Madeleine Dautartas loved her family, God and country and had a fighting spirit that never let her forget where she came from.
Madeleine Dautartas loved her family, God and country and had a fighting spirit that never let her forget where she came from.
Just weeks before Memorial Day, the longtime Chester Township resident died May 10 at age 98.
She was born April 5, 1923, in Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France.
During World War II, as Strasbourg was occupied by the Nazis, Dautartas, in her later teens, joined The French Resistance, was arrested and sent to a concentration camp in Schirmeck.
“Allied forces started bombing the area, so the Nazis said they had no papers to hold her and some others at the camp,” her daughter, Madeleine Dautartas Jr., said in a recent interview. “She was still weak from illness at the camp and knew they could shoot her as she left. They followed her to see if she would go to the underground movement leadership. The war, however, was progressing fast enough for everything to fall apart for the Nazis. In short, it was a miracle that she made it out alive.”
Dautartas joined the First French Army (Rhine and Danube division), working under Gen. Charles de Gaulle and officer Jean de Lattre.
Dautartas married Zigmas Dautartas following the war. They had four children and immigrated to America.
Dautartas’ husband became a United States citizen and she became a permanent resident while maintaining her French citizenship.
Her daughter keeps her mother’s history alive, along with other family members, through countless conversations, photos and recordings, news clippings and a memoire her mother wrote years ago.
“Her faith kept her hope and strength strong,” said Dautartas Jr., also of Chester Township.
Her mother made a rosary from threads and hid it in the hem of her prison garment during her encampment. Dautartas Jr. said her mother carried the rosary with her in her purse up until just years ago.
“It protects you,” her mother would say.
Dautartas received many accolades for her service, including the Legion of Honor Medal and Military Medal of France among others for her involvement in the war.
Rev. Thomas Sweany, pastor of St. Anselm Church in Chester Township, of which Dautartas was a longtime parishioner, spoke at her funeral mass, where she also received a 21-gun salute at All Souls Cemetery.
“We enjoy freedom because of people like her,” Sweany said. “Madeleine was in the French Resistance, arrested and placed in a concentration camp. While there, Madeleine made and hid a rosary in the camp that she kept post war and that she let me hold …
I have held many sacred things in my life, but there was something special and sacred about holding it. Trust in God even in the concentration camp and unconditional love were a part of her life. In my experience, ‘I lived across the street from a saint and hero.’”
While Dautartas was part of the WWII era and liberation activities for France, she never forgot her homeland, returning on trips to place flags in front of crosses at Normandy in remembrance for what American soldiers and their allies did, along with other memorial tributes.
Andre Bernier, meteorologist for Cleveland’s Fox 8 News, became friends with Dautartas years ago — their shared French heritage bringing them close.
“Madeleine was a modern day Biblical Joseph,” Bernier said during her eulogy. “Even though she saw and experienced great evil in WWII, she turned it around, trusting God to bring unconditional love to the world around her.”
Dautartas lived in Cleveland many years until becoming a resident of Chester Township for 52 years. She and her husband started a landscaping and nursery business called Chesterland Nursery and another in Orwell.
Dautartas spoke fluent English, French and German.
“My first language was French,” her daughter said, adding her favorite saying, translated into English, was, “It’s not like you have to drink the water.”
Dautartas was known for her wonderful French cuisine — Quiche Lorraine and what her daughter called a “killer rum cake” — while enjoying a glass of red wine.
She liked to have fun and up until age 83, swam regularly at Ursuline College.
One thing that always remained constant for Dautartas was her deep gratitude for American and allied soldiers, her daughter said, adding every Memorial Day, she made a point of remembering those who sacrificed their lives
“Can’t take our freedom for granted,” her mother would always say.
Later in life, Dautartas would find veterans around the country and in Ohio and obtain a French medal for each one to honor their participation in the liberation activities.
Dautartas Jr. said her mother wrote a manuscript about her time in the concentration camp called, “Gates of Hell Suddenly Opened,” which was published online several years ago, but has since been removed.
“Faith, family and freedom were three of her main driving forces and her unconditional love for all those she met taught us how to live life in peace and harmony,” Dautartas Jr. said.
“She had a fighting spirit, which is how she lived 98 years. She is a part of the vanishing generation whose story is now told through the descendants,” she said. “She once said the story needs to be told to tell youth and others how precious freedom is, how unity can help us fight any evil force and how faith gives you that strength to fight and go on. Love of God and country and her compatriots and all the allied forces were her motivators.”
