Hélène Cuénat

Hélène Cuenat (3 February 1931 – 18 May 2022) was a French anti-colonial activist, known as a "suitcase carrier" and member of the Jeanson network in support of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). She was among the escapees from the La Roquette prison in 1961.

Biography Hélène Cuenat was born into a family of educators in Strasbourg, France. She spent her childhood in southern France in Nice, Nîmes, and Cannes. She pursued her education in humanities (Hypokhâgne and Khâgne) in Lyon. Cuenat later became a French literature teacher in Paris. In 1953, she married André Gisselbrecht, a French Germanist, academic, and communist intellectual, with whom she had a daughter named Michèle. Her commitment to Algerian independence intensified after witnessing France's use of torture during the Algerian War. Through her friend Étienne Bolo, she came into contact with Francis Jeanson.

She actively participated in the Jeanson network, providing logistical support to the FLN against the official stance of the French Communist Party. During her trial, she went on a hunger strike with other female members of the network to be recognized as political prisoners.

Post-Algerian independence and later life After Algeria gained independence, Cuenat lived there for ten years, among other anti-colonial activists known as the "pieds-rouges". She initially resided in El Biar with Didar Fawzy-Rossano and journalist Ania Francos, later moving to Algiers. She worked at the Vocational Training Department and later managed a technician training center in Annaba for the national steel company.

Cuenat returned to France in 1976 and pursued a career in adult vocational training at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers until her retirement in 1986.

In 2001, she published her autobiography La porte verte, which detailed her experiences, including her imprisonment.