Fernande Keufgens

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]

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]

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]