Fernande Keufgens
Born (1923-12-14) 14 December 1923
Montzen, Belgium
Allegiance Belgium
UnitArmy of Liberation
Battles/warsSecond World War

Fernande Keufgens Davis (born 14 December 1923), also known as Freddie Davis,[1] was a Belgian resistance fighter with the Army of Liberation during the Second World War.

Early life

Fernande Keufgens was born in Montzen,[1] Belgium on 14 December 1923, as one of eight children in a close-knit family. She was sixteen years old when the Germans invaded Belgium.[2] Before World War II began, Keufgens's father—who witnessed the horror of World War I—foresaw the Nazi invasion and the subsequent draft into munitions factories.[2][3] Her father then arranged for her to move further from the German border to Verviers. Two years after the German invasion, however, Keufgens was summoned back to her home; she was ordered to report to a German munitions factory. Keufgens refused, however, to serve the Nazi army; she boarded the train to the factory, and jumped off before it arrived at the work camp to join the Belgian Resistance.[4][2]

World War II

After jumping off the train, Keufgens walked to her uncle's home. He was working with the Army of Liberation at the time.[4] Despite initially protesting, Keufgens's uncle agreed to her resistance work, giving her a false ID card and counterfeit food stamps. Keufgens became a courier for the Army of Liberation.[4]

Keufgens had numerous run-ins with the Nazis throughout the war. On one such instance, Keufgens was escorting a young boy to a tuberculosis hospital while also transporting ID cards to take to the nuns at the hospital.[5] During confrontations with the police, Keufgens's fluency in German often caused the officers to mistake her for a German.[6] Despite numerous run-ins and working with the Resistance until the end of the war, Keufgens thankfully survived the war.[6]

Later life

About her Resistance work, Keufgens says "I was determined...I was determined to do nothing to help (the Germans) take over the country...you did it once to my father [referencing her father's experience in WWI], you're not going to do it to me."[7]

After the war, she married an American soldier, Bill Davis. The two moved to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania, where Keufgens became a university professor in French.[6] In 2008, Keufgens wrote her memoir called Girl in the Belgian Resistance.[8] She continues to lecture about her wartime resistance work.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Spotts, Dianne. "NewStan, Autumn 2017" (PDF). St. Stanislaus. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Fernande Keufgens Davis - Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center".
  3. ↑ Atwood, Kathryn J. (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 143. ISBN 9781556529610.
  4. 1 2 3 Atwood, Kathryn J. (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 144. ISBN 9781556529610.
  5. ↑ Atwood, Kathryn J. (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 141. ISBN 9781556529610.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Atwood, Kathryn J. (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 145. ISBN 9781556529610.
  7. ↑ "Lower Gwynedd resident pens WWII memoir".
  8. ↑ Davis, Fernande. Girl in the Belgian Resistance: A Wakeful Eye in the Underground. Wayne, PA: Beach Lloyd Publishers, 2008. ISBN 9780979277894
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