Jeannie Rousseau

Jeannie Yvonne Ghislaine Rousseau, married name Jeannie de Clarens, (1 April 1919 – 23 August 2017) was an Allied intelligence agent in occupied France during World War II, a member of the "Druids" network led by .

Codenamed Amniarix, she evaded Gestapo agents while gathering crucial information on the Germans' emerging rocket weapons programs from behind enemy lines. Her intelligence reports, forwarded to London, led directly to the British raid on Peenemünde and to delays and disruptions in the V-1 and V-2 programs, saving many thousands of lives in the West. Rousseau was captured twice and spent time in three concentration camps. After the war, she worked as a freelance interpreter.

Early life Born on 1 April 1919 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, Jeannie Yvonne Ghislaine Rousseau was the daughter of Jean Rousseau, a World War I veteran and a French foreign ministry official, and his wife Marie, née Le Charpentier. A brilliant linguist, she graduated in languages from Sciences Po in 1939. After the outbreak of World War II, she moved with her family to Dinard, in Ille-et-Vilaine, where the mayor, a friend of her parents, asked her to work as an interpreter to facilitate negotiations between the local services and the German authorities.

Wartime work Rousseau began gathering intelligence on German operations even before she made contact with Allied intelligence. She took a job at the French national chamber of commerce as a translator and soon became the organization's top staffer, meeting regularly with the German military commander's staff. She was a frequent visitor with the Germans, discussing commercial issues, such as complaints about Nazi commandeering or offers to sell them goods, such as steel and rubber. "I was storing my nuts, but I had no way to pass them on." She was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1941,

Her formal career as a spy began in 1941, with a chance meeting with Georges Lamarque on a night train from Paris to Vichy. incorrectly claim or imply that Rousseau's report led to the major raid on Peenemünde on August 17/18 1943, her report did not reach R.V. Jones until after that date. These accounts also falsely imply that her main contribution related to the V-2, but she was connected to Max Wachtel's V-1 group and it was her report that first revealed Wachtel's V-1 testing site on nearby Zempin, which was not targeted in the August 17th/18th raid. The Allies knew about the V-2s and Peenemünde before her first report. R.V. Jones relates that when he first inquired about the source of the extraordinary report that had originally tipped off the British government to what was going on at Peenemünde, all he learned was that it came from "one of the most remarkable young women of her generation," part of a small espionage network reporting from occupied France. She was rescued by the Swedish Red Cross shortly before the end of the war.

Life after the war

While recovering in Sweden from tuberculosis contracted during her imprisonment, Rousseau met Henri de Clarens, who had been in the Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps. The two married and had two children. De Clarens died in 1995.

Rousseau worked as a freelance interpreter after the war, for the United Nations and other agencies.