Willamette Marquis de Corse
Willamette Marquis de Corse (1897-1999), was an French author and politician, who was the representative of Corsica from 1947 to 1949.
de Corse was born on May 30th, 1897, to Francisco Marquis, and Lisa Marquis, in the city of Porto-Vecchio, France. As a child he was very interested in the geography of Europe. He would make maps of Porto-Vecchio and Corsica. His best friend, Emmanuel Neville, died in 1909 at 13. Willamette was devastated by his friend’s death. In 1913 he began preaching at the Catholic Church in Ajaccio, there he found happiness and peace within God. In 1916, he stopped preaching and joined WW1. He was a stern fighter, and helped sick and injured soldiers. Throughout his life, Willamette struggled with a raspy voice, and only weighed 96 pounds. In 1919, he wrote a book on his experiences during World War I, and published the book in 1920.
Soon after publishing the book, Willamette moved to Spain in 1929. When the market crashed and the Great Depression began, he built a mansion in the east of Spain. He expected to live the rest of his days there, however, Spanish soldiers captured him in late 1939, and moved him to a concentration camp in Germany. He didn’t know how they knew he was Jewish, but he was put to death in Auschwitz. After 6 weeks, Willamette escaped Auschwitz, knocking down an barbed fence. He stole a Nazi military Jeep, and ran over two Nazi soldiers. He drove to a aircraft base, and hijacked a plane. He flew over France, only to discover it was being invaded by the Nazis. He then was shot down by Italian anti-aircraft, and crashed in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. He survived off of ready to eat military food from the plane, until 4 weeks later. He then traveled Spain until he found a military base in the Pyrenees. He snuck on a plane and hijacked it. He flew it to a naval base near Portugal. He killed a Spanish soldier, took his outfit, and went to a boat facing west. He took the boat, and sailed to the United States. Once he saw Elis Island, he blew up the ship and escaped by a raft. Pretending to be a Spanish soldier, he told border officials that he was a Spanish soldier who escaped a plan to attack New York. He entered the United States of America in 1940. He was transported to Greenville, South Carolina, and lived there until 1941, where after hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the military. He told the truth about himself, and officials had even more respect for Willamette. They let him in the military. Whilst fighting in Iwo Jima, he was captured, and sent to a Japanese military prison near Hiroshima. On August 6th, 1945, Willamette recalls waking up to a bright light. He took black sunglasses, and looked outside to see a nuclear explosion. He ran towards the exit of the camp, where he took a Japanese Kamikaze plane, and flew to Alaska. He then told people who he was, and was moved to New York, where he then immigrated to Cornwall, England.
There he became wealthy, and wrote four books about his life experiences. In 1947, he moved back to Corsica, and became the representative of the province. In 1949, he married a Spanish refugee from Madrid, and he also lost representative status. . He lived out the rest of his days in Ajaccio, until he died in 1999, at age 102.
References[edit]
The 1950 novel, “An Overview” 1897 France birth records 1999 France death records 1949 French marriage records 1998 novel “Losing A life” New York Times 1999 article
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