Marguerite was a graduate in philosophy and literature, and a poet. At the time of the German invasion of Belgium she was working as a teacher in Tournai. After the fall of Belgium to Nazi Germany, Marguerite published in the press, "La Deliverance". It was a resistance movement for resistance members to rise during the occupation and would transfer intelligence to the Allied Powers. On 8 August 1942 Marguerite and another resistance member, Cécile Detournay, went to the edge of Chièvres Airfield for the purpose of photographing newly installed anti-aircraft guns. They were both carrying a shopping bag and a camera, once they reached the edge of the airfield they began to take pictures. A few minutes later a German sentry caught them by surprise and escorted them both to an officer nearby. They both showed their shopping bags and claimed that they were going to a nearby farm to get some food and take pictures of the fields. Unfortunately the German lieutenant ordered an investigation. A woman, a prosecution witness, provided evidence that led to the indictment of Marguerite Bervoets and the leaders of the group to which she belonged. At Marguerite's house they discovered weapons. She sensed her fate, and in high school she would often quote Maeterlinck, saying; "It is beautiful to when one sacrifices oneself, that sacrifice brings happiness to other men". After a few months of incarceration in Mons, Marguerite and Detournay were deported to Germany for their fates to be decided by the Volksgericht of Leer. Marguerite was sentenced to death and Detournay to 8 years forced labour.
My friend, I elected you among all, to collect my last wishes. I know that you love me enough to make them respect everyone. You will be told that I died needlessly, foolishly, in exaltation. It will be the truth... history. There will be another one. I perished to attest that one can at the same time love life and consent to a necessary death. It will be your job to soften my mother's pain. Tell him that I have fallen so that the skies of Belgium may be purer, so that those who follow me may live as freely as I so much desired. that I do not regret anything anyway. As I write to you, I calmly await the orders that will be given to me. What will they be? I do not know it, and that is why I write you the goodbye that my death must deliver you. It is to beings such as you that it is entirely dedicated to beings who can be reborn and rebuild. And I think of your children who will be free tomorrow. Farewell.
In honor of Marguerite Bervoets, the Lycée de Mons, where she had her last three years of humanities and where her mother was director, bears her name; today it is the Athénée Royal Marguerite Bervoets.
On 17 November 1946, an inaugurated in the courtyard of the École Moyenne de la rue de Bouvy in La Louvière, a monument dedicated to Marguerite Bervoets and Laurette Demaret, former students of this establishment.
A street of Mons also bears her name, as well as a street of Forest, and even a street of Guyancourt.
There are many monuments that pay tribute to her, both in Belgium, and abroad.
