World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseBerthe Pauline Mariette Wild was born in Marseille, France into a family originally hailing from Switzerland. She studied at Marseille and then in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1911, she completed a degree in nursing. Shortly after, she moved to London, England, United Kingdom where she took on a job as a supervisor at a girls' boarding school. During WW1, she worked as a Red Cross nurse at a series of military hospitals. In 1918, she married Dutch banker Frédéric Albrecht in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; they would have two children together, Frédéric and Mireille. In 1924, they moved to London. During the 1920s, she was exposed to feminism and became passionate about the status of women in modern society. In 1931, after being separated from her husband, she moved to Paris, France and befriended Victor Basch of the Human Rights League. In 1933, she created the feminist journal "Le Problème sexuel", in which she controversially supported contraceptives and abortion. When Germany began annexing neighboring countries by force, she founded a safehaven organization for refugees. Having been known as a liberal activist, she was on the German watch list as German occupied France. Together with Captain Henri Frenay, Berthe Albrecht produced anti-German propaganda leaflets and booklets. In 1942, she was arrested by the French police for anti-German activities, but she was able to escape. She was captured by German agents in Mâcon, France on 29 May 1943. She was tortured at the Fresnes Prison in Fresnes, France for two days before she was executed by hanging. Her remains were found in the gardens of the prison in May 1945; she was re-interned in the crypt of Fort du mont Valérien in Suresnes, France near Paris in Nov 1945. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Liberation, Médaille militaire, Croix de Guerre, and the Resistance Medal.

Berthe Albrecht Interactive Map

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Berthe Albrecht Timeline