Odette Niels died at the age of one hundred - a symbol of resistance during the Nazi occupation of France. French President Emmanuel Macron called her the embodiment of "a century of commitment and freedom."

"Odetta Niels represented a century of commitment and freedom. We will continue to carry the memory of her work," the head of the French state wrote on Twitter.

Résistante à 15 ans, "fiancée de Guy Môquet" à Châteaubriant, communiste et combattante tireless, Odette Nilès représentait un siècle d'engagement et de liberté. Nous continuerons à porter son œuvre de mémoire.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 27, 2023

Born on December 27, 1922 in Paris and a member of the Young Communists since 1940, she distributed leaflets and participated in demonstrations during the occupation, before being arrested by the French police in August 1941.

She was then transferred to an internment camp in the Loire-Atlantique region, where she met another well-known participant in the resistance movement, Guy Moquet, on the eve of his execution along with 47 other prisoners.

At the "barrier", the border between the women's and men's camps, she promised him a kiss she would never be able to give him.

Mocke's last message was also for Odette: "I will die ... without receiving what he promised me."

Niles, who was then dubbed "Guy Moquet's fiancee", was then transferred to several camps over the course of three years, until the one in Merignac, western France, from which she escaped in 1944 to join the resistance movement in Bordeaux . .

After the war, Odette Niels remained true to her communist ideal all her life and fought for women's rights.