Sister Agnes-Marie Valois of France, who was called a "white angel" by soldiers during World War II, has died in a monastery near Dieppe at the age of 103.
Born in 1914 to the family of an industrialist in the French city of Rouen, Valois was known for saving several allied servicemen during Operation Jubilee, a raid of more than 6,000 Canadian and British troops on the German-held port of Dieppe in northern France's Normandy region on August 19, 1942.
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Valois tried to persuade Nazis to tend to some of the wounded, and stole German rations to feed the injured in the operation which claimed the lives of about 4,131 UK and Canadian servicemen.
Canada's The National Post cited Hardy Wheeler, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Essex and Kent Scottish regiment which took part in Operation Jubilee as saying that Valois is known "for standing up to the German soldiers."
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"They held a gun up to her to [insist that she] treat the German injured first, but she just looked at everyone as equal — regardless of rank, regardless of nation, regardless of who or what you are, she treats those who needed help the most," Wheeler said.
Operation Jubilee was the first military raid in the European theater of the World War II in which Canadian troops took part. Agnes Valois trained as a nurse with the Red Cross before joining the Augustine order in 1936.
