Sincerely yours, A Bad Egg. On May 12, 1944, 25 days before the Allies landed in Normandy, Sansom, along with six other women agents of the SOE, was taken in handcuffs by night train from Fresne to Karlsruhe Prison in Germany. Each was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Popov and Czerniawski as Officers and Pujol as a Member. By July 1940, these activities were brought under the control of a central organization, called the Special Operations Executive (SOE), also known as "the Firm" and "the Racket." Your email address will not be published. Still thinking she was going to be executed, she was driven by the Nazi commandant of Ravensbrck, Fritz Shren, in his Mercedes to the American line. Biography of Odette Sansom, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 16th Mar 2008. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. 3707 N. Division St.- Morris, IL -Lease Listing A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. 1940 she made contact with the Free French forces based in London. Geoffrey Hallowesm. A specially trained inner core of Nazis, hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler, interrogated her repeatedly. On Odette accompanied him. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. Was Peter Churchill related to Winston Churchill? She died in 1995, aged 82. Those who stumbled or fell were ordered to the Bunker, a maze of tiny, airless cells. There were beatings, tortures, mutilations and rapes. People of the Second World War (1939-45) Influential leaders, generals and civilians who caused, influenced and fought during the Second World War. Odette Sansom Hallowes was born on April 28, 1912. It is Odette, Queen of the Swans. Sansom became 'Agent S.23'. Mahoney, M.H. [21], In June 1943 Sansom was condemned to death on two counts, to which she responded, "Then you will have to make up your mind on what count I am to be executed, because I can only die once." Violette Szabo has no known grave. 1932); Lily (b. Prime commercial lot on Rt. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Before war broke out in September 1939, Britain had established secret agencies to conduct clandestine operations in Europe. People would cross paths, sometimes in crucial ways, then slip away and never see one another again. Later he was an architect of the Fifth Republic and was president from 1958 to 1969. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Her work brought her initially to Marseilles, then considered a dangerous town because of its infiltration by German agents. All of her toenails had been ripped from her feet. They then moved to England where a second daughter Lily was born in 1934. August 21, 1946. In 1946, Odette Sansom was awarded theGeorge Cross(GC) for refusing to betray her fellow secret agents under torture. [10] SOE agent Francis Cammaerts visited Annecy briefly in March or early April 1943 and assessed the security of Churchill and Sansom's network as deficient and likely to be penetrated by the Germans. She was taught self-defence, Morse code, and how to resist interrogation. Odette Hallowes, from Red Ball in Somerset, was awarded the George Cross, an MBE and the . On April 28, 1945, on her 33rd birthday, Sansom was released from Ravensbrck weighing less than 90 pounds. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. These photographs encouraged the war office to recruit Odette into the Special Operations Executive SOE; the SOE was responsible for training agents to be dropped into France. Including; Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman, Emperor Hirohito, Eisenhower, Rommel and De Gaulle. near Herrlingen, Germany She left her children in a convent and began training with the SOE. she married Roy Sansom, a hotel worker, in 1931. Violette Szabo has no known grave. Actress Anna Neagle, who played her in the 1950 British war film Odette , spent one year with the WWII spy and she helped the actress research for the role even going as far as returning to the cells where she . The average SOE wireless operator in Occupied France lasted for just six weeks before being arrested. What happened to Odette's daughters? Grove, Valerie. She also accepted in advance that she might be captured by the Germans. Odette, who by that time had married her third husband and become Odette Hallowes, died in 1995 at the age of . [35], She served as a technical advisor on a film on her fellow SOE agent Violette Szabo, Carve Her Name with Pride. It was there, the next night, that they were arrested by Italian troops and a German security agent. Instead, Sansom told the Americans to take him prisoner. She seems to have little experience of the outside world. Digital 'F' Section sent agents to France on behalf of the British Government to work secretly against theGerman occupying forces. (February 22, 2023). Mr. Sansom joined the army at the beginning of the Second World War, and Odette Sansom and the children moved to Somerset for their safety. I knew kindness as well as cruelty, understanding as well as brutality. "Sansom, Odette (19121995) With Sansom stranded in Cannes, Churchill obtained Buckmaster's permission to scrap her original mission and for her to act as his courier. Sansom, an elegant, vivacious young Frenchwoman who had been living in England, detested the Nazi system, the police state, and Hitler. 'It will be your duty,' said my grandfather, 'to do what you can for your country.' As a result she was recruited by the Special Operations Executive In between each "evulsion," he would repeat his questions, telling her she could end "the ceremony" simply by answering the questions. At one point toward the end of the war, she witnessed an instance of cannibalism of a dead inmate by starving prisoners. In January 1943, to evade arrest, Churchill and Sansom moved their operations to near Annecy in the French Alps. Please attempt to sign up again. of the country. She had kept silent, but she knew about the other things the Gestapo did to women and, alone in the darkness of the prison, she feared her strength might not last. Returning to Fresne, Sansom expected to be shot. Heroes and Heroines. two years. 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. 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. She didnt think twice about confronting German generals or commandants, and often placed principle before prudence. Indeed the theme of her postwar working life, with its service to various charities and help for the underprivileged, was the healing of those wounds, both physical and mental, which had been inflicted upon individuals by the war. ." That brought her to the attention of Colonel Maurice Buckmaster's Special Operations Executive. As Odette got out of the car, Shren stood in the street with her. The company . 4659. It was at Fresne Prison that they tortured Sansom. Who Can Benefit From Diaphragmatic Breathing? One secret policeman, sergeant Hugo Bleicher, did just that. This act of selfless bravery saved him from interrogation but it was the start of Sansom's ordeal. Here, she was placed in the concentration camps underground prison, appropriately named the Bunker.. . On 16 April 1943, 'Lise' and 'Raoul' were betrayed by a member of their network and arrested. Sansom told the Germans that Churchill was in the country on her insistence. [7], Her wartime record was the subject of a 1950 film, Odette, in which the title role was played by Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard played Churchill. She left her children in a convent and began training with the SOE. She was betrayed by a double agent, Colonel Henri in April 1943. She wore her FANY uniform and the blue ribbon and silver miniature of the George Cross. Szabo returned to Britain via Lysander in June 1944. For over a year, Odette using the codename Lise, worked as a radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. Her first SOE mission was in April 1944 and in July 1944, Szabo was landed by Lysander to spy on the closed zone around the Atlantic Wall. The couple moved They would later have Lily in 1934 and Marianne in 1936. . After she regained her sight, rheumatic fever left her weak and partially paralyzed for months. These three would then recruit, arm and work with local French Resistance fighters to sabotage German trains, barges, bridges and supply depots. ." To be caught with a wireless radiosomething every SOE agent would transport from time to timewas a capital offense. "People in trouble or despair seem to think I am someone of learning to turn to," she explained. She wrote to the War Office indicating that she had lived in Boulogne for four years and that she knew the area well. When they told her she was to be executed, listing her many crimes against the Nazi Third Reich, she told them to take their pick of offenses, because they could only kill her once. Some had only rags to cover their feet as they were forced onto the frozen mud. Despite having all her toenails pulled out and a red hot poker placed on her back, she told them nothing. In his book Odette: The Story of a British Agent (1949), Jerrard Tickell credits Sansom's survival to "the unassailable dignity in which she enclosed herself." Acting largely alone, the relentless German arrested over one hundred Allied agents, including Czerniawski and Sansom. Heidenheim, Germany [6][5], As cover for her secret work, Sansom was enrolled in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which supplied SOE with support personnel. However, the date of retrieval is often important. When he assures her that he means no harm, Odette reveals to him that she and her companions have been placed under a spell by the wicked Von Rothbart. Sansom was trained to serve as a courier and a circuit organizer. 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. Bleicher of Abwehr. 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). The following month, after American and British troops landed in French North Africa, the Germans were prompted to enter the unoccupied zone, at which point the Mediterranean coast took on new significance for the SOE. Letting Odette Sansom face the window as they tortured her . Sansom was shocked by the lax attitude towards security by her French supporters. She lived quietly, carrying on an extensive correspondence. But in the years that followed, her undiminished mental and moral energy, combined with a complete absence of bitterness towards her tormentors and the nation that had spawned them, became a beacon to others who had suffered disfigurement, pain or bereavement. It does not store any personal data. Then she demanded his revolver, put it into her bag, turned and walked into the nearby village. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. He spun a tale to her of them travelling together to London to "discuss means of ending the war." Inmates drank ersatz coffee in the morning, watery soup for lunch, and ate bread for dinner while doing heavy labor. The medal was awarded after medical records and eyewitness testimony supported her case. A matchstick was made in which the equivalent of nine sheets of paper could be carried and then hidden among the regular matches in the box. The hope was that in this way their treatment would be mitigated. Odette was a French woman married to an Englishman. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Jorioz by Hugo Bleicher of the Abwehr. [26] After an appeal by her mother, it was returned with a note saying: "You, Madame, appear to be a dear old lady. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. During a mission in France she was captured and imprisoned by the Nazi's. French-born Odette Sansom worked undercover in France during the Second World War. EXCLUSIVE: Odette Sansom had fallen for her supervisor and lied to the Nazis that she was in charge leading to two years of torture. She died in 1995 aged 83. Suhren was later hanged for war crimes. Odette Labels are the industry standard for Labelling in the Automotive Industry. All of her toenails had been ripped from her feet. Larry Loftis is the author of CODE NAME: LISEThe True Story of the Woman Who Became WWIIs Most Highly Decorated Spy, available now from Gallery Books. London: R. Hale, 1976. At Ravensbrck, Sansom was put in solitary confinement underground, in an attempt to break her spirit. Odette Sansom (1912 - 1995) - a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. These three men were amazing spies who helped to . You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Act of selfless bravery saved him from interrogation but it was the start of Sansom 's ordeal,. 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