The medal was awarded after medical records and eyewitness testimony supported her case. Germany. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. 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. In January I got a project to create a short film based on the life of WWII spy, Odette Sansom. On Feb. 23, 2012, almost 70 years after she joined the SOE, the Royal Mail released a stamp in her honor as part of its Britons of Distinction series. There were beatings, tortures, mutilations and rapes. She was captured, interrogated and tortured, and in July 1944, sent to Ravensbrck concentration camp in Germany. Sansom told the Germans that Churchill was in the country on her insistence. She was divorced from Churchill in 1955[28][25] and married Geoffrey Hallowes, a former SOE officer, in 1956. Her wartime experiences and endurance of a brutal interrogation and imprisonment, which were chronicled in books and a motion picture, made her one of the most celebrated members of the SOE and one of the few to survive Nazi imprisonment. Sansom was shocked by the lax attitude towards security by her French supporters. This jacket was worn by Odette Sansom during the course of her confinement in Fresnes Prison and Ravensbrck. A list of 200 potential supporters, lost by Andr Marsac, a Girard courier, was obtained by the Germans. Other The marriage Fraser, Antonia, ed. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Colonel Henri was a German officer who claimed he wished to work for the allies. In October, 1941, she was sent by boat to France with orders to At age 14, Sansom moved with her mother to Boulogne, where Odette and her brother ran barefoot over the rocks and cliffs during the holidays. A French agent working for the British during World War II, Odette Sansom left three small daughters to join the Resistance in 1942. 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. 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. 19471956 Joined the Resistance (1942); captured and brought to Fresne Prison in Paris (1943); tortured by the Gestapo (May 26, 1943); transferred to Karlsruhe prison (May 12, 1944); brought to Ravensbrck concentration camp for women in Germany under sentence of death (July 18, 1944); released from Ravensbrck (April 28, 1945); received George Cross from King George VI (November 19, 1946); testified for the prosecution at the War Crimes Court in Hamburg, Germany (December 16, 1946). 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. Indeed the theme of her postwar 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. ChatGPT mentioned that FastPass and Genie+ can reduce wait times at Disney World, which is partly right. Odette Sansom (1912 - 1995) - a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. What happened to Odette's daughters? 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. [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. During her internment, she suffered brutal treatment, including long periods of solitary confinement in the dark. 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. https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sansom-odette-1912-1995, "Sansom, Odette (19121995) 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. 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. A year later, they were married, and their first daughter Franoise was born in 1932. Odette Her Remarkable True Storyby Jerrard Tickell at Amazon. As a result she was recruited by the Special Operations Executive These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Then she demanded his revolver, put it into her bag, turned and walked into the nearby village. Last updated 8 February 2018. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". drive her to the Allied lines in the west. She learned how to fire British guns, how to identify the insignia on German uniforms, how to write, transmit, and receive Morse code, how to handle a canoe, and how to evade answers under SS (Schutzstaffel or "elite guard") interrogation; in short, all the techniques necessary for leading the double life of a spy. He died trying to find two of his men who had gone missing after the Battle of Verdun. Odette Name Origin: German. The biography of Odette Sansom Churchill (1912-1995) is absolutely amazing. Odette Sansom (1912 1995) a French/British spy who worked as an SOE operative in occupied France. Sansom continued to claim that she was related to Winston [10] SOE agent Francis Cammaerts visited Annecy briefly in March or early April 1943 and assessed the security of Churchill and Sansom's network as deficient and likely to be penetrated by the Germans. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. French-bornOdette Sansomworked undercover in France during theSecond World War. After the war, Odette's marriage to Roy Sansom was dissolved, and she married Peter Churchill. Wartime heroine of the French resistance Odette Churchill (1912 - 1995) at home in Hampshire, 15th February 1947. Each country, including France, had its own section in London. She became a national heroine and in 1950,a filmwas made about her. Violette Szabo has no known grave. She was met by Peter Churchill, codename 'Raoul', and joined his resistance group. They also learned how to kill silently. [6][5], As cover for her secret work, Sansom was enrolled in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which supplied SOE with support personnel. (SOE). 