Grove, Valerie. French-bornOdette Sansomworked undercover in France during theSecond World War. But it was Odettes commitment to honor and duty that allowed her to persevere under such perilous conditions. We use cookies on our website to collect relevant data to enhance your visit. She died on 13 March 1995 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, aged 82. (SOE). The Germans began a massive campaign to hide the evidence of their crimes. Something about the future seemed to haunt her. She also accepted in advance that she might be captured by the Germans. Odette Sansom GC, MBE (28 April 1912 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. 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 and died on March 13, 1995. At any time, there could be a surprise selection for the gas chamber. Despite all this, Sansom didn't want fame. A glamorous spy, capture, imprisonment, horrific torture, dramatic escape, breathless romance. 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. Check out this video! Check out this video. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Who Can Benefit From Diaphragmatic Breathing? But German agents had begun to infiltrate "Spindle" by the time Churchill returned to Annecy on the night of April 1415, 1943. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Includes; Cleopatra, Princess Diana, Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, and Joan of Arc. Women were employed by SOE for field work, generally as couriers, and frequently as wireless operators. Leigh, Diana Rowden, Andre Borrel andSonya Olschanezky, to Nazi She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. . During her interview, Sansom was puzzled by the questions and by how much the British knew about her. Stafford, David. Her George Cross, she always maintained, was not to be regarded as an award to her personally, but as an acknowledgment of all those known and unknown, alive or dead, who had served the cause of the liberation of France. They marched long columns of prisoners out of the camp, by the thousand, past the notorious sign Arbeit macht frei (Work makes one free). 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. "Tortured French Woman Decorated by George VI," in The New York Times. 1936). Nancy Wake [3], At the time of her arrival in France, the Spindle network was beset by internal strife between the principal agent, Andr Girard, and his assistant and with the network's radio operator, Adolphe Rabinovitch. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". 1 lot left! At age 14, Sansom moved with her mother to Boulogne, where Odette and her brother ran barefoot over the rocks and cliffs during the holidays. She and Churchill were arrested there on 16 April 1943 by spy-hunter Hugo Bleicher. //. Born November 15, 1891 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. Buckmaster allowed her training to continue regardless. What happened to Odette Sansom daughters? 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. 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. 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. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. Of all the women who took part in special operations in France, Odette as she was universally known in spite of having borne three married surnames in her lifetime perhaps best symbolized the indomitable spirit of resistance to Nazism. After four months of agonizing indecision over leaving her three children, and still feeling unqualified, she accepted. Mahoney, M.H. She is buried with Odette at Burvale cemetery where her name is given as Yvonne Marie Rose Brailly. All of her toenails had been ripped from her feet. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. 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. August 21, 1946. When Odette again refused, the Nazi systematically tore out each of her toenails, one by one. following year she married Peter Churchill. two years. 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. Szabo was shot at Ravensbrck; Khan was brutally interrogated and kept in chains before she was executed at Dachau. U.S. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. Germany. Despite, Odettes suspicions, his involvement led to her arrest. Odette Churchill had opposed making the film in Hollywood, for fear that the film would be fictionalised. You can unsubscribe at any time. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Yet, only one of their answers Epcot's "Frozen Ever After" overlapped. What happened to Odette Sansom daughters? [17], In Ravensbruck Sansom was kept in a punishment block cell, on a starvation diet, and could hear other prisoners being beaten. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Sansom was sent to Fresnes Prison in Paris and while being She soon was made assistant to section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, and became a de facto intelligence officer. ), produced in Britain by Lowpert-Dowling-UA, starring Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard, 1951 (Sansom was technical advisor on the film). On December 16, 1946, Major Stephen Stewart called Odette Sansom as a witness for the prosecution at the War Crimes Court at Hamburg. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". She wore her FANY uniform and the blue ribbon and silver miniature of the George Cross. While on a secret trip to England, he left her in charge. Odette Name Origin: German. She died in 1995 aged 83. [6][5], As cover for her secret work, Sansom was enrolled in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which supplied SOE with support personnel. Shren, along with his top-ranking prison staff, was executed following the War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sansom, an elegant, vivacious young Frenchwoman who had been living in England, detested the Nazi system, the police state, and Hitler. Again, he asked, "Where is Arnaud?" Heroes and Heroines. Sansom was torn, as she wanted to help but didn't want to leave her children. 