FEAR-NO FEAR

“The life that I have

Is all that I have

And the life that I have is yours

The love that I have

Of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours…”

The above formed part of a an encrypted call signal, known as a fist. It was used to identify the wireless operator, calling England from Occupied France during World War Two. Previously, phrases from well known poems had been utilised but the Germans were easily able to copy them so new phrases were created instead. This particular phrase was provided to a woman named Violette Szabo who gave her life resisting the Nazis.

It’s impossible to write about fear without paying homage to three other brave men and women that faced their fears in different ways.

One such woman was Noor Inayat Khan, daughter of a Sufi, who had been brought up to believe in pacifism; Sufism being a mystic branch of Islam. This remarkable woman was actually born in the Kremlin, Moscow in 1914. Some accounts state that the infamous monk, Rasputin, was present at her birth. Her family eventually settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris where Noor became fluent in French. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the family moved to England and she volunteered to serve against the Germans. Her linguistic ability made her a prime candidate for SOE, Special Operations Executive -F (France) Section.

During her training, her instructors repeatedly noted that Noor was “unsuitable” for the dangerous role she was to be given, that of the first female wireless operator to be parachuted into Occupied France. She was also declared “unsuited for jumping from a plane”. In a mock interrogation during training, Noor was described as “terrified’, “trembling” and had, in fact, “lost her voice” so frightened had she been.

Despite this, Noor, herself, insisted that she could face her fears and was, subsequently, dropped into France, under the codename Madeleine, where she was met by one, Henri Dericourt, head of the Prosper resistance network. Noor began to transmit and receive messages, all the time being tracked by Gestapo radio detectors which meant that she had to continually move from one location to another. This was a particularly dangerous task as the bulky radio transmitter had to be concealed in a suitcase. If stopped and searched, the transmitter would be an immediate giveaway.

In order to actually operate the wireless, Noor had to run a wire, often posing as a washing line, another clear sign for the hunters. This was especially dangerous because, often, it would take hours for London to respond which allowed the detectors more time to seek out their prey. Worst of all, and unknown to Noor, or London, the Prosper network for which she was working, had been betrayed by the same Henri Dericourt who had met her upon her arrival. The Gestapo were closing in on Noor and she was forced to flee from hiding place to hiding place. Dericourt had informed the Gestapo that she had a fondness for wearing blue, another clue in their determination to track her down.

London insisted that things had become too dangerous and that arrangements had to be made for her to be picked up and flown back to England. Had she done this, Noor would, almost certainly, have been betrayed by Dericourt but, showing incredible bravery, Noor insisted on staying, mainly because she was the only link between the resistance and London, all other wireless operators having been captured by the Gestapo. As this young woman fled from one suburb of Paris to another, knowing that she was being hunted, at times, she became paralysed by fear but continued doing her job.

Time ran out for Noor when, as happened so often, she was betrayed and was arrested in October 1943 and taken to Gestapo HQ, the dreaded address of 84 Avenue Foch.

At around the same time, a French man by the name of Pierre Brossolette was flown from London on his third mission behind enemy lines. Following the death of Jean Moulin, Brossolette had become the Gestapo’s most wanted resistance fighter. He was easily distinguishable by the streak of white that ran through the middle of his hair, front to back. All Gestapo, SD and SS knew to be on the alert for this man. To avoid detection, Pierre had dyed his white streak black to match the rest of his hair but, even so, things became very dangerous and Pierre was ordered to leave France but, partly because of the bad winter weather and, partly due to a Lysander aircraft having been shot down by the Germans, Pierre decided to escape by boat. Unfortunately, they encountered a storm and the vessel was shipwrecked. Pierre made it to land and was sheltered by local resistance fighters, only to be betrayed at a checkpoint. Pierre was detained in Rennes, the Germans not yet recognising that they had actually captured their number one target. One can only imagine the fear that Pierre felt in captivity, knowing that each day, as the roots of his hair grew, it was only a matter of time before he was identified.

Forest Frederick Edward Yeo Thomas was a truly outstanding character. Unlike the two previously mentioned subjects, he did not know the meaning of fear. As a young man, he had fought for Poland against Russia in the Polish-Soviet War 1919-20. Captured by the Russians, he managed to escape after killing a Russian guard. At the outbreak of World War Two, at the age of 37, Yeo Thomas volunteered for a number of British armed units but was continually rebuffed because of his age. Being fluent in French, however, he became a prime candidate for SOE and was dropped into France on a number of occasions, operating covertly under the codename, The White Rabbit, and forming an excellent relationship with a number of French resistance fighters. In particular, he had become very close to Pierre Brossolette and, when he was informed of Pierre’s arrest and detention, hatched a daring plan to rescue his friend before the Gestapo could correctly identify him.

Unfortunately, Yeo Thomas was, himself, betrayed and arrested at Passy Metro in Paris before he could carry out his friend’s rescue. He managed to conceal his true identity even after being tortured horrifically at 84 Avenue Foch where he was subjected to being submerged, face first, in ice cold water-often for so long that the Gestapo needed to use artificial respiration to revive him. Additionally, he was beaten unmercifully and given electric shocks to his genitals but refused to divulge a single thing.

Not realising the importance of their prisoner, the Gestapo transferred Yeo Thomas to Fresnes where he twice attempted to escape, becoming such a pest that, eventually, he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

Noor, meanwhile, had revealed nothing under interrogation and managed to escape from Avenue Foch on two occasions. Her second attempt was successful but she was recaptured in the local vicinity and transferred to Pforzheim under the dreaded Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) dictate of 1941. This allowed the Nazis to arrest foreigners, deemed to be a threat to Germany, without warning or legal representation and transfer them to Germany where they were never heard of again. 7,000 people disappeared under this decree; 5,000 of them from France. Noor was incarcerated with both hands and feet shackled for ten months. Though she refused to divulge anything, she was badly treated and fellow prisoners would later testify to having heard her weeping at night in her cell.

Pierre Brossolette knew that it was only a matter of time before his hair gave him away and so it proved. He was transferred to 84 Avenue Foch and brutalised for two and a half days. His fingernails were removed, his hands placed between the hinges of a door and crushed, beaten severely and electrically shocked. Incredibly, he refused to