She believed that only if England and France survived would freedom and civilization prevail. 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. At one point toward the end of the war, she witnessed an instance of cannibalism of a dead inmate by starving prisoners. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. importer. IWM collections. During her interview, Sansom was puzzled by the questions and by how much the British knew about her. Her first mission was to set up a wireless operation at Auxerre. Then she demanded his revolver, put it into her bag, turned and walked into the nearby village. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. Back in her cell, Sansom ripped her prison cloth into strips to bind her feet. That brought her to the attention of Colonel Maurice Buckmaster's Special Operations Executive. London: Chapman & Hall, 1949. By accepting death, she felt that "they would not win anything. Both Churchill and Sansom were therefore retained in Fresne and frequently interrogated for another eight months. Peter Churchillm. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. She is named on panel 26. It was there, the next night, that they were arrested by Italian troops and a German security agent. "British Heroine Honored, Aided French Resistance Despite Gestapo Tortures," in The New York Times. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. related to Winston Churchill. In June 1943, she was brought before an improvised military court and condemned to death as a British spy. In desperation, some women would scrape soot with their nails from the prison walls to try to blacken the roots of their gray hair hoping to look younger and be spared death during selection. She left her children in a convent and began training with the SOE. Violette Szabo (1921-1945) worked for 'F' Section inSpecial Operations Executive (SOE)during theSecond World War. She soon was made assistant to section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, and became a de facto intelligence officer. Women in Espionage. Four female SOE agents had been put to death in a concentration camp by lethal injection that month. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. In 1946, Odette Sansom was awarded theGeorge Cross(GC) for refusing to betray her fellow secret agents under torture. She lived quietly, carrying on an extensive correspondence. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. The journalist summed up the experience: Everyone remembers that Odette had her toe-nails torn out by the Gestapo. Buckmaster allowed her training to continue regardless. Grove, Valerie. She endured months of solitary confinement and death threats, but revealed nothing. You can unsubscribe at any time. After the war and his separation from Odette he married Carla Schmidt (19212004). The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". During a mission in France she was captured and imprisoned by the Nazi's. They learned how to pick locks and pockets, forge signatures, and derail trains. She didnt think twice about confronting German generals or commandants, and often placed principle before prudence. 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. Sansom was aided in her endurance in prison by her early blindness and paralysis, and by the example of her grandfather, who "did not accept weakness very easily." Sansom grew close to Churchill and to Rabinovitch, whom she liked and trusted. When Louis returned to school, she continued her walks alone and, though she missed him, found an unexpected joy in solitude. The Gestapo pounced. There were beatings, tortures, mutilations and rapes. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2023 FAQS Clear - All Rights Reserved German field marshal known as the "Desert Fox" The interrogator told her to unbutton it. 19561995 She was told that the War Office needed people who knew and loved France, people who could move about the country freely without attracting attention. "I have nothing to say," Sansom replied. He learned from Marsac the location of Churchill and Sansom, got a letter of introduction to them from him, and proceeded to Saint-Jorioz where he introduced himself to Sansom as "Colonel Henri". Churchill and Sansom took up residence at the Hotel de la Poste in the village of Saint-Jorioz. Odette is a 1950 British war film based on the true story of Special Operations Executive French agent, Odette Sansom, living in England, who was captured by the Germans in 1943, condemned to death and sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp to be executed. //
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