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. 47 frontage. Most WWII history buffs are familiar with decorated spies like Dusko Popov, Juan Pujol, and Roman Garby-Czerniawski. This label is usually attached to the container/package of the goods. Required fields are marked *. Around February 5th 1945 Violette Szabo was executed by a shot in the back of her head aged just twenty three. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The interrogator calmly told her that his colleague was going to pull out her toenails one by one. In some cases, hit-and-run guerilla attacks were staged. She was also appointed a Chevalier de la Lgion d'honneur for her work with the French Resistance. Peter Churchill survived the war but Rabinovitch was executed by the Gestapo in 1944. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. "I have nothing to say," Sansom replied. He was warned to avoid contact with Sansom and 'Colonel Henri" on his return to France, but when he was parachuted back into the Annecy area on April 14/15, he was met by Sansom and Rabinovich. 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. [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]. Back in her cell, Sansom ripped her prison cloth into strips to bind her feet. 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." Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. They were cremated, but evidence emerged later that some of them were still alive when they went into the ovens. 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. She told her story and accepted her GC on behalf of all her comrades who did not survive. During her internment, she suffered brutal treatment, including long periods of solitary confinement in the dark. [4], George Starr, one of SOE's most successful agents and a self-described martinet, called Sansom "a dreadful lady" and deplored what he portrayed as her seductive behaviour. "The Last Days of Auschwitz, 50 Years Later: Untold Stories From the Death Camp," in Newsweek. While Peter followed SOE training and played the village idiot, denying everything other than being a British agent, Odette did the opposite: she told the Germans that she, not Peter, was the circuit leader, and that Peter was just a pawn in their operation. London: Chapman & Hall, 1949. She endured months of solitary confinement and death threats, but revealed nothing. With Sansom stranded in Cannes, Churchill obtained Buckmaster's permission to scrap her original mission and for her to act as his courier. She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. Odettes medals can be seen today in her special display at the Imperial War Museum. Odette Sansom GC, MBE (28 April 1912 - 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom 's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. Odette Her Remarkable True Storyby Jerrard Tickell at Amazon. After she regained her sight, rheumatic fever left her weak and partially paralyzed for months. For over a year, Odette using the codename Lise, worked as a radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. A specially trained inner core of Nazis, hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler, interrogated her repeatedly. she married Roy Sansom, a hotel worker, in 1931. That she survived the war was almost miraculous. Her official point of commemoration is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Brookwood 19391945 Memorial to the Missing in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. 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. They Feared No Evil: The Women Agents of Britain's Secret Armies, 193945. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. She left her children in a convent and began training with the SOE. November 9, 1970 Once more, she refused. How much did Violette Szabo medals sell for? Each was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Popov and Czerniawski as Officers and Pujol as a Member. She feared neither danger nor dagger, interrogation nor torture. On Please try again later. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). The torture continued. She had already made three unsuccessful attempts to get to France. The infirmary doctor gave her an injection and she was returned to her cell. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. With her three daughters in a convent school, Odette trained as an SOE agent. As Odette got out of the car, Shren stood in the street with her. Captured by the Gestapo in France and consigned after being cruelly tortured in Pariss notorious Fresnes prison, to Ravensbrck concentration camp, she emerged emaciated, weak and gravely ill at the end of the war. Sansom grew close to Churchill and to Rabinovitch, whom she liked and trusted. After the British evacuation of Dunkirk, the War Office had made a radio appeal to the public for pictures of the French coast. On 3 May 1945, knowing that Allied forces had entered Germany, the camp commandant, Fritz Suhren, decided he wanted to escape. 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. She was awarded not only an Order of the British Empire (Member), but also a Chevalier de la Lgion dHonneur, Frances highest decoration; a George Cross, Britains second highest honor; and five other medals. I grew up with this sense of duty." Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill (1912 - 1995) at home in Hampshire, 15th February 1947. Please make him your prisoner." Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 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