Yvette Lundy, French Resistance heroine and concentration camp survivor, dead at 103

Yvette Lundy, a heroine of the French Resistance during World War II, died Sunday at the age of 103.

Lundy joined the Resistance at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of France and survived spells in two concentration camps in Germany, according to a statement from the office of President Emmanuel Macron released Monday.

After the war, she returned to France and spent most of her life speaking to young people about her experiences, calling for “peace and brotherhood,” according to the statement.

During her time in the Resistance, Lundy provided fake papers to Jewish families and escaped prisoners of war.

She was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1944, at the age of 28.

Lundy was taken first to Ravensbrück concentration camp, and later Buchenwald, the Elysée Palace said.

Lundy survived the camps and returned to France after the war, but she was unable to talk about what she had experienced until 1959, when she started to tell her story. She continued to bear witness for almost 60 years.

“The words of Yvette Lundy were a powerful call for citizen vigilance, so that the darkest hours of the 20th century would never be repeated,” said the Elysée statement.

Her memoir “Le Fil de l’araignée” (The Spider’s Web) was published in 2012, and in 2017 she was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, one of France’s highest honors.

Macron described Lundy as an “exceptional woman” and expressed his condolences.

Lawmaker Éric Girardin tweeted his condolences to Lundy’s friends and family, calling her a “great lady of the Resistance.”