Acting largely alone, the relentless German arrested over one hundred Allied agents, including Czerniawski and Sansom. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. He spun a tale to her of them travelling together to London to "discuss means of ending the war." Perles, Alfred, ed. [3][7] A bad fall during training ruled out parachute entry into France. How much did Violette Szabo medals sell for? She was brutally interrogated in prison before being deported to Germany and eventually executed at Ravensbrck concentration camp in 1945. Tickell, Jerrard. The SS wanted to keep her as a bargaining tool. These three would then recruit, arm and work with local French Resistance fighters to sabotage German trains, barges, bridges and supply depots. 42,000 s/f building with Rt. When Sansom would not answer, the man kneeling at her feet fastened pincers around the tip of one of her toenails and pulled. Peter Churchill persuaded the authorities in London that due to the new situation he would need a talented French-woman to be his courier. To honor her is to honor them, she felt. (4) Odette Hallowes, The Times (17th March, 1975). Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. In commemoration of those women of the SOE who were executed by the Nazis, there is a plaque at St. Paul's Knightsbridge, dedicated on May 7, 1948. You are welcome to search for what you are looking for with the form below. Odette's medals can be seen today in her special display at the Imperial War Museum. After the British evacuation of Dunkirk, the War Office had made a radio appeal to the public for pictures of the French coast. Sansom was aided in her endurance in prison by her early blindness and paralysis, and by the example of her grandfather, who "did not accept weakness very easily." [21], In June 1943 Sansom was condemned to death on two counts, to which she responded, "Then you will have to make up your mind on what count I am to be executed, because I can only die once." Then she demanded his revolver, put it into her bag, turned and walked into the nearby village. to London where she gave birth to three children. "If I had courage, it was my grandfather's," Sansom told a London Sunday Times interviewer in 1990. All were terrific spies and each played a key role in deceiving the Germans about D-Day. She was captured, interrogated and tortured, and in July 1944, sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany. After the war, the organisation was officially dissolved on 15 January 1946. "British Heroine Honored, Aided French Resistance Despite Gestapo Tortures," in The New York Times. Agents wore boots and shoes with secret compartments. Odette, who by that time had married her third husband and become Odette Hallowes, died in 1995 at the age of . Encyclopedia.com. 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. Last updated 8 February 2018. SOE was also monitoring those who brought them in, hoping to find some who were qualified to become agents in France. Odette Sansom died in 1995. 1 lot left! To be caught with a wireless radiosomething every SOE agent would transport from time to timewas a capital offense. 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. 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. She was treated harshly, and was once kept in the dark on her own for three months and 11 days. She was 82. Occasionally, during their imprisonment, Sansom and Churchill managed to meet and talk secretly before he was moved to Germany in February 1944. Soldiers as POWs desc, Albert Speer Weapons and ammunition Walther PPK At one point toward the end of the war, she witnessed an instance of cannibalism of a dead inmate by starving prisoners. What happened to Odette Sansom daughters? After the war he became a businessman. 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. drive her to the Allied lines in the west. Odette Sansom Hallowes was born on April 28, 1912. 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. [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. However, her story was not without controversy. 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. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. [35], She served as a technical advisor on a film on her fellow SOE agent Violette Szabo, Carve Her Name with Pride. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. 47 frontage. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. In 1951, her home was burgled and the George Cross stolen. She described it as a "kind of bargaining. Her conditions only improved in December 1944, when she was moved to a ground floor cell. Odette Hallowes died at Walton-on-Thames on 13th March, Think before you speak. 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. Fraser, Antonia, ed. In January I got a project to create a short film based on the life of WWII spy, Odette Sansom. Born Odette Marie Cline Brailly on April 28, 1912, in France; died in 1995 in England; daughter of Yvonne Brailly and Gaston Brailly (a bank official and soldier); married Roy Sansom, in 1930; married Captain Peter Morland Churchill, in 1947; married Geoffrey Hallowes; children: (first marriage) Franoise (b. Required fields are marked *. Before spies left England, Scotland Yard detectives scrutinized their clothing. Her father was a soldier in the French Army and was killed during 'F' Section sent agents to France on behalf of the British Government to work secretly against theGerman occupying forces. [5] She adopted an attitude of defiance, and found that this resulted in a degree of respect by her captors and helped her survive the imprisonment mentally. Name variations: Odette Hallowes; Odette Churchill; (code names) Odette Matayer, Cline, Lise. The following month she was sent to Ravensbruck 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. Again, he asked, "Where is Arnaud?" They were joined there by several other members of the Carte network and SOE, a gathering which attracted the attention of the Italian fascist police and the Gestapo. The fact she survived undetected for over a year is a testimony to her care and professionalism. Odette Sansom (1912 - 1995) - a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. It does not store any personal data. By accepting death, she felt that "they would not win anything. Educated at the Convent of Therese in Amiens However, the date of retrieval is often important. 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. At any time, there could be a surprise selection for the gas chamber. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. When German counter-intelligence became more of a threat, Churchill moved his circuit of saboteurs and information gatherers to Upper Savoy in February 1943. Her official point of commemoration is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Brookwood 19391945 Memorial to the Missing in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. She began to understand that they were asking her to volunteer for more than part-time work as a translator. Please attempt to sign up again. 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. On 3 May 1945, knowing that Allied forces had entered Germany, the camp commandant, Fritz Suhren, decided he wanted to escape. 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. Peter Churchillm. On 16th April, 1943, Sansom and Churchill were arrested by Hugo Bleicher of Abwehr. The Gestapo pounced. Odette Churchill had opposed making the film in Hollywood, for fear that the film would be fictionalised. Odette Hallowes/Place of burial. In the series Billie (Sarah Shahi) is a housewife living in Connecticut, who has just given birth to her . Leigh, Diana Rowden, Andre Borrel andSonya Olschanezky, to Nazi She had already made three unsuccessful attempts to get to France. Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill (1912 - 1995) at home in Hampshire, 15th February 1947. Sansom told the Germans that Churchill was in the country on her insistence. Odette Sansom, also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, was born on 28 April 1912 in Amiens, France. For example, Violette Szabo fought a rearguard action with German units before being captured near Limoges. 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. She became a national heroine and in 1950,a filmwas made about her. Home | About | Contact | Copyright | Privacy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap. In 1914, her father joined an infantry regiment. 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