Fifteen of them were captured by the Nazis. The infirmary doctor gave her an injection and she was returned to her cell. As a result she was recruited by the Special Operations Executive Her body was soon covered in scabs, and she suffered from dysentery and scurvy. 42,000 s/f building with Rt. She described it as a "kind of bargaining. She was captured six months later and imprisoned in Fresne, the Gestapo prison in Paris. "Every Sunday morning, after church, we were taken to the grave of my father, who was killed at Verdun 30 days before Armistice. 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. 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. Odette Churchill had opposed making the film in Hollywood, for fear that the film would be fictionalised. Through an ingenious plot, Bleicher arrested Odette and her commanding officer, Peter Churchill (no relation to the prime minister), on April 16, 1942. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Mahoney, M.H. Sincerely yours, A Bad Egg. It does not store any personal data. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Germany. Encyclopedia.com. Odette Sansom at the FANY memorial at St. Paul's Church in Knightsbridge, London, in 1948. Odette means: wealth. Her family did not announce the cause of death of Mrs. Hallowes, born Odette Brailly in France. These three men were amazing spies who helped to . [3][7] A bad fall during training ruled out parachute entry into France. For three months and eight days she languished in a small cell, again on starvation rations. The Germans began a massive campaign to hide the evidence of their crimes. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from Violette Szabo has no known grave. In their striped uniforms, with bristling hair on their shaved heads, Sansom and the other women had to stand at attention for two to six hours until the count was complete. https://youtu.be/P60YDAkrbuw. Sansom became 'Agent S.23'. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980. Special Operations Executive(SOE) had been set up in 1940 to coordinate and carry out subversive action against German forces in occupied countries, including France. But it was Odettes commitment to honor and duty that allowed her to persevere under such perilous conditions. Odette Sansom (1912 1995) a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. Radio Operators was one of the most dangerous tasks, as the Gestapo were always on the lookout for radio signals. All Rights Reserved. 4659. She was taught self-defence, Morse code, and how to resist interrogation. Odette was a courier for the SPINDLE circuit of Special Operations Executive (SOE), the secret sabotage outfit Winston Churchill had charged to set Europe ablaze. She was a wife and mother of three who didnt drink, smoke or swear, and to the casual observer she was quite ordinary, perhaps even boring. For over a year, Odette using the codename Lise, worked as a radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. Messages were printed on ties, scarves, handkerchiefs, and underwear. They then moved to England where a second daughter Lily was born in 1934. Odette Hallowes has a story unlike anyone else. On Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill (1912 - 1995) at home in Hampshire, 15th February 1947. ), produced in Britain by Lowpert-Dowling-UA, starring Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard, 1951 (Sansom was technical advisor on the film). After the war, Odette's marriage to Roy Sansom was dissolved, and she married Peter Churchill. The average SOE wireless operator in Occupied France lasted for just six weeks before being arrested. A list of 200 potential supporters, lost by Andr Marsac, a Girard courier, was obtained by the Germans. "I have nothing to say," Sansom replied. She is holding Tania Szab , daughter of SOE officer Violette Szab . 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. She was subsisting on just one slice of bread and a bowl of. [14][15][16], At Fresnes prison, near Paris, Sansom was interrogated by the Gestapo fourteen times. What happened to Odette Sansom daughters? Shren was hoping to save himself from execution as a war criminal after Germany's defeat. the First World War. Odette, who by that time had married her third husband and become Odette Hallowes, died in 1995 at the age of 82. 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. They scraped out human fat 18 inches thick from crematoria chimneys. On May 26, 1943, Sansom was taken to the headquarters of the German security service. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 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. On 16th April, 1943, Sansom and Churchill were arrested by Hugo Over the next few months She was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war. She was taken to Fresnes Prison in Paris, where she was interrogated and tortured on many separate occasions. In between each "evulsion," he would repeat his questions, telling her she could end "the ceremony" simply by answering the questions. Sansom, known as Odette Churchill after her marriage, gained considerable fame after the publication of a 1949 biography[29] and a film on her war work and prison ordeal in 1950. Those who stumbled or fell were ordered to the Bunker, a maze of tiny, airless cells. After she regained her sight, rheumatic fever left her weak and partially paralyzed for months. Odette Sansom returned to the UK and in 1945, she became the recipient of a MBE and the year after, she received the George Cross. World War Two's most highly decorated female spy has had a train named after her by Great Western Railway. Still, she refused to speak. Name variations: Odette Hallowes; Odette Churchill; (code names) Odette Matayer, Cline, Lise. Many of her SOE comrades did not, however, and for the rest of her life Odette asked that we not forget them. Biography of Odette Sansom, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 16th Mar 2008. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. London: Arco, 1957. At age 78, in October 1990, Sansom sat with a reporter for the London Sunday Times. 'It will be your duty,' said my grandfather, 'to do what you can for your country.' November 20, 1946. That brought her to the attention of Colonel Maurice Buckmaster's Special Operations Executive. The interrogator calmly told her that his colleague was going to pull out her toenails one by one. 47, Commercial Retail Lots - Minooka, IL- Reduced PriceCheck out a new aerial video of the property! 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Odette Hallowes: The WWII British Spy - Forces Network It's 1942 and German troops have occupied most of Europe. Britain's most prestigious organizations turned out forged papers for them to carry. [34] The fame that the movie brought to Odette Sansom and Peter Churchill also brought criticism from their former associates in SOE and the French Resistance. In fact, Peter Churchill was not related to the British prime minister. Her hair began falling out, her teeth became loose and she lapsed into a semi-coma. Held by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France, for two years she refused to betray he Despite having all her toenails pulled out and a red hot poker placed on her back, she told them nothing. Odette Hallowes died at Walton-on-Thames on 13th March, Roll call (appel) in the camps was held outdoors twice a day, no matter the weatherin summer at 5:30 am, in winter at 4:30 am. Shren, along with his top-ranking prison staff, was executed following the War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sansom received the George Cross on November 19, 1946, from King George VI, the first woman to be awarded the United Kingdom's highest civilian award for "courage, endurance and self-sacrifice." 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. Nancy Wake Gleeson, James Joseph. He hoped that her supposed connections to the Prime Minister might allow him to negotiate his way out of execution. However, her execution was never carried out. Eventually, she was sentenced to death and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp for her execution. For her service, she was awarded the George Cross. "I am interested to see, monsieur, that you consider it necessary to defend what you have just done," said Sansom. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"_AuhmkdrMi1mq61lM9R.VNRK.kGsRUbh0j6SX_5ImLM-86400-0"}; 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. The company . Last updated 8 February 2018. Standing angrily over her, he said, "We Germans have no need to excuse ourselves to subject races. With several other agents, two of them women, Odette sailed from Gibraltar at the end of October aboard a small Polish trading boat. help establish a new circuit in Burgundy. A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. She was a Frenchwoman, married to an Englishman, and was living in Somerset with their three young daughters. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. In June 1943, she was brought before an improvised military court and condemned to death as a British spy. They also learned how to kill silently. The other began to unbutton her blouse. She left her children in a convent and began training with the SOE. As the Russians drew closer, the entire Nazi death operation went into reverse. (February 22, 2023). One Nazi interrogator caught her arms and held them behind the back of the chair, wrote Tickell. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sansom-odette-1912-1995, "Sansom, Odette (19121995) Sansom instructed Rabinovich to send a wireless message to SOE headquarters in London reporting the contact. ." 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. 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). Small daughters to join the resistance in 1942 one by one, he said, `` we Germans have need. 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