Nelly Devienne, shorthand typist at the CNEP and pioneer of the resistance press of northern France

Last update: Mar 12, 2025

A creation of the BNP Paribas Historical Archives based on the archives of her personnel file. Roubaix Municipal Archives, ref. 8J52030, 1948

Nelly Devienne was working as an executive secretary at Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris in Roubaix when the Second World War broke out. She immediately joined the French Resistance. Using her skills as a shorthand typist, she founded the clandestine newspaper La Voix de la Nation. She was a pioneer of the resistance press in northern France, editing and disseminating her newspaper until her arrest by the Gestapo in 1942. As part of the Nazis’ Nacht und Nebel (“Night and Fog”) directive, she was deported to the women’s camp in Ravensbrück, she died there 17 days after the armistice.

From the CNEP to the clandestine press

Nelly Héloïse Devienne was born to a modest family on 28 May 1912 at the “La Fraternité” hospital in Roubaix. She studied shorthand typing and accounting until June 1934. In that year, Nelly Devienne was one of just two women to pass the superior commercial examination, as they were able to type 120 words a minute.
This skill would prove immensely important later in her life.
At the same time, she was hired as an employee of the Roubaix branch of Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris located on rue de la Gare. Five years later, World War II broke out in Europe.

On 24 May 1940, during the Battle of France, the city of Roubaix was taken by the Germans. Nelly, just 28 years old, decided to join the French Resistance.

What deep-seated motives lay behind this decision?

^{Photo taken from her personnel file. Roubaix Municipal Archives, ref. 8J52030, 1948}

Heir to a fighting spirit

The combative determination of her father Jules, a dragoon in the First World War, was no doubt a decisive factor. He was mobilized from 1914 to 1919. It was also in the café run by her father that Nelly rubbed shoulders with opponents of the Vichy government and the German occupation. In September 1940, she read the tract entitled France relève la tête (“France raises its head”) published by Dr. Guislain, who ran networks of resistance fighters. A short time after, she discovered the clandestine Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique.
In a revelatory moment, she saw that the clandestine press was uniting patriots. The tracts were proving a success.
Could this be her way to contribute to the Resistance?

Public profession and Resistance secret

Nelly Devienne had found her way to serve the interests of France.

She founded La Voix de la Nation with the help of another Resistance fighter, Paul Deltête.

Nelly thus began her double life, as CNEP secretary by day and clandestine editor by night and on weekends.

But she did not leave the CNEP. On the contrary, her position placed her at an ideal crossroads where she could receive and disseminate information.

Till the two worlds get together

This was highlighted in the trial against Nelly “on behalf of the German people” in 1943 after her arrest. During the trial, the Nazis proved that she was also disseminating La Voix de la Nation from her place of work.

Moreover, as mentioned in her SHD file, Nelly Devenne’s arrest took place on rue de la Gare, in the agency of the Comptoir National d’Escompte in Paris where she works.

It is certain that her job placed her in contact with customers and her colleagues. She was also probably aware of the information sent to her branch manager by the CNEP general management. This includes a June 1941 document listing the amounts of allowances paid to families according to their region of residence.
This allowance was similar to those intended for sending care packages to prisoners or for compensating for the absence of the sole salary of a household.

Like all CNEP employees, she had access to group circulars and staff memos.

She would necessarily have examples of people having been requisitioned, colleagues having been taken prisoner, and agents having fallen for France. The CNEP also kept the lists of these three situations up to date.

All of these aspects could only serve to strengthen her desire to fight the occupant using all the means at her disposal.

And so the idea came to her to create La Voix de la Nation in support of General de Gaulle.

But how was she to write and disseminate the clandestine newspaper?

Nelly Devienne, founder of La Voix de la Nation

Nelly was involved in the dissemination of Dr. Guislain’s second tract, France, on se moque de toi (“France, you’re being made a fool of”).
Encouraged by the effectiveness of these propaganda actions, this experience also served her in her own initiatives.

Because the network was taking shape.

Her file at the archives department of the French Ministry of Defence (Service Historique de la Défense, SHD), containing documents from the French Resistance, states that “writers, material, paper and ink must be found”.

The founder of the clandestine newspaper quickly drew the attention of resistance fighter Robert Delaval. He created the “Action 40” resistance network, which Nelly joined. He saw Nelly and her paper as an excellent way to develop his network, gather intelligence, obtain parachutings and weapons, and make contact with the English.

