Dodu, Juliette, 1848-1909

Juliette Dodu was born in Réunion on June 15, 1848; In 1864 she left the island with her mother, who found work in France as director of the telegraph office of Pithiviers. She became famous during the It course of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The Prussians occupied Pithiviers on September 20, 1870. The telegraph office was seized and the Dodu family was relegated to the second floor of the house. Juliette had the idea to rig up a tap on the wire that passed by her room. Having kept a receiving apparatus, she was thus able to intercept the transmissions each time that the occupiers received or sent dispatches.

For 17 days, Juliette was able to deliver the dispatches to the French authorities without the slightest suspicion on the part of the Prussians, who were seduced by the charm of the young Frenchwoman. It was claimed that she saved the lives of 40,000 soldiers of General Aurelle de Paladines by means of one of her intercepted messages. However, the wiretap was discovered when a German soldier overheard a housekeeper accuse Juliette Dodu of tapping the telegraph wires. The Prussians prosecuted Juliette Dodu and tried her for espionage before a court-martial. She is reputed to have told her judges, Je suis Française et ma mère aussi, j’ai agi pour mon pays. Messieurs, faites de moi ce que vous voudrez ("I am French and so is my mother. I have acted for my country. Messieurs, do with me as you wish!"). She was condemned to death. But the armistice was signed before her execution and Juliette Dodu was pardoned by prince Frederick Charles of Prussia and set free.

She was cast as a symbol of the French resistance and Juliette Dodu was the first woman to receive the Military Medal and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

Around 1875, she began a relationship with the baron Félix Hippolyte Larrey, medical chief of the army and son of the celebrated Larrey, and inherited his fortune (including his small château at Bièvres, Essonne). In 1880, she became inspector of schools and asylums and took up residence in Switzerland. She died in 1909 at the Clarens, Switzerland home of her brother-in-law, the painter Odilon Redon.