraculous intervention of a fellow inmate. But as the Red Army approached, she was moved to Buchenwald – and there, with other survivors, she was being lined up to be shot by firing squad when the liberating American army arrived. Back in Brest she found her father and brother had been killed, and she moved to Paris to run a restaurant on the Left Bank. It was here that a young English academic named John Peel walked in one day and stole her heart.

‘Rose’: Portrait of a Resistance Fighter is shown at the Pierian Centre on Sunday 27th July. William Ennals, producer and director, will be there to introduce the screening and to answer questions and join in the discussion afterwards. Pierian Film Nights are the last Sunday evening of every month. Tickets are £4.50 (concs £3.50) – and can be booked on 0117 924 4512 or info@pieriancentre.com. The Bar opens at 7pm, and the screening starts at 7.30pm. The Pierian Centre is at 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA.

Andree Peel with her medals