On Feb. 23, 2012, almost 70 years after she joined the SOE, the Royal Mail released a stamp in her honor as part of its Britons of Distinction series. Violette Szabos code-name was Corrinne. 13th May 1944 the Germans transported Sansom and seven other SOE The official memorial to all those who served in the SOE during the Second World War was unveiled on 13 February 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. After receiving basic training in England, she was taken to France by boat in October 1942. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. She lived quietly, carrying on an extensive correspondence. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They either had a skill the SS valued, a job where they could steal food, or a protector who looked after them. In 1914, her father joined an infantry regiment. Both Churchill and Sansom were therefore retained in Fresne and frequently interrogated for another eight months. 47 frontage. The average SOE wireless operator in Occupied France lasted for just six weeks before being arrested. A glamorous spy, capture, imprisonment, horrific torture, dramatic escape, breathless romance. Her torture was carried out by a "very good-looking young Frenchman" who she believed was mentally ill.[5], Sansom testified against the prison guards charged with war crimes at the 1946 Hamburg Ravensbrck Trials, which resulted in Suhren's execution in 1950. However, against all odds she survived the war and testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrck trials. In July 1940, she had met Etienne Szabo, an officer in the French Foreign Legion. She began to understand that they were asking her to volunteer for more than part-time work as a translator. [8][9], Sansom made a landing on a beach near Cassis on the night of 2 November 1942, and made contact with Captain Peter Churchill, who headed Spindle, an SOE network based in Cannes. the First World War. He then departed Saint-Jorioz with a plan to return and for them to leave France together clandestinely by aircraft on April 18. That brought her to the attention of Colonel Maurice Buckmaster's Special Operations Executive. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Odette Sansom was a 30-year-old housewife and mother-of-three when she . She left her husband and three children to return to occupied France as a spy for the SOE (Special Operation Executive Program, a British spy agency) The book is well written and researched. Violette Szabo has no known grave. Odette was a French woman married to an Englishman. Odette Marie Lonie Cline Brailly was born on 28 April 1912 at 208, rue des Corroyers in Amiens, France;[1] the daughter of Emma Rose Marie Yvonne ne Quennehen[notes 1] and Florentin Dsir Eugne 'Gaston' Brailly,[notes 2] a bank manager, killed at Verdun shortly before the Armistice in 1918 and posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and Mdaille militaire for heroism. It was there, the next night, that they were arrested by Italian troops and a German security agent. "You will realize I am not what you want.". She feared neither danger nor dagger, interrogation nor torture. Includes; Cleopatra, Princess Diana, Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, and Joan of Arc. Szabo, George Cross. Some mistakenly say finger-nails: but her torturers stopped short when they realised that even the grotesque pain of the toe-nails could not persuade her to speak (and having been ticked off firmly by Odette myself, for springing a photographer on her, I understand the Gestapo's reluctance to displease her further). [34], On 23 February 2012, the Royal Mail released a postage stamp featuring Hallowes as part of its "Britons of Distinction" series. "I am interested to see, monsieur, that you consider it necessary to defend what you have just done," said Sansom. Odette Sansom Hallowes died on March 13, 1995 at the age of Back in her cell, Sansom ripped her prison cloth into strips to bind her feet. She arrived on July 18, 1944, two days before a now-famous failed plot by members of Hitler's inner circle to assassinate him. She became what one biographer described as a "celebrated heroine on both sides of the Channel." Fraser, Antonia, ed. Yolande Beekman ("Yvonne"), Madeleine Damerment ("Martine"), and Eliane Plewman ("Gaby"), along with Noor Inayat Khan , were executed without trial in Dachau on September 13, 1944. "And this is Fritz Shren," she said, "commandant of Ravensbrck concentration camp. We use cookies on our website to collect relevant data to enhance your visit. In October 1942, leaving her three daughters at a convent school in Essex, 30-year-old Odette Sansom became a member of the Women's Transport Service, a part of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). How much did Violette Szabo medals sell for? Her humility meant she was not keen on accepting the award, but she did accept it on behalf of all agents who suffered during the war. On . Four years later, Sansom was following the fall of France in British newspapers, listening to BBC radio reports as refugees choked every road from Paris to Marseilles while German troops marched down the Champs-lyses. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Odette Sansom Hallowes was born on April 28, 1912 and died on March 13, 1995. Instead, Sansom told the Americans to take him prisoner. Her brave endurance saved the lives of many agents. Magazines, CODE NAME: LISEThe True Story of the Woman Who Became WWIIs Most Highly Decorated Spy, Or create a free account to access more articles, The Extraordinary Bravery That Made This Woman One of World War II's Most Remarkable Spies. Violette Szabo and Noor Inayat Khan were awarded the George Cross posthumously for their bravery. Odette Hallowes has a story unlike anyone else. All were terrific spies and each played a key role in deceiving the Germans about D-Day. [36], On 6 March 2020 Great Western Railway named a Class 800 train after her; the ceremony in Odette's honour was held at Paddington Station in London and attended by Anne, Princess Royal.