in 1940, mutschler integrated the resistance network "a.v." (which means ""army of the volunteers"" in french) of dr. bareiss in the annexed alsace, and, at the same time, became a special agent under the name "mado" in another resistance network known as "mithidate". her secret job led her to host in her home in alsace escaped war prisoners before helping them to escape to france; but just before christmas 1941, she had to leave alsace secretly. she went to lyon in the free south of france hidden in a locomotive. there, she worked as an administrative assistant in the service which works with refugees from alsace; and from 1942, she collected information for her resistance network "mithidate" before encoding them and sending them to london by post mail.