Andree de Jongh was 23 years-old when Belgium was conquered by the Germans. She was a nurse at the time. Since her personal hero was Edith Cavell, a nurse who helped Allied soldiers escape from the German occupation in WWI, she decided to join the resistance. She and her father and other brave souls created the Comet Line. This was the longest escape network in WWII. It used a system of safe houses to get escapees from Belgium through France and then over the Pyrenees into Spain to the British consulate. At the beginning most of the escapees were British soldiers who had been left after the evacuation from Dunkirk. From August, 1941 through December, 1942, she made 24 trips and got out 118 men. One of them said this about her: “It was her eyes, they were absolutely burning and there was an air of supreme confidence about her.” Most of them were downed air crew members from British and American bombers. The men were provided with civilian clothing and fake identity papers. The trek was perilous and there was always the fear that a collaborator would turn them in. This is what happened when de Jongh and three Brits were arrested after a farm worker at the safe house contacted the Gestapo. De Jongh was interrogated 20 times. She confessed to being the head of the Comet Line to try to save her father. It didn’t work because he was captured and executed. She was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, instead of being executed because the Gestapo refused to believe the pretty young woman could be a resistance leader. By the time they realized she was the real deal, they were not able to identify her among the emaciated prisoners in Ravenbruck. She survived the war and later worked with lepers in Africa. She was made a countess in 1985. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom with golden palm by the U.S. It is the highest honor given to a foreigner. She lived to 90 years-old.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/europe/18jongh.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e_de_Jongh
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