Adrienne Ranc-Sakakini

She died on 22 June 2014 in Annot, France, in a car accident at age 98. She is buried in Saint-Pierre Cemetery in Marseille.

Known as Adrienne Ranc-Sakakini, she joined the Rassemblement pour la France (RPF), a political party created by Charles de Gaulle, a future president of France, in 1947, and became a member of its organizing committee in the part of southern France that includes the city of Marseille.

Using her F2 contacts, Ranc sent hundreds of coded transmissions to the Free France forces for two years, but was exposed in 1942 and arrested by the police of the French Vichy government which was allied with Nazi Germany. She was tortured in Fort Saint-Nicolas located in the harbor area of Marseille, and then imprisoned in the Presentines prison for women nearby. She was later transferred to Saint-Joseph Prison in Lyon, France. She was released from prison in 1943 "thanks to the payment of a deposit" and she once again established links with members of the resistance, called the Maquis. In 1944, she was actively involved in the Allied Forces' battles to liberate Marseille from Nazi occupation. For her bravery during the war, she was highly decorated.

In August 1940, Ranc joined one of the first resistance groups in the city, the French-English-Polish intelligence network called F2, created only a month earlier by the Polish government, which was working in exile in London. The F2 network was active throughout France and Ranc's unit was monitoring the maritime port of Marseille, responsible for reporting the movements of enemy ships, arsenals and diplomats.

During these battles, she met her future husband Fernand Sakakini (1917 – 1991), a fellow Resistance fighter, with whom she went on to have four children.

Adrienne Ranc-Sakakini, (Marseille, 4 May 1916 – Annot, 22 June 2014), a French accountant, was an active member of the French resistance in her native Marseille during World War II, from 1940 to 1944.