. Biography of Odette Sansom, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 16th Mar 2008. Her pat answer was always the same: I have nothing to say. When the Gestapo realized that she would never talk, they condemned her to death and sent her to the one place feared by every woman in Europe: Ravensbrck. They summoned her to Avenue Foch 14 times, always pressing her for the whereabouts of SPINDLEs radio operator and the hideout of another circuit leader. In June 1940, a new volunteer force the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was set up to wage a secret war. 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.The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe . Fraser, Antonia, ed. Her brave endurance saved the lives of many agents. These three would then recruit, arm and work with local French Resistance fighters to sabotage German trains, barges, bridges and supply depots. following year she married Peter Churchill. BORN: October 7, 1900 Munich, Germany They'll have a dead body, useless to them. Roy and Odette's marriage was dissolved in 1946 and she married Peter Churchill in 1947.[25]. 3 Commercial Lots- Minooka, IL -For Sale She was taught self-defence, Morse code, and how to resist interrogation. https://youtu.be/P60YDAkrbuw. 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). Odette Name Origin: German. 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. We use cookies on our website to collect relevant data to enhance your visit. [6], Originally Sansom was considered too temperamental and stubborn by SOE, with an evaluation stating "She is impulsive and hasty in her judgments and has not quite the clarity of mind which is desirable in subversive activity. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. She was subjected to torture. 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. Selectors, relying on instinct, looked for spirit rather than muscle. Albert Speer (1905-1081) may have known of the atrocities committed in Germany during the Nazi era, but claimed he did not., Rommel, Erwin She endured months of solitary confinement and death threats, but revealed nothing. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. In fact, Peter Churchill was not related to the British prime minister. Mrs Odette Marie Celine Hallowes (see Sansom) (28 Apr 1912- 13 Mar 1995). That she survived the war was almost miraculous. "You will realize I am not what you want.". She is excitable and temperamental, although she has a certain determination." Last updated 8 February 2018. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). [22] Sansom removed Suhren's pistol, which is now held in the Imperial War Museum.[23]. He told the Americans, "This is Frau Churchill," believing that she was related to the prime minister of England. 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. Odette Sansom Hallowes was born on April 28, 1912. Magazines, CODE NAME: LISEThe True Story of the Woman Who Became WWIIs Most Highly Decorated Spy, Or create a free account to access more articles, The Extraordinary Bravery That Made This Woman One of World War II's Most Remarkable Spies. [17][18] The British had calculated that if the Germans thought she was related to the British Prime Minister they would want to keep her alive as a possible bargaining tool. 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. He died trying to find two of his men who had gone missing after the Battle of Verdun. Sansom continued to claim that she was related to Winston [5], In January 1943, the Spindle team of Churchill, Rabinovich, and Sansom, feeling vulnerable to German capture, moved north from the French Riviera to the quiet Italian-occupied Annecy area in the French Alps. The following month she was sent to Ravensbruck Suhren was later hanged for war crimes. A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. 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. [17], In Ravensbruck Sansom was kept in a punishment block cell, on a starvation diet, and could hear other prisoners being beaten. 19561995 Women who changed the world Famous women who changed the world. All of her toenails had been ripped from her feet. Born 26 Feb 1881 in Ivry-sur-Seine, France, died 14 Oct 1918 from wounds received on 26 September at the battle of Mesnil. EXCLUSIVE: Odette Sansom had fallen for her supervisor and lied to the Nazis that she was in charge leading to two years of torture. London: Arco, 1957. Though not a British national, in February 1941 Atkins joined the French section of the SOE as a secretary. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. Encyclopedia.com. In 1914, her father joined an infantry regiment. The Gestapo believe that her husband Peter Churchill was related to Winston Churchill. Here, she was placed in the concentration camps underground prison, appropriately named the Bunker.. To honor her is to honor them, she felt. The couple had three daughters: Franoise Edith, born 1932 in Boulogne; Lily Marie, born 1934 in Fulham; and Marianne Odette, born 1936 in Fulham. "British Heroine Honored, Aided French Resistance Despite Gestapo Tortures," in The New York Times. 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. them receive better treatment while in prison. Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". [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. 4659. She died on 13 March 1995 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, aged 82. Meanwhile, Sansom was feeling powerless. To every question Sansom simply replied: 'I have nothing to say'. "I am interested to see, monsieur, that you consider it necessary to defend what you have just done," said Sansom. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. As the Russians drew closer, the entire Nazi death operation went into reverse. She believed that only if England and France survived would freedom and civilization prevail. Heidenheim, Germany [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. Violette Szabo has no known grave. Sincerely yours, A Bad Egg. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Churchill and Sansom claimed they were a married couple and related to Winston Churchill to make themselves seem more valuable as prisoners and less likely to be executed as spies. 1940 she made contact with the Free French forces based in London. Shren was hoping to save himself from execution as a war criminal after Germany's defeat. What happened to Odette's daughters? [24] Was Odette a true story? what happened to odette sansom daughters. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 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. "Life wisdom learnt in the darkness of a torture cell; Odette Hallowes, GC.," in London Sunday Times. To accomplish these tasks, couriers carried messages and money to their associates almost on a daily basis. tortured by the Gestapo she had all her toenails pulled out. 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. "How do you feel?," the interrogator asked. 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. However, against all odds she survived the war and testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrck trials. They would stand on their swollen feet as the Nazis came, smoking and chatting, handing out pink tickets for the crematorium. They killed anyone they feared might testify. Odette Sansom at the FANY memorial at St. Paul's Church in Knightsbridge, London, in 1948. [3][4] Sansom, posing as "Madame Odette Metayer", was required to find food and lodging for Rabinovitch, who was in France illegally and had no ration card, and also to tend to air drops that were sometimes carelessly placed in dangerous areas. 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. ." 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. 13th May 1944 the Germans transported Sansom and seven other SOE Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill, later Odette Hallowes (1912 - 1995), Feb. 14, 1947. They were not expected to carry out acts of sabotage or to join in guerilla operations, though there were exceptions. Another courier, Pearl Witherington , led an underground force of 2,000 young French guerillas, called the Maquis, who specialized in cutting the main Paris-Bordeaux railway. It does not store any personal data. 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. Your visit as a secretary endurance saved the lives of many agents 1941... 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