Grave of Marguerite Bervoets

Marguerite arrived in Mons at the age of 15, in her third year of Latin-Greek studies at the Royal Athénée, which bears her name today and was run by her mother. Passionate about literature, Marguerite studied Romance philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where she obtained her bachelor's degree.

In 1937, she began a teaching career at the Ecole Normale in Tournai. In 1941, the young teacher joined the Resistance. She began publishing "La Délivrance", an underground weekly. She then devoted herself to intelligence work within the Secret Army. It was in this context that, on August 8, 1942, Marguerite was caught with Cécile de Tournay while they were busy taking photos of military installations at the Chièvres airfield.

Interrogations were followed by a search of Marguerite's apartment and the discovery of incriminating material. The two resistance fighters are incarcerated in Mons prison.

On June 13, 1943, they were deported to Germany, to the Mesun camp and then to Leer prison (Lower Saxony).

On March 22, 1944, Marguerite Bervoets was sentenced to death. Cécile de Tournay to eight years' hard labor. Marguerite was executed by beheading on August 7, 1944, at Wolfenbüttel, near Brünswick. News of her death did not reach her family until July 1945.