[1] In 1936, she became a part of the Comité d'Aide à l'Espagne Républicaine, where she met Henri Tanguy, who was 11 years her senior and a fellow communist.

Her first child, Françoise, was born in November of that year, but fell ill shortly after and died from dehydration on 12 June 1940, 2 days before the Germans entered Paris.

[2] During an interview in 2014, she recalled the painful episode: “I can still remember the terrible pall of burning smoke over Paris and wondering if that was what had made my baby ill.

I left her in the hospital overnight, and when I went back the next day, there was another baby in her bed.”[2] Her father was arrested for his activism and communist affiliation around the same time, as his actions were seen as “demoralizing the army,” and deemed illegal.

[2] After the birth of their second child, Henri asked her to consider working elsewhere and leave their daughter with her mother, in order to avoid the possibility of them both being caught.

From this covert command post, the Rol-Tanguy couple received and distributed information and orders for the Résistance.On 19 August 1944 she and Henri published a pamphlet calling citizens in Paris to arms and decreeing general mobilisation.

In memory of all the friends they lost during the war, Cécile and Henri made a pact to remain members of the Parti Communiste Français.

[7] Cécile Rol-Tanguy died at her home at midday on 8 May 2020, aged 101, on the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe (VE Day).

In a speech at a ceremony in Paris, she said, "I am a little surprised to find myself here again 70 years later, but it is to remember all those I knew and who have left.”[6] Cécile both represented and advocated for the recognition of the role that women played in the resistance.

[9] In this process, the museum was moved to the Ledoux Pavilionson on Place Denfert-Rochereau, the location from which she and her husband launched the insurrection that led to the liberation of Paris in late summer 1944.