Fernande Keufgens

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

Early life Fernande Keufgens was born in Montzen, 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. 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. During confrontations with the police, Keufgens's fluency in German often caused the officers to mistake her for a German. Despite numerous run-ins and working with the Resistance until the end of the war, Keufgens thankfully survived the war.

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. She continues to lecture about her wartime resistance work.