Ms Riffaud, who turns 100 next year, is widely known in France for shooting a German soldier and surviving Gestapo torture and there was a famous poet and the country's first female war reporter. Photo: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAUD
A care worker has appeared in court on charges of defrauding French Resistance hero Madeleine Riffaud of €140,000 to buy personal items, including sex toys.
Ms. Riffo, who turns 100 next year. , is a household name in France not only because she shot a German soldier and survived Gestapo torture, but also because she was a famous poet and the country's first female war reporter.
As recently as this month, a committed communist gave an interview to Le Monde newspaper in which she recalled how a “kick in the ass” from a German soldier whose advances she rejected at a train station prompted her to join the fight against the Nazis.
Although she is still sane mentally, she is weak, bedridden and blind, so she needs help at home.
Friends who visited her said the former resistance fighter looked neglected and she admitted to them that her hair had not been washed for months. Photo: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBEAU
The woman who ran the company tasked with her care is known only as Miriam. B, 67, appeared in court on Tuesday accused of allegedly using Ms Riffo's credit card to steal more than €140,000 (£120,000) of her money, which she withdrew from ATMs or spent online .
Her alleged purchases included Chanel perfume, Claudie Pierlot clothing and bags, Pokemon T-shirts and a “clitoral vibrator” purchased on Amazon. Withdrawals ranged from tens to thousands of euros.
A witness in the case said she even went to the bank disguised as a 99-year-old girl to withdraw €15,000 (£13,000) from her account life insurance.
The defendant is charged with “aggravated abuse of weakness” against a “vulnerable person”, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment and a fine of €750,000 (£646,000).
Years of deception
The investigation was launched after the assistant became suspicious when the defendant told her not to open sealed envelopes containing Ms. Riffo's bank statements.
The employee eventually opened the statements and was shocked to find multiple payments for items. that the nearly centenarian was unlikely to survive given her “frugal lifestyle.”
Although Ms Riffo ate very little, inspectors noticed a steady increase in her sometimes “staggering” food expenses. , including restaurant delivery, between 2013 and December 2021.
Even though she had been bedridden since 2018, they found regular payments to beauty salons and hair salons, which often corresponded to changes in hairstyle or outfits of Miriam B.
Meanwhile, the pensioner was getting her hair cut by a cleaner and had been wearing the same moisturizer and perfume for years.
Friends came over and said the former Resistance fighter looked neglected and she admitted to them that her hair wasn't healthy. washed for months.
<р>Ms. Riffault, who “has retained all her mental faculties and therefore has an excellent memory,” told police that Miriam B. “quickly intervened in [her] life and prevented some people around her from seeing her.”
Ms Riffo is a “diva”
In police custody since April this year, Miriam B. insists that all these expenses were justified because Ms Riffo led a “rather lavish lifestyle.”
The care worker described the older woman as “a diva who demanded too much attention” and claimed to “particularly like good food, ignore the value of money and give out expensive gifts.”
Unable to attend the trial, Ms Riffaud told France Inter on Tuesday: “It’s a little stupid, but I can defend myself. I can fight.”
Miriam B. denies any wrongdoing.
French heroine
Ms. Riffaud began working for the French Interior Forces at the age of 18 under the code name “Rainer.” participating in several operations against the occupying Nazi forces and participating in the capture of 80 Wehrmacht soldiers from a German armored train.
On July 23, 1944, on her 20th birthday, she shot and killed a German officer in broad daylight on a bridge overlooking to the Seine.
She told Le Monde that the idea was to “intensify our actions so that Paris will rise” after the Normandy landings. “We needed to send a signal, make a splash by shooting the German in front of everyone, an officer if possible, to show that this was the solution.”
Captured by a French collaborator and handed over to the Gestapo, Mme Riffaud was tortured and held in Fresnes prison. She managed to escape from a train bound for the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp, but was caught and sentenced to death.
She was released at the eleventh hour in a prisoner exchange.
After the end of the war in 1945, the French heroine became a journalist and wrote about the war in Algeria for the communist newspaper L'Humanité. Photo: Keystone-FranceAfter the end of the war in 1945, the French heroine became a journalist and wrote about the Algerian War for the communist newspaper L'Humanité, losing an eye during the conflict.
Pablo Picasso painted her portrait for the frontispiece of his painting. her collection of poetry was published in 1945.
In 1946, she met Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh in Paris, moved to South Vietnam, and lived with the Viet Cong resistance for 7 years. She fell in love with the poet Nguyen Dinh Thi, but they were unable to marry due to a law prohibiting marriage between Vietnamese and foreigners.
After returning to France, she worked as a paramedic in a Paris hospital. , where she wrote the best-selling book Les Linges De La Nuit (The Night Wash).
In 2013, she was awarded the National Order of Merit.
When asked about the current state of B she told Le Monde this month: “The world is awash in blood. We tried to make it better; we've probably failed.
“I'm leaving him in a state that's not really what I want. You see, you must tell the truth, even if the truth is dark.”
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