This Is Your Life: Helene Jeanty-Raven

Helene JEANTY-RAVEN

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Helene Jeanty-Raven, former resistance worker, is surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe she was there to watch a different programme.

Helene, who was born in Esneux, Belgium, joined the resistance movement with her husband Paul after Germany invaded Belgium in 1940. After the Gestapo discovered a British airman hiding in their home, Helene feigned insanity to withhold the charge of the death penalty imposed on Paul. With the help of a sympathetic German lawyer, she took responsibility for the crime and was sent to an asylum for the duration of the war.

Although the doctors in the asylum discovered the truth, they protected her, and she was released when the war ended and reunited with her son, but later discovered Paul had been killed. In 1947, she began voluntary work dealing with refugees with the World Council of Churches, where she met her present husband, Canon Charles Raven.

programme details...

Edition No: 137
Subject No: 137
Broadcast live: Mon 7 Nov 1960
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 6
Edition: 8

on the guest list...

Odette Rochoux
Yvon Michiels
Baroness von Gagern
Dr Schubert
Dr Walter Geller
Klara Hahn
Dr Renate Lorenz
Capt Dumont
Lt Ugeux
Claude - son
Canon Charles Raven - husband
Baron von Gagern

production team...

Researcher: Nickola Sterne
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: Michael Goodwin
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

related page...

Military Life

saluting the armed forces

Series 6 subjects