Violette Szabo

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Violette Szabo
June 26, 1921(1921-06-26) – February 5, 1945
Nickname	Louise (also: La P'tite Anglaise)
Place of birth	Paris
Place of death	Ravensbrück concentration camp, Germany
Allegiance	United Kingdom, France
Service/branch	Special Operations Executive, FANY
Years of service	1941-1945
Rank	Field agent (Courier)
Commands held	Salesman
Awards	George Cross, MBE, Croix de Guerre

Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell Szabo, GC (June 26, 1921 – c.February 5, 1945) was a World War II Allied secret agent.

Contents 1 Whirlwind romance, marriage & child 2 Motivation & mobilisation 3 Second mission & capture 4 Interrogation, torture & execution 5 Awards and honours 6 Film & book of her exploits 7 Violette Szabo museum 8 Velvet Assassin videogame 9 References 9.1 Notes 9.2 Bibliography 9.3 See also 9.4 External links

[edit] Whirlwind romance, marriage & child

Born Violette Bushell in Paris, France to a French mother and an English taxi-driver father, the family moved to London and she attended school in Brixton until the age of 14. At the start of the war, she was working in Bon Marché department store on the perfume counter. Violette met Etienne Szabo, a French officer of Hungarian descent, at the Bastille Day parade in London in 1940. They married after a whirlwind 42 day romance. Violette was 19, Etienne was 31. Shortly after the birth of their only child, Tania, Etienne was killed as the result of chest wounds received at the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. Etienne had never seen his new daughter. It was Etienne's death that made Violette, having already joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1941, decide to offer her services to the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

[edit] Motivation & mobilisation

After assessing her fluency in French and then a series of searching interviews she was inducted into SOE, and received intensive training in night and daylight navigation, escape and evasion, both Allied and German weapons, unarmed combat, demolitions, explosives, communications and cryptography. A minor accident during parachute training delayed her deployment into the field until 5 April 1944 when she was parachuted into German occupied France, near Cherbourg. Code-named "Louise" she reorganized a French resistance network that had been smashed by the Germans, and led the new group in sabotaging road and rail bridges. Her wireless reports to SOE headquarters on the local factories producing war materials for the Germans were extremely important to establish Allied bombing targets. She returned to England by Lysander on 30 April 1944 after an intense but successful first mission.

[edit] Second mission & capture

She was sent back to Limoges in France on 7 June 1944, where she coordinated the local Maquis, led by Jacques Dufour, in sabotaging German communication lines. At an unexpected German roadblock the car that she was travelling in as a passenger was identified as suspicious by German troops and a brief gun battle ensued. Her Maquis minders escaped unharmed in the confusion. She was only captured when her ammunition ran out, around mid-day on 10 June 1944, near Salon-la-Tour. Her captors were most likely from the 1st Battalion of the Deutschland Regiment. In R.J. Minney's biography, she is described as putting up fierce resistance with her Sten gun, a close range infantry weapon. German documents of the incident record no injuries or casualties to German soldiers.

[edit] Interrogation, torture & execution

She was transferred to the custody of the SD in Limoges where she was interrogated under torture, enduring rape and brutal assaults. Then she was moved eight times between different locations which included Fresnes prison in Paris, Limoges prison and then in late August 1944 was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where over 92,000 women died. An SOE rescue mission to retrieve her by breaking into lightly guarded Limoges prison was planned but a mere two hours before the rescue attempt, she was moved to Ravensbruck. There she was forced into hard labour and suffered terribly from malnutrition and exhaustion. She also endured three months at Konigsburg on the Russian Front. Violette Szabo was executed on or about February 5, 1945 and her body disposed of in the crematorium. She was just 23 years old.

Three other women members of the SOE were also executed at Ravensbrück: Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort, and Lilian Rolfe. Of the SOE's 55 women agents 13 were to be killed in action or die in the camps.

