Võ Thị Sáu

Võ Thị Sáu (1933 – 23 January 1952) was a teenager who fought as a guerrilla during the First Indochina War participating in the resistance movement against the French colonists for Vietnam’s independence. She carried out multiple assassination attempts targeting French officers and Pro-French Vietnamese individuals collaborating with the colonial government in Southern Vietnam at the time. She was captured, tried, convicted, and executed by the French in 1952, becoming the first woman to be executed at Côn Đảo Prison.

Today in Vietnam she is considered a symbolic national revolutionary martyr and heroine. The Vietnamese government posthumously awarded her the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces in 1993.

Joining the resistance movement After the French reoccupied Đất Đỏ in late 1945, Võ Thị Sáu’s older brothers, friends, and relatives left home to join the Việt Minh resistance movement fighting for Vietnamese Independence. She abandoned her studies to help her parents while secretly providing supplies to her brothers, who were part of the Liberation Army of Bà Rịa Province.

Capture and death sentence In December 1949, at the Tết Canh Dần (Lunar New Year) market. A Vietnamese Pro-French collaborator, a canton chief of the district, who was known to have managed to get hundreds of young Vietnamese men suspected of being Viet Minh cadres a part of the independence movement executed by reporting to the French. Upon being spotted right in the marketplace, Sau was given the responsibility by her comrades of eliminating the traitor. Since they were low on ammunition, she was given only one hand grenade. It did not explode and she was caught by the French authorities.

At 7 AM, she was led to Banh III courtyard. When asked if she had any regrets before dying, she calmly and defiantly declared, "I only have one regret, that is not being able to destroy all the colonial invaders and their treacherous lackeys."

In the Death Monitoring Book (1947–1954) preserved in Côn Đảo, an entry written in French states: "Le 23 Janvier 1952: 195 G.267 Võ Thị Sáu dite CAM mort 23/1/1952 7h P.Condor Par balles…" (January 23, 1952: Prisoner G.267 Võ Thị Sáu, known as CAM, executed at 7 AM at Poulo Condor (Con Son) by gunfire).

Legacy

Today, Sáu is considered a nationalist martyr and a symbol of revolutionary spirit. She is venerated by the Vietnamese people as an ancestral spirit, and has amassed almost a cult-like following of devotees who venerate her grave in Hàng Dương Cemetery on Côn Sơn Island. Her name has been given to numerous streets in cities across Vietnam, as well as many schools across the country, including an elementary school in Cuba. At the beginning of 2021, Hồ Chí Minh City merged Wards 6, 7, and 8 of District 3 into a single ward, which was named Võ Thị Sáu Ward. There is also a temple dedicated to her in her hometown of Đất Đỏ, with a street named after her in Bạc Liêu.