[37]. She didnt think twice about confronting German generals or commandants, and often placed principle before prudence. The couple had three daughters: Franoise Edith, born 1932 in Boulogne; Lily Marie, born 1934 in Fulham; and Marianne Odette, born 1936 in Fulham. At any time, there could be a surprise selection for the gas chamber. Each country, including France, had its own section in London. People Who Made a Difference in Health Care, Facts about the extraordinary life of Joan of Arc. Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill (1912 - 1995) at home in Hampshire, 15th February 1947. Held by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France, for two years she refused to betray he Resistance groupswere activethroughout German-occupied France and made important contributions to the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. However, since she had claimed to be the wife of Peter Churchill, and the Germans were not sure of his relationship with Winston Churchill (there was none), they were reluctant to kill her. [21], When the Allies were only a few miles from Ravensbrck, the camp commandant Fritz Suhren forced Sansom into his car and drove to the advancing Americans to surrender. At Ravensbrck, Sansom was put in solitary confinement underground, in an attempt to break her spirit. I thank you for having faith in me. Please attempt to sign up again. Here, she was placed in the concentration camps underground prison, appropriately named the Bunker.. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. He told the Americans, "This is Frau Churchill," believing that she was related to the prime minister of England. She refused to disclose the whereabouts of Rabinovitch and another British agent, stuck to her fabricated cover story that Churchill was the nephew of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that she was his wife, and that he knew nothing of her activities. For her service, she was awarded the George Cross. [3][4], In the spring of 1942, the Admiralty appealed for postcards or family photographs taken on the French coastline for possible war use. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. And danger was ever-present. At 2:00 a.m. on April 16, Bleicher, no longer in the guise of "Colonel Henri", appeared in the hotel with Italian soldiers and arrested Sansom and Churchill. The marriage ended in divorce. Some had only rags to cover their feet as they were forced onto the frozen mud. Instead, after the war, she worked for various charities seeking to lessen the pain of war. German military commander Heinrich Himmler became, Prisoners of War. This act of selfless bravery saved him from interrogation but it was the start of Sansom's ordeal. Dec 1, 2022. While on a secret trip to England, he left her in charge. Think before you speak. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. All of her toenails had been ripped from her feet. near Herrlingen, Germany After he landed by parachute in a remote mountainous area, Churchill and Sansom hid in an inn in St. Jorioz. Men and women from the SOE would work within occupied nations, disabling factories, wrecking power houses, and severing lines of communication. Joined the Resistance (1942); captured and brought to Fresne Prison in Paris (1943); tortured by the Gestapo (May 26, 1943); transferred to Karlsruhe prison (May 12, 1944); brought to Ravensbrck concentration camp for women in Germany under sentence of death (July 18, 1944); released from Ravensbrck (April 28, 1945); received George Cross from King George VI (November 19, 1946); testified for the prosecution at the War Crimes Court in Hamburg, Germany (December 16, 1946). Check out this video. Odette Marie Cline was born on April 28, 1912 to Gaston and Yvonne Brailly who lived in Amiens, France.Her brother Louis was born a year later in 1913. 82. Knowing they were going to die gave them a sense of freedom, and they told each other their real names as well as their code names. Known as "The Hangman" and "The Blond Beast," Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was the chief lieutenant of the German secret police du, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sansom-odette-1912-1995. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. 3707 N. Division St.- Morris, IL -Lease Listing They were joined there by several other members of the Carte network and SOE, a gathering which attracted the attention of the Italian fascist police and the Gestapo. When she was eight, an unidentified disorder caused her to go blind for. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. She learned how to fire British guns, how to identify the insignia on German uniforms, how to write, transmit, and receive Morse code, how to handle a canoe, and how to evade answers under SS (Schutzstaffel or "elite guard") interrogation; in short, all the techniques necessary for leading the double life of a spy. Her conditions only improved in December 1944, when she was moved to a ground floor cell. Women also died from malnourishment, overwork, exposure, lethal injections or obscene experimental surgery. Odette Hallowes: The WWII British Spy - Forces Network It's 1942 and German troops have occupied most of Europe. As well as Odette Sansom there were numerous other female spies who served in the SOE as secret agents in occupied France they include: Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. A manifesto signed by about 20 former associates accused Churchill of being in France only to collect material for a book about his experiences and asked what acts of sabotage he and Odette had carried out. Sansom rejected the overtures. Two of those escaped, and Sansom returned, the lone survivor. Odette (123 min. //

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