ODETTE SANSOM
G'day folks,
Today I feature a woman you've probably never heard of - ODETTE SANSOM. Who is she and what was her great claim to fame?
Odette Sansom 1912 – 1995
The spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. Captured and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war.
Odette Sansom was born in France, but later moved to England. In 1941 she responded to requests by the War Office for people to send photographs of France. 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.
After receiving basic training in England, she was taken to France by boat in October 1942. For over a year, Odette, using the codename Lise, worked as radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. Radio Operators was one of the most dangerous task, as the Gestapo were always on the lookout for radio signals. The fact she survived undetected for over a year is testimony to her care and professionalism.
Clancy's comment: I've always loved spy stories, especially ones based on fact. This lady showed great courage at a young age.
I'm ...
The spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. Captured and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but survived the war.
Odette Sansom was born in France, but later moved to England. In 1941 she responded to requests by the War Office for people to send photographs of France. 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.
After receiving basic training in England, she was taken to France by boat in October 1942. For over a year, Odette, using the codename Lise, worked as radio operator, for group leader Peter Churchill. Radio Operators was one of the most dangerous task, as the Gestapo were always on the lookout for radio signals. The fact she survived undetected for over a year is testimony to her care and professionalism.
Betrayal of Odette Sansom
She was betrayed by a double agent, 'Colonel Henri' in April 1943. Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. Despite, Odette's suspicions, his involvement led to her arrest.
She was
taken to Fresnes Prison in Paris, where she was interrogated and tortured on
many separate occasions. The torture involved, beatings, having her toe nails
torn out and her spine branded by a hot iron. Yet, despite the torture and
pressure she remained firm to her story. She maintained she, not Peter Churchill,
was the leader; she also refused to give any information about other members.
Eventually, she was sentenced to death and sent to Ravensbruck concentration
camp for her execution.
However,
her execution was never carried out. The Gestapo believe that her 'husband'
Peter Churchill was related to Winston Churchill. The SS wanted to keep her as
a bargaining tool. During her internment she suffered brutal treatment
including long periods of solitary confinement in the dark. But, eventually the
camp was overrun and she won her freedom as the Camp commandant tried to use
her as a hostage.
After the War
Despite
her appalling treatment, she was not over consumed with bitterness. Instead
after the war, she worked for various charities seeking to lessen the pain of
war. For her service, she was awarded the George Cross. Her humility meant she
was not keen on accepting the award, but she did accept it on behalf of all
agents who suffered during the war. She briefly married, Peter Churchill,
before marrying her third husband Geoffrey Hallowes. She died in 1995 aged 83.
Quote on Odette Sansom
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.
Captured
by the Gestapo in France and consigned after being cruelly tortured in Paris's
notorious Fresnes prison, to Ravensbrück concentration camp, she emerged
emaciated, weak and gravely ill at the end of the war. 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. Indeed the theme of her post-war 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.
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. Her wartime
experiences had taught her two great truths; that suffering is an ineluctable
part of the human lot, and that the battle against evil is never over.
Female SOE Agents in the Second World War
As well
as Odette Sansom there were numerous other female 'spies' who served in the SOE
as secret agents in occupied France they include:
- Violette Szabo
- Andrée Borrel,
- Sonia Olschanezky,
- Vera Leigh
- Diana Rowden.
- Nancy Wake
Clancy's comment: I've always loved spy stories, especially ones based on fact. This lady showed great courage at a young age.
I'm ...
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