Madeleine Pauliac – The Rebel

The extraordinary story of doctor Madeleine Pauliac, the heroine of Anne Fontaine’s movie “The Innocents”/”Agnus Dei” !

Free and dedicated to the point of sacrifice. Obeying nothing other than her outrage. Profoundly rebellious. The story of Madeleine Pauliac, doctor and lieutenant, is that of an extraordinary fighter.

In July 1945, a few weeks after the Nazi defeat, she became the leader of the Blue Squadron in Warsaw: eleven French women from the Red Cross, just barely twenty years old who, tirelessly, day and night, repatriated the French wounded and rescued survivors from the concentration camps from Majdanek in Poland to Dachau in Germany.

Each day, along with her team, Madeleine Pauliac faced the horrors, the despair and the violence of the Russian soldiers who had no qualms about raping Polish nuns. Several of whom became pregnant. In utmost secrecy, Madeleine Pauliac helped them give birth. This dramatic story is told in Anne Fontaine’s film “The Innocents”.

With the Blue Squadron, Madeleine Pauliac carried out over two hundred rescue missions in Poland, and never hesitated to “kidnap” the wounded French from Russian hospitals.

Until the day in February 1946 when she perished in an auto-mobile accident on the icy roads near Warsaw. A shattered life… dedicated to the service of others.

Phillipe Maynial is Madeleine Pauliac’s nephew. He was Director of International Sales at Gaumont for many years, he is the founder of the Sopadin Prize for scriptwriting. He is the source for the film The Innocents and offers us here the poignant portrayal of a forgotten heroine.

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