The judge presiding at Nelly Devienne’s trial said, “The accused manufactured and distributed thousands of copies of La Voix de la Nation, a polemical tract hostile to the German nation, in Roubaix between 1941 and 1942 from her printing works”.
According to the German court, she “undertook all these actions in an arrogant manner” (in other words, with pride) thanks to “her exceptional talent”.
It was true that Nelly was an extremely fast typist and, as the judges were fully aware, highly organised and determined. Above all, she knew how to write, disseminate, convince and, hence, unite.
Didn’t this rank as a serious crime in the eyes of the occupying nation?

Women’s contribution to the heroism of northern France

The Roneo copying machine ran at full speed, every night and every weekend.

And this is where Nelly’s shorthand typing skills made all the difference. In 18 months, the circulation of La Voix de la Nation went up from 300 to 650 copies, even though she was its sole creator and publisher. Her task was to collate what she heard on the BBC with articles provided by the resistance networks.

She illustrated the paper by copying drawings from Gaullist tracts. She also had to move premises frequently to avoid arousing suspicions.

It was at this point that she began to receive support from the entire region. Resistance fighters provided her with equipment, readers made donations to the network, and Nelly found different premises on which to set up her tools.

But this gathering momentum was cut brutally short.
In May 1942, Robert Delaval was arrested, deported to Germany and beheaded, following which his network collapsed.

On 23 May 1942, Nelly Devienne wrote a letter to the attention of Gaullist students in Lille. It would be her last.
The Gestapo arrested him on 16 June 1942.

What were the grounds for this sentence?

Resistant to the end!

The repressive policy of the Gestapo and the SS to curb the rise of anti-German propaganda was violent and radical.
This was fully illustrated in the Nacht und Nebel (“Night and Fog”) decree of 1941, according to which resistance fighters were judged and sentenced to death.

The decree was supplemented in 1942 by the concept of “collective responsibility”, which specifically addressed the active role played by women. As a result, women were no longer spared harsh sentences. Now, they could be incarcerated, tortured, deported and also condemned to death.

The Germans seized a revolver, a copying machine, a typewriter and various documents from Nelly’s home. She was also accused of listening to British radio. Together, this litany of “acts of resistance” formed the grounds for her sentence.

For Nelly Devienne, the strategy frequently used to defend women was doomed to fail. The strategy consisted in presenting women as the weaker sex, acting neither on their own initiative nor out of political conviction, but solely as beckoned by third parties, and without realising the import of their actions.

Corinna Von List

“Jugement au nom du peuple” (“Judgment in the name of the people”), edited by Robert Vandenbussche, translated into French by Solveig Kahnt and Berlin, Publications of Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion, 2007, page 20

Nelly Devienne was the founder of the newspaper and proud of it. She said she would have liked to do more for her country. The concept of “collective responsibility” was established specifically for resistant women sharing Nelly’s determination.

During her interrogation, “she was asked if she had also spied. She said no, because she didn’t have the means, but she would have if she could had”. Corinna Von List also points out that death sentences for women were often subject to a legal hold. The women concerned were not informed of such and were deported. That will be the case for Nelly. The documents attached to his judgment state that in December 1943 the execution was ‘handed over’. When? Where? The doubt is deliberately maintained.

But could this be seen as a sign of hope?

A new fight for her father

The trial of Nelly Devienne and nine of her comrades was held in 1943 in Essen, Germany. Of the 10 defendants, only one would return to France. Nelly Devienne was sentenced to death on 5 November 1943. She was interned in several prisons (Loos, Essen, Zweibrucken, Saarbrücken, Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Lübeck and Cottbus) and then deported to Ravensbrück. Her ID number, 84 098, disappeared in this camp.

After the liberation of Roubaix in September 1944, her father, Jules, wrote in a municipal brochure that he had no news of his daughter. He recounted her arrest:

When the Allies released the Ravensbruck camp, they found Nelly seriously ill and notified him in his file. Jules would never see Nelly again.

But was his fight over?

Recognition of the Nation and the CNEP

Dr. Guislain, a survivor of the camps, joined forces with Jules Devienne to raise awareness of Nelly’s commitment. He wrote to the General Delegation of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) in March 1948 requesting that Nelly be recognised as a member of the FFI. He also obtained for Nelly the military rank of captain, effective from 1 December 1940. Lastly, he provided the evidence enabling her to be added to the list of members of the “Action 40” network.

His FFI file also contains a highly specific request: