Hero of the French Resistance, known only as Odette, who worked for the British War Department during World War II and, when captured and tortured by the Nazis, refused to divulge classified information. Perles, Alfred, ed. 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. They were sent to Fresnes Prison in Paris, and soon were interrogated at 84 Avenue Foch, the notorious Gestapo headquarters. Mahoney, M.H. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 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. 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. After the war he became a businessman. [4] She later recalled that she had suspicions of disloyalty about other members of the Spindle network, but declined to identify whom she suspected. Save five minutes a day when the overhead light was illuminated, she sat in total darkness. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. The interrogator told her to unbutton it. Meanwhile, Sansom was feeling powerless. She endured months of solitary confinement and death threats, but revealed nothing. BORN: October 7, 1900 Munich, Germany 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. Still Odette refused to speak. She also accepted in advance that she might be captured by the Germans. //. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. In 1941 she responded to requests by the War Office for people to send photographs of France. In 1946 Sansom was awarded the George Cross for bravery and the The interrogator told Odette he was a servant of his fhrer, Adolf Hitler, and had no regrets for what he did; in fact, he would stop at nothing to get the information he needed. On December 16, 1946, Major Stephen Stewart called Odette Sansom as a witness for the prosecution at the War Crimes Court at Hamburg. Fraser, Antonia, ed. In December 1946, giving evidence at a war crimes trial in Hamburg, she would describe how she had seen women being driven screaming and struggling to the crematorium doors. She was betrayed by a double agent, Colonel Henri in April 1943. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. [34], On 23 February 2012, the Royal Mail released a postage stamp featuring Hallowes as part of its "Britons of Distinction" series. A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. Yet, only one of their answers Epcot's "Frozen Ever After" overlapped. Odette Sansom Hallowes died on March 13, 1995 at the age of What happened to Odette Sansom daughters? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Then she demanded his revolver, put it into her bag, turned and walked into the nearby village. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. On 31 October 1942, under her codename, 'Lise', she arrived in Cannes. 19561995 During her interview, Sansom was puzzled by the questions and by how much the British knew about her. Her official point of commemoration is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Brookwood 19391945 Memorial to the Missing in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. They Feared No Evil: The Women Agents of Britain's Secret Armies, 193945. They claimed they were husband and wife and Sansom was shocked by the lax attitude towards security by her French supporters. As the Russians drew closer, the entire Nazi death operation went into reverse. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. On But it was Odettes commitment to honor and duty that allowed her to persevere under such perilous conditions. Member of the Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil), Archives communales et communautaires d'Amiens, "Odette Sansom Special Operations Executive (SOE) Agents in France", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel One", "War heroine Odette was deemed 'too temperamental' for spying", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel Two", "Peter Churchill, British Hero Of the French Resistance, Dies", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel Three", "GWR train named after decorated WWII spy Odette Hallowes", Newsreel footage of marriage to Peter Churchill, 1947, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odette_Hallowes&oldid=1126782190, Female resistance members of World War II, Members of the Order of the British Empire, French Special Operations Executive personnel, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 11 December 2022, at 06:02. Susan Slosberg , writer, New Rochelle, New York. She was captured, interrogated and tortured, and in July 1944, sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany. London: Arco, 1957. Each Remembrance Day, Sansom placed a cross of flowers there. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". 1932); Lily (b. Nancy Wake was the most decorated woman of the Second World War and by 1943 she was the Gestapos most wanted person with a 5 million-franc price tag and lived most of her life on the edge and in constant danger and her story is one of sheer bravery, strength and defiance. Women were employed by SOE for field work, generally as couriers, and frequently as wireless operators. A week later, they landed on the Riviera in an unoccupied region of France. Its purpose is to accurately identify the goods via barcoding and to relate the physical arrival of the goods to the previously received ODETTE Despatch Advice message. [14][15][16], At Fresnes prison, near Paris, Sansom was interrogated by the Gestapo fourteen times. Odette accompanied him. Was Peter Churchill related to Winston Churchill? These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. They would stand on their swollen feet as the Nazis came, smoking and chatting, handing out pink tickets for the crematorium. Born November 15, 1891 47, Commercial Retail Lots - Minooka, IL- Reduced PriceCheck out a new aerial video of the property! Odette Hallowes, a British agent tortured by the Gestapo in World War II and the first woman awarded the George Cross, died at her home in Walton-on-Thames on March 13. Women who changed the world Famous women who changed the world. Rarely would an assignment be easily completed, nor did agents have the luxury of time. She seems to have little experience of the outside world. In 1942,Odette Sansomwas invited to join 'F' Section of theSpecial Operations Executive(SOE). 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. For over a year, Odette using the codename Lise, worked as a radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. While her brother, Louis, went to school at the Lyce, Odette was sent to the Convent of Sainte Thrse because her mother thought the Normandy air would be beneficial. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". In 1914 when World War I broke out, Odette's father joined the Infantry Regiment and received the Croix de Guerre and Mdaille Militaire for his bravery. Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. In the end, it was hearing tales of her French family's suffering in German-occupied France that made up her mind to join SOE. They marched long columns of prisoners out of the camp, by the thousand, past the notorious sign Arbeit macht frei (Work makes one free). After the war, Odette's marriage to Roy Sansom was dissolved, and she married Peter Churchill. She was then transported to Halle, where she was again treated brutally. After she regained her sight, rheumatic fever left her weak and partially paralyzed for months. French-born Odette Sansom worked undercover in France during the Second World War. U.S. On 16th April, 1943, Sansom and Churchill were arrested by Hugo Bleicher of Abwehr. She feared neither danger nor dagger, interrogation nor torture. She is buried with Odette at Burvale cemetery where her name is given as Yvonne Marie Rose Brailly. Letting Odette Sansom face the window as they tortured her . Educated at the Convent of Therese in Amiens Sansom also gave evidence against several ofRavensbrck's staff, which influenced their sentencing. Odette Name Origin: German. There were beatings, tortures, mutilations and rapes. 1936). Military figures Famous military leaders and soldiers, including Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Ataturk, Erwin Rommel, Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower. The Germans began a massive campaign to hide the evidence of their crimes. That brought her to the attention of Colonel Maurice Buckmaster's Special Operations Executive. Yet, despite the torture and pressure, she remained firm to her story. The torture involved, beatings, having her toenails torn out and her spine branded by a hot iron. Sansom replied, "I have nothing to say.". Her father was a soldier in the French Army and was killed during 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. In the series Billie (Sarah Shahi) is a housewife living in Connecticut, who has just given birth to her . It reads: In love and homage to Mrs. Yolande E.M. Beekman, Croix de Guerre, Miss Danielle Bloch , Miss Andre M. Borrel, Miss Muriel Byck , Miss Madeleine Damerment, Miss Noor Inayat Khan, Mrs. Cecily M. Lefort , Miss Vera E. Leigh, Mrs. Eliane S. Plewman, Croix de Guerre, Miss Lilian V. Rolfe , Miss Diana H. Rowden, Mrs. Yvonne Rudellat , Mrs. Violette R.E. Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. Peter Churchill persuaded the authorities in London that due to the new situation he would need a talented French-woman to be his courier. One Nazi interrogator caught her arms and held them behind the back of the chair, wrote Tickell. 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." Like her colleagues in the SOE, she signed up for the war knowing that arrest (and execution) was a very real possibilitya fate that awaited almost one in two for F Section (France) couriers. She recalled in a post-war interview that while everyone has a breaking point, her feeling was that if she could "survive the next minute without breaking up, that is another minute of life. Your little dog really loves me. Includes; Cleopatra, Princess Diana, Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, and Joan of Arc. [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. According to the Geneva Convention, women were not allowed to engage in physical combat, but she wanted desperately to fight the Nazis and decided to volunteer for the war effort in any way she could. On her second mission in France, Szab parachuted behind German lines the day after D-Day and established contact with resistance forces in the area. 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." Selectors, relying on instinct, looked for spirit rather than muscle. By October, when her health had just about failed, they moved her to a cell above ground. The son of Lillie ne Parkington and Abbey Sansom of Colchester. World War II buffseven military historianslose sight of the fact that female couriers operating in occupied France had the second highest Allied fatality rate (42%, behind only Bomber Commands 45%) of the war. The other began to unbutton her blouse. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. [20] Bleicher occasionally appeared and suggested that they might go to concerts and visit restaurants together in Paris, in return for which he hoped she could be induced to talk. Born 26 Feb 1881 in Ivry-sur-Seine, France, died 14 Oct 1918 from wounds received on 26 September at the battle of Mesnil. Great location near I-80 Mrs Odette Marie Celine Hallowes (see Sansom) (28 Apr 1912- 13 Mar 1995). The company . Are you going to answer my questions?" In October, 1941, she was sent by boat to France with orders to Britain and European Resistance, 194045: A survey of the Special Operations Executive with Documents, 1980. ), produced in Britain by Lowpert-Dowling-UA, starring Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard, 1951 (Sansom was technical advisor on the film). Inmates drank ersatz coffee in the morning, watery soup for lunch, and ate bread for dinner while doing heavy labor. That she survived the war was almost miraculous. drive her to the Allied lines in the west. Odette Churchill had opposed making the film in Hollywood, for fear that the film would be fictionalised. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. Odette Sansom (1912 - 1995) - a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. The forgotten female WWII-era spy who stayed silent under gruesome Nazi torture Odette Sansom was the first woman to receive the UK's second-highest honor for courage under fire. [26] After an appeal by her mother, it was returned with a note saying: "You, Madame, appear to be a dear old lady. In five years, over 100,000 women died. Both Churchill and Sansom were therefore retained in Fresne and frequently interrogated for another eight months. Jorioz by Hugo Bleicher of the Abwehr. Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sansom-odette-1912-1995. "I have nothing to say," Sansom replied. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. Yet their decorations pale in comparison to those of a courier spy named Odette Sansom (code name: LISE). She is holding Tania Szab , daughter of SOE officer Violette Szab . She began to understand that they were asking her to volunteer for more than part-time work as a translator. Odette Sansom (1912 - 1995) - a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. Coming from a long line of patriots from the province of Picardy, she rose up against indifference and was outraged when the Nazis took over her nation. During her internment, she suffered brutal treatment, including long periods of solitary confinement in the dark. In fact, Peter Churchill was not related to the British prime minister. This essay consists of three articles that examine different aspects of the history of prisoners of war. [33], Documents disclosed long after the war indicate that her superiors had to fight for Sansom's George Cross, because she was unable to prove that she had been tortured by the Nazis and that she had not betrayed her fellow agents. Again, he asked, "Where is Arnaud?" After four months of agonizing indecision over leaving her three children, and still feeling unqualified, she accepted. Violette Szabo (1921-1945) worked for 'F' Section inSpecial Operations Executive (SOE)during theSecond World War. In 1930, Odette met Roy Sansom, an Englishman who was the son of a family friend. Radio Operators was one of the most dangerous tasks, as the Gestapo were always on the lookout for radio signals. "Train me," she said. Odette Brailly was born in Amiens, France, on 28th April 1912. January 16, 1995, pp. Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill, later Odette Hallowes (1912 - 1995), Feb. 14, 1947. Who Can Benefit From Diaphragmatic Breathing? ChatGPT mentioned that FastPass and Genie+ can reduce wait times at Disney World, which is partly right. to London where she gave birth to three children. Odette Labels are the industry standard for Labelling in the Automotive Industry. Peter Churchillm. Concentration Camp. 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. German administrator, military commander 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. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". In July 1942, Sansom began her training at the SOE school, a country house hidden in New Forest, Hampshire. Encyclopedia.com. Nancy Wake was the most decorated woman of the Second World War and by 1943 she was the Gestapos most wanted person with a 5 million-franc price tag and lived most of her life on the edge and in constant danger and her story is one of sheer bravery, strength and defiance. [5] She adopted an attitude of defiance, and found that this resulted in a degree of respect by her captors and helped her survive the imprisonment mentally. The biography of Odette Sansom Churchill (1912-1995) is absolutely amazing. Sansom organized and brought about the largest resupply drops ever made to the Maquis who were hiding in the mountains above the Cote d'Azur in France. German field marshal known as the "Desert Fox" Sansom, an elegant, vivacious young Frenchwoman who had been living in England, detested the Nazi system, the police state, and Hitler. 22 Feb. 2023
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