[edit] Awards and honours

Szabo was the second woman ^[1] to be awarded the George Cross; this was awarded posthumously on December 17, 1946. The citation was published in the London Gazette and read:^[2]

St. James's Palace, S.W.1. 17th December, 1946

The KING has been graciously pleased to award the GEORGE CROSS to: —

Violette, Madame SZABO (deceased), Women's Transport Service (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).

Madame Szabo volunteered to undertake a particularly dangerous mission in France. She was parachuted into France in April, 1944, and undertook the task with enthusiasm. In her execution of the delicate researches entailed she showed great presence of mind and astuteness. She was twice arrested by the German security authorities but each time managed to get away. Eventually, however, with other members of her group, she was surrounded by the Gestapo in a house in the south west of France. Resistance appeared hopeless but Madame Szabo, seizing a Sten-gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them. By constant movement, she avoided being cornered and fought until she dropped exhausted. She was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement. She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed. Madame Szabo gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.

The Croix de Guerre was awarded by the French government in 1947 and The Médaille de la Résistance in 1973. As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, Sub-Lieutenant Szabo is listed on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre département.

[edit] Film & book of her exploits

On November 15, 2007, at the launch of Young Brave and Beautiful (see Bibliography below) at The Jersey War Tunnels, the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey said of Violette Szabo GC that "She's an inspiration to those young people today doing the same work with the risk of the same dangers". Odette Churchill GC said "She was the bravest of us all."

Tania Szabo, Violette's daughter has written an exhaustive and careful reconstruction of her two missions in 1944 into the then most dangerous areas in France with flashbacks to her growing up to show how she became the young brave and beautiful woman she was.

Author Jack Higgins wrote the Foreword and USA-French radio-operator, Jean-Claude Guiet,on mission with her in the Limousin, wrote the Introduction.

Her wartime activities in German Occupied France were also dramatised in the film Carve Her Name with Pride, starring Virginia McKenna and based on the 1956 book of the same name by R.J. Minney. During her time as an agent in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she met Leo Marks, who may have given her what is now thought of as the definitive World War II code-poem The Life That I Have.

[edit] Violette Szabo museum

The Violette Szabo GC museum is in a quiet cottage in rural south Herefordshire at "Cartref", Tump Lane, Wormelow Tump, Herefordshire, HR2 8HN, England^[3]. At the museum's opening in 2000 Tania, Violette and Etienne's daughter, attended, as did Virginia McKenna who had portrayed Violette in the film. Leo Marks, various members of SOE including some who had been involved in Violette's missions and many other representatives of special forces units also attended to pay their respects.^[4] It is here that Violette used to visit her English cousins before the war, enjoying walks in the surrounding hills. She also visited the farm while she was recuperating from her ankle injury and between her two missions to France.

The Royal College of Music offers an annual award called Violette Szabo GC Memoriam Prize for pianists who accompany singers. The current holder is James Southall.

[edit] Velvet Assassin videogame

Charles Onyett of IGN.com posted this announcement on February 28, 2008:
Formerly known as Sabotage, publisher Gamecock Media and developer Replay Studios' stealth action title shall now be known as Velvet Assassin. Inspired by the story of real-life British Agent Violette Szabo, the game tasks the player with dismantling Nazi-occupied Europe as protagonist Violette Summer.

"Rather than a trite, overused, and generic working title like Sabotage, Velvet Assassin captures the heart of what we're trying to accomplish," said Sascha Jungnickel, Creative Director at Replay Studios. "From the start we've wanted a game with a strong female lead that stays true to the history of Violette Szabo while pulling players into a world of dark intrigue."^[5]

Tania Szabo, the daughter of Violette Szabo GC was not permitted a copy of the game to review its suitability in representing Violette. It has been reported to her that the game is not representative of Violette, the woman, nor her activities in occupied France. She would be very pleased to be able to try the game but until then must presume its unsuitability

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

The The Jersey War Tunnels has a permanent exhibition room dedicated to Violette Szabó [1]. In the Press Releases there are articles on Young Brave and Beautiful by Tania Szabó [2] [3] [4].

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)

[edit] External links