75 - Strasbourg. Saint John's Church, HQ of the girl guides who resisted the Nazis
Saint Jean church in Strasbourg is a modest church, originally linked to a convent. It became a centre of resistance organizing during the Second World War. Like almost all civilian organizations, the boy scouts and the girl guides were dissolved by the Nazis when they occupied France. But a group of the girl guides from the Catholic Guides de France movement became active in resisting Nazi occupation. At the beginning they simply provided food and water for prisoners on trains passing through, but later they helped many people escape. One would chat up one of the guards, while the others organized the escapes.
They met every day kneeling to pray at Saint Jean Church and whispered inctrsuctions to each other in code. Many prisoners were helped to escape, including a
future mayor of Strasbourg. When the Nazis caught up with them, a group of the
girl guides were tried and sentenced to death, but an intervention from the
Catholic Church and from Pétain had their sentence reduced. All the princiapl
leaders survived the war.
