You can unsubscribe at any time. London: R. Hale, 1976. And danger was ever-present. 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. Your little dog really loves me. However, the date of retrieval is often important. 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. [19], Sansom succeeded in diverting attention from Churchill, who was subject to only two interrogations, and protected the identities of the two officers whose locations were known only to her. At age 78, in October 1990, Sansom sat with a reporter for the London Sunday Times. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 1995. where are the children of Odette Sansom now. Women were employed by SOE for field work, generally as couriers, and frequently as wireless operators. 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. It was at Fresne Prison that they tortured Sansom. In 1930, Odette met Roy Sansom, an Englishman who was the son of a family friend. She died on 13 March 1995 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, aged 82. After receiving basic training in England, she was taken to France by boat in October 1942. A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. Sansom was trained to serve as a courier and a circuit organizer. Odette Brailly was born in Amiens, France, on 28th April 1912. Odette Sansom (1912 1995) a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. She was captured, interrogated and tortured, and in July 1944, sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany. near Herrlingen, Germany Save five minutes a day when the overhead light was illuminated, she sat in total darkness. A British spy who was tortured by Nazis lied to her captors to protect the man she loved, a book about her ordeal reveals. 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. . Charles de Gaulle led the Free French forces in resisting capitulation to Germany during World War II and became provisional president of France in the immediate aftermath of the war. two years. [CDATA[ They marched long columns of prisoners out of the camp, by the thousand, past the notorious sign Arbeit macht frei (Work makes one free). She is named on panel 26. [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. Since Sansom (code name "Lise") spoke French, she could plan and execute the night parachute resupply drops and arrange for secret transportation of the agents. He was held as a Prisoner of War in 165 POW Camp near Abbeville and succeeded in escaping four times, although he was never able to return to the German lines. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. A specially trained inner core of Nazis, hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler, interrogated her repeatedly. Churchill and Sansom took up residence at the Hotel de la Poste in the village of Saint-Jorioz. Szabo returned to Britain via Lysander in June 1944. Born 26 Feb 1881 in Ivry-sur-Seine, France, died 14 Oct 1918 from wounds received on 26 September at the battle of Mesnil. In some cases, hit-and-run guerilla attacks were staged. But, eventually, the camp was overrun, and she won her freedom as the Camp commandant tried to use her as a hostage. She was taught self-defence, Morse code, and how to resist interrogation. ended in divorce in 1956 and she married Geoffrey Hallowes, a wine These three would then recruit, arm and work with local French Resistance fighters to sabotage German trains, barges, bridges and supply depots. Please try again later. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Are you going to answer my questions?" It was there, the next night, that they were arrested by Italian troops and a German security agent. By the end of March 1941, the first members of the French Section were in intensive training in Britain. [14][15][16], At Fresnes prison, near Paris, Sansom was interrogated by the Gestapo fourteen times. [35], She served as a technical advisor on a film on her fellow SOE agent Violette Szabo, Carve Her Name with Pride. "[27] In 1955, she co-founded the annual Women of the Year Lunch with Tony Lothian and Lady Georgina Coleridge (journalist and daughter of the Marquess of Tweeddale). 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. They either had a skill the SS valued, a job where they could steal food, or a protector who looked after them. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sansom-odette-1912-1995. Gleeson, James Joseph. 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. She had already made three unsuccessful attempts to get to France. In between each "evulsion," he would repeat his questions, telling her she could end "the ceremony" simply by answering the questions. 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. "Sansom, Odette (19121995) She was subsisting on just one slice of bread and a bowl of. 19561995 Returning to Fresne, Sansom expected to be shot. She feared neither danger nor dagger, interrogation nor torture. Odette was a French woman married to an Englishman. Occasionally, during their imprisonment, Sansom and Churchill managed to meet and talk secretly before he was moved to Germany in February 1944. Suhren was later hanged for war crimes. The company . Mahoney, M.H. Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon," was a leader in the Nazi group called the SS, and was head of anti-Resistance operations in France duri, Himmler, Heinrich Violette Szabo (1921-1945) worked for 'F' Section inSpecial Operations Executive (SOE)during theSecond World War. from the east, she persuaded Fritz Suhren, the camp commandant, to Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. After the war he became a businessman. On 3 May 1945, knowing that Allied forces had entered Germany, the camp commandant, Fritz Suhren, decided he wanted to escape. [3][4], In the spring of 1942, the Admiralty appealed for postcards or family photographs taken on the French coastline for possible war use. Check out this video! Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. "That is a permanent link I would not let go of," she said. A collection of war medals, including the George Cross, awarded to an Anglo-French World War Two Resistance heroine has sold at auction for 260,000. Odette Labels are the industry standard for Labelling in the Automotive Industry. With several other agents, two of them women, Odette sailed from Gibraltar at the end of October aboard a small Polish trading boat. However, against all odds she survived the war and testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrck trials. "Now would you care to tell me Arnaud's address?," the interrogator asked. 1 lot left! While on a secret trip to England, he left her in charge. November 9, 1970 The other began to unbutton her blouse. [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. On April 28, 1945, on her 33rd birthday, Sansom was released from Ravensbrck weighing less than 90 pounds. She endured months of solitary confinement and death threats, but revealed nothing. Yet, there was an undercurrent of bitterness and turbulence in her. Women who changed the world Famous women who changed the world. The medal was awarded after medical records and eyewitness testimony supported her case. With Sansom stranded in Cannes, Churchill obtained Buckmaster's permission to scrap her original mission and for her to act as his courier. Biography of Odette Sansom, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 16th Mar 2008. Still Odette refused to speak. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Sansom's initial objective was to contact the French Resistance on the French Riviera, and then move to Auxerre in Burgundy to establish a safe house for other agents. People Who Made a Difference in Health Care, Facts about the extraordinary life of Joan of Arc. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. German military commander Heinrich Himmler became, Prisoners of War. For her service, she was awarded the George Cross. The marriage ended in divorce. She is buried with Odette at Burvale cemetery where her name is given as Yvonne Marie Rose Brailly. These three men were amazing spies who helped to . Britain and European Resistance, 194045: A survey of the Special Operations Executive with Documents, 1980. 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. what happened to odette sansom daughters. IWM collections. En route to the Gestapo prison in Paris, they decided that Sansom would pretend to be Churchill's wife, in order to divert attention from his London mission and the sabotage they had orchestrated in France. "The Last Days of Auschwitz, 50 Years Later: Untold Stories From the Death Camp," in Newsweek. Odette: The Story of a British Agent. [21], After the Allied landings in the south of France in August 1944, on orders from Berlin, all food was withdrawn for a week, all light was removed from Sansom's cell, and the heat was turned up. He died trying to find two of his men who had gone missing after the Battle of Verdun. Her body was soon covered in scabs, and she suffered from dysentery and scurvy. Pronunciation: o-dette, od(et)-te. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. By signing up you are agreeing to our, How the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 Made the World a Little Bit Safer, The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. Women in Espionage. Military figures Famous military leaders and soldiers, including Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Ataturk, Erwin Rommel, Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower. In 1942,Odette Sansomwas invited to join 'F' Section of theSpecial Operations Executive(SOE). On . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". She was captured, interrogated and tortured, and in July 1944, sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany. Despite a report by the camp doctor that she would not survive such conditions for more than a few weeks, after being found unconscious in her cell she was placed in solitary confinement. German field marshal known as the "Desert Fox" Her two companions Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolfe met the same fate although these two brave women were so weakened that they were unable to walk to their deaths. 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. Albert Speer Szabo was shot at Ravensbrck; Khan was brutally interrogated and kept in chains before she was executed at Dachau. 3707 N. Division St.- Morris, IL -Lease Listing They would stand on their swollen feet as the Nazis came, smoking and chatting, handing out pink tickets for the crematorium. Her first mission was to set up a wireless operation at Auxerre. In June 1940, a new volunteer force the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was set up to wage a secret war. following year she married Peter Churchill. When she refused to divulge the whereabouts of her spy circuit's wireless operator and another British officer, she not only saved the lives of other agents but enabled them to continue their work for the Resistance. 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