Cécile Rol-Tanguy

Cécile Rol-Tanguy (; née Le Bihan; 10 April 1919 – 8 May 2020) was a French communist who was a Resistance agent in World War II. She participated in the liberation of Paris when she served as a secretariat and liaison officer, conducting clandestine operations and relaying confidential communications.

Early life and family Cécile Rol-Tanguy was born Cécile Le Bihan on 10 April 1919 in Royan, Saintonge. Her father, François Le Bihan was an electrician and an important member of the Confédération Générale du Travail Unitaire (CGTU). She grew up in a highly politicised family, as her father co-founded the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) and had hosted a number of foreign communist agitators who exiled from their countries.

In 1936, she became a part of the Comité d'Aide à l'Espagne Républicaine, where she met Henri Tanguy, who was 11 years her senior and a fellow communist. During the early stages of their relationship, he volunteered in the International Brigades fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Shortly after meeting, Henri deployed to the French Section of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.

Rol-Tanguy had four surviving children: Hélène and Jean, who were born during the war, and Claire and Francis, who were born after the war. She and her husband later left Paris to settle by the Loire.

Career

Early career Before turning 18, Rol-Tanguy was a shorthand typist in the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and joined the Union des Jeunes Filles de France, a subgroup of the Fédération des Jeunes Communistes de France. It is within this framework that she became part of the Comité d'Aide à l'Espagne Républicaine, where she met Henri Tanguy. In 1938, she joined the Parti Communiste and got engaged to Henri upon his return from Spain. They would get married in 1939 after learning she was pregnant. Her first child, Françoise, was born in November of that year, but fell ill shortly after and died from dehydration on 12 June 1940, 2 days before the Germans entered Paris. Feeling that she had nothing to lose following the imprisonment of her father and the death of her daughter, she accepted and began typing political pamphlets for them. In 1942, her father was arrested a second time and deported to Auschwitz, where he died shortly after.

Liberation of Paris Together with her husband, Rol-Tanguy actively participated in the liberation of Paris. In May 1944, under the pseudonym Rol, Henri was appointed regional leader of the FFI, and for several weeks he worked to organize the Liberation of the French capital. She worked with Henri and his staff to set up a command post in an underground shelter in Place Denfert-Rochereau. From this covert command post, the Rol-Tanguy couple received and distributed information and orders for the Résistance.On 19 August 1944 she and Henri published a pamphlet calling citizens in Paris to arms and decreeing general mobilisation. This marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi occupation. Rol-Tanguy described their roles at this time, saying: Paris was finally liberated on August 25 by General Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division. Rol-Tanguy recalls this overwhelming experience, saying that,"When they told us, we didn't hear the bells ringing, but we had a pillow fight with the girls who were with me."

On 8 September 2002, after a 63-year marriage, her husband Henri Rol-Tanguy died.

In 2008, Rol-Tanguy became the Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur. Although she was at first reluctant to take the honorary position, she decided to accept it in the name of all of the female Résistance fighters, who are too often forgotten by history.

Legacy Rol-Tanguy devoted herself to the memory of the Resistance. She wanted to keep the memory of the past alive in order to protect future generations. "It is out of respect for all those who fell for freedom that I am fulfilling this duty of remembrance," she explained. In this process, the museum was moved to the Ledoux Pavilionson on Place Denfert-Rochereau, the location from which she and her husband launched the insurrection that led to the liberation of Paris in late summer 1944.

Honours and decorations