Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves

Henri Honoré d' Estienne d' Orves ( born June 5, 1901 in Verrières -le- Buisson, † August 29 1941 in Suresnes near Paris) was a French naval officer, he is regarded as the "first martyr for a free France " and a hero the French Resistance.

Henri Honoré d' Estienne d' Orves comes from a conservative, Catholic, aristocratic family. His cousin was the writer Antoine de Saint- Exupéry.

D' Estienne d' Orves followed the call of Charles de Gaulle by the Radio London on 18 June 1940 active resistance. First, d' Estienne d' Orves was used in London. His request to be used in France was initially not met with regard to his five children. Only in December 1940 he was sent with the mission to build an intelligence service to France.

The Résistancegruppe was betrayed from within its own ranks. D' Estienne d' Orves was arrested on 21 January 1941 and brought to Nantes the seat of the Gestapo. On 24 May 1941, he and eight other Résistancemitglieder was convicted by a German court martial to death. The condemned were taken to Fresnes prison in Paris and there cared for by Abbé Franz Stock.

Henri Honoré d' Estienne d' Orves was shot at Mont Valerian on August 29, 1941 in Surenes in Paris.

Since 1935 he was a knight of the Legion of Honor and was posthumously awarded on 30 October 1944, the Ordre de la Libération.