Andrée Borrel Andrée Raymonde Borrel ( 18 November 1919 – 6 July 1944 ) was a French heroine of World War II . Early life . Andrée Borrel was born into a working - class family in Louveciennes , Yvelines in the suburbs of Paris , growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities . At the age of fourteen she left school to work in a bakery shop . War Work & Special Operations Executive . When World War II broke out , the then nineteen - year - old girl went to the Mediterranean port city of Toulon where she trained as a nurse ' s aid with the " Association des Dames de France " ( ADF ) . Following her training , she worked in Beaucaire treating wounded soldiers . After France fell to the Germans in June 1940 , the ADF came under the control of Marshal Pétain , and Borrel , who was not willing to accept her country ' s defeat , joined the French Resistance helping British airmen shot down over France to escape through the " underground railway " back to Britain . With Maurice Dufour , she established a villa in Perpignan near the Spanish border and co - operated with the escape network of Albert Guérisse . In December 1941 Borrel ' s resistance group was uncovered and she fled to Lisbon , Portugal . There , she worked at the Free French Propaganda Office for a short time until April 1942 when she travelled to London . From General de Gaulle ' s Free French bureau she learned about the French Section of the Special Operations Executive and immediately signed up . On the night of 24 September 1942 , Borrel and fellow SOE agent , Lise de Baissac " ( Odile ) " became the first female agents to be parachuted into occupied France . They were flown in from RAF Tempsford . Borrel dropped first . In the darkness , Baissac dropped near Poitiers while Borrel dropped into a field near the village of Mer , not far from the Loire River and was picked up by members of a local resistance team . Because of her intimate knowledge of Paris , Borrel was sent there to work as a courier for the new " Prosper " network run by Francis Suttill . She made contact in Paris with Germaine and Madeleine Tambour . Suttill was impressed with Borrel ' s performance and in the Spring of 1943 she was made second in command of the Paris network . Whilst working in the Prosper network she took part in sabotage , especially raiding a power station , and supervising weapons drops . Probably because of a traitor , in June 1943 several members of the " Prosper " network were arrested by the Gestapo on 23 June 1943 , including network leader Francis Suttill and Andrée Borrel . She was interrogated in the Gestapo ' s Parisian headquarters and then held in Fresnes prison . She remained there until May 1944 when , together with three other captured female SOE agents , Vera Leigh , Sonya Olschanezky and Diana Rowden , Borrel was shipped to the Natzweiler - Struthof concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace . On 6 July 1944 , 24 - year - old Andrée Borrel and her three compatriots were given lethal injections of phenol , then incinerated in the camp ' s crematorium . Evidence collected immediately after the war by Squadron Officer Vera Atkins and Major Bill Barkworth of the SAS War Crimes investigation team ( included in the " Justice - SAS Style " program in the television series " Nazi Hunters " ) , indicates that Borrel regained consciousness before being placed in the cremation oven and fought to save her life , facially scarring the camp executioner who was placing her in the oven . However , she was unable to escape and was put into the flames whilst still alive . Both the doctor who administered the injection and the camp executioner were later executed by the Allies for war crimes . Awards and honours . Posthumously , the government of France awarded her the Croix de Guerre in recognition of her heroic sacrifice for her country ' s freedom . The concentration camp where she died is a now a French government historical site . A plaque to Andrée Borrel and the three women who died with her is part of the Deportation Memorial on the site . As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of her country , Lieutenant Borrel is listed on the " Roll of Honor " on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay , in the Indre département of France . In 1985 , SOE agent and painter Brian Stonehouse , who saw Andrée Borrel and the three other female SOE agents at the Natzweiler - Struthof concentration camp just before their deaths , painted a poignant watercolour of the four women which now hangs in the Special Forces Club in London , England .