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. 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). Ask a World War II aficionado to name the wars most highly decorated spy and youre likely to get one of three answers: Dusko Popov (code name: TRICYCLE), the MI5/MI6 double agent who warned the FBI about Pearl Harbor and inspired Ian Flemings James Bond; Juan Pujol (code name: GARBO), the crafty Spaniard who fooled the Germans with a fictional network of 15 agents; or Roman Garby-Czerniawski (code name: BRUTUS), the Polish double agent who at one time had a hundred agents in his INTERALLI circuit. Despite all this, Sansom didn't want fame. They'll have a dead body, useless to them. Violette Szabo joined the Special Operations Executive in 1943. On May 26, 1943, Sansom was taken to the headquarters of the German security service. When she did, he pulled back the material and pressed a red-hot poker to her spine. "People in trouble or despair seem to think I am someone of learning to turn to," she explained. What happened to Odette Hallowes? Instead, after the war, she worked for various charities seeking to lessen the pain of war. Held by the Gestapo. Some mistakenly say finger-nails: but her torturers stopped short when they realised that even the grotesque pain of the toe-nails could not persuade her to speak (and having been ticked off firmly by Odette myself, for springing a photographer on her, I understand the Gestapo's reluctance to displease her further). Odette's other companions remained at Karlsruhe until September when they were taken to Dachau concentration camp. "[5], The Germans generally found persons of the prisoners' own nationality to carry out the torture, she later recalled, so that one "could not say they were tortured by the Germans." Something about the future seemed to haunt her. Women who changed the world Famous women who changed the world. When Odette again refused, the Nazi systematically tore out each of her toenails, one by one. Agents wore boots and shoes with secret compartments. Hearing the broadcast, Sansom wrote that she had photographs taken around Boulogne, but she mistakenly sent her letter to the War Office instead of the Admiralty. Violette Szabos code-name was Corrinne. Albert Speer (1905-1081) may have known of the atrocities committed in Germany during the Nazi era, but claimed he did not., Rommel, Erwin When he assures her that he means no harm, Odette reveals to him that she and her companions have been placed under a spell by the wicked Von Rothbart. In fact, Peter Churchill was not related to the British prime minister. 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. Odette Hallowes died at Walton-on-Thames on 13th March, Your email address will not be published. 47, Commercial Retail Lots - Minooka, IL- Reduced PriceCheck out a new aerial video of the property! The purpose of these photos was to determine the exact topography of a particular section. 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. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Grove, Valerie. The fact she survived undetected for over a year is a testimony to her care and professionalism. [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. "I have nothing to say," Sansom replied. The interrogator calmly told her that his colleague was going to pull out her toenails one by one. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. https://youtu.be/P60YDAkrbuw. Yet she was a trained killer. Each Remembrance Day, Sansom placed a cross of flowers there. Sansom was sent to Fresnes Prison in Paris and while being All were terrific spies and each played a key role in deceiving the Germans about D-Day. Starved and tortured, Odette never broke. She refused to disclose the whereabouts of Rabinovitch and another British agent, stuck to her fabricated cover story that Churchill was the nephew of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that she was his wife, and that he knew nothing of her activities. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The son of Lillie ne Parkington and Abbey Sansom of Colchester. For three months and eight days she languished in a small cell, again on starvation rations. She died in 1995 aged 83. They hoped that this story would help. [11], Meanwhile, in Paris in mid-March, spy-catcher Hugo Bleicher, an Abwehr counterintelligence officer, arrested Marsac, persuading him and another Carte associate, Roger Bardet, that he was an anti-Nazi German colonel and that they should work together. 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. They were not expected to carry out acts of sabotage or to join in guerilla operations, though there were exceptions. Captain Peter Morland Churchill (code name "Raoul") was the commanding officer of the Marseilles-Cannes SOE circuit (code name "Spindle"), one of nearly 50 secret organizations run by British agents in occupied France. Each was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Popov and Czerniawski as Officers and Pujol as a Member. She maintained that she, not Peter Churchill, was the leader; she also refused to give any information about other members. Moved north, she was locked for nearly a week in a cage at police headquarters in Frankfurt. At Ravensbrck, Sansom was put in solitary confinement underground, in an attempt to break her spirit. Sansom also gave evidence against several ofRavensbrck's staff, which influenced their sentencing. Buckmaster allowed her training to continue regardless. "The Last Days of Auschwitz, 50 Years Later: Untold Stories From the Death Camp," in Newsweek. However, since she had claimed to be the wife of Peter Churchill, and the Germans were not sure of his relationship with Winston Churchill (there was none), they were reluctant to kill her. Sansom, an elegant, vivacious young Frenchwoman who had been living in England, detested the Nazi system, the police state, and Hitler. She is named on panel 26. Member of the Order of the British Empire, Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil), Archives communales et communautaires d'Amiens, "Odette Sansom Special Operations Executive (SOE) Agents in France", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel One", "War heroine Odette was deemed 'too temperamental' for spying", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel Two", "Peter Churchill, British Hero Of the French Resistance, Dies", "Sansom, Odette Marie Cline (Imperial War Museums interview) Reel Three", "GWR train named after decorated WWII spy Odette Hallowes", Newsreel footage of marriage to Peter Churchill, 1947, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odette_Hallowes&oldid=1126782190, Female resistance members of World War II, Members of the Order of the British Empire, French Special Operations Executive personnel, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 11 December 2022, at 06:02. "Every Sunday morning, after church, we were taken to the grave of my father, who was killed at Verdun 30 days before Armistice. Odette Hallowes/Place of burial. The SS wanted to keep her as a bargaining tool. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Peter Churchillm. Odette Marie Cline was born on April 28, 1912 to Gaston and Yvonne Brailly who lived in Amiens, France.Her brother Louis was born a year later in 1913. [20] Bleicher occasionally appeared and suggested that they might go to concerts and visit restaurants together in Paris, in return for which he hoped she could be induced to talk. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. 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 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." Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. London: Chapman & Hall, 1949. 22 Feb. 2023 . I knew kindness as well as cruelty, understanding as well as brutality. Its agents were mainly tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Held by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France, for two years she refused to betray he . 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. The interrogator told her to unbutton it. Sincerely yours, A Bad Egg. Wehrmacht soldiers, Vichy police, Abwehr (German military intelligence) and Gestapo were everywhere: control checkpoints, hotels, cafes, trains even brothels. In the series Billie (Sarah Shahi) is a housewife living in Connecticut, who has just given birth to her . Through an ingenious plot, Bleicher arrested Odette and her commanding officer, Peter Churchill (no relation to the prime minister), on April 16, 1942. At one point toward the end of the war, she witnessed an instance of cannibalism of a dead inmate by starving prisoners. Agents learned how to place explosive matchboxes or fountain pens where they would do the most damage. Fifteen of them were captured by the Nazis. Great access to I-80. "If you tell me what you want me to do and release one hand I will do it." They hid microdots bearing secret codes on their bodies, or in toothpaste tubes, shoelaces or buttons. To honor her is to honor them, she felt. 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. After receiving basic training in England, she was taken to France by boat in October 1942. "I resent your hands on me or on my clothes," she said. These three would then recruit, arm and work with local French Resistance fighters to sabotage German trains, barges, bridges and supply depots. No underling in occupied Paris was prepared to order the execution of an agent who might, later in the war, be of considerable value to Berlin. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Britain's most prestigious organizations turned out forged papers for them to carry. When German counter-intelligence became more of a threat, Churchill moved his circuit of saboteurs and information gatherers to Upper Savoy in February 1943. 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. Her back was scorched with a red-hot poker and all of her toenails were pulled out. 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. That she survived the war was almost miraculous. The company . 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. She was to land on the Mediterranean coast and work her way north, where SOE hoped to establish a new circuit. Odette Sansom was born in France but later moved to England. The hope was that in this way their treatment would be mitigated. On 16th April, 1943, Sansom and Churchill were arrested by Hugo Bleicher of Abwehr. //