Diebold, Laure (1915–1964)

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Diebold, Laure (1915–1964)

French partisan. Name variations: Mona. Born Laure Mutschler in 1915 in the Bas-Rhin section of Alsace; married Eugene Diebold (a fellow résistant), in 1942.

Fluent in both French and German, Laure Diebold was employed as a bilingual secretary for a company in Saint-Die at the beginning of World War II. For the first year, she helped escapees elude the Nazis, until she also had to escape to the unoccupied zone. On her honeymoon in 1942, she and her husband slipped from one hotel room to another, gathering information, coding it and transmitting it to London, then decoding messages from London and disseminating them.

Within three months, they were arrested. Upon release, the Diebolds went underground. Laure adopted the name Mona and became a liaison agent. On September 1, 1942, she was appointed secretary to Jean Moulin, whom she knew as Rex. Following his capture, she moved to Paris to work for Moulin's successor Georges Bidault. In September 1943, the Diebolds were arrested and imprisoned at Fresnes. To avoid confession under torture, Laure immediately admitted to being a partisan, but maintained her insignificance as a postbox or courier, only passing on sealed messages. She withstood interrogation so well that she was believed.

In June 1944, she was sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband was also there. Eventually, she was transferred to Ravensbrück, then Taucha, near Leipzig. In the camps, she came down with typhus and diphtheria; she was put on the list twice for extermination and was twice saved by a Czech doctor who changed the orders. When the Americans freed the inmates of Taucha in April 1945, Laure Diebold walked out alive. She arrived in Paris on May 16; her husband arrived two days later. Though she suffered ill health the rest of her life, Diebold lived until 1964. She was awarded the Compagnon de la Liberation. There were many women active in the Resistance. A list would include Elaine Mordeaux, Marie-Helene Lefaucheux (1904–1964), Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909–1989), Virginia Hall, Danielle Casanova (1909–1943), Yvonne Oddon, Germaine Tillion (1907—), and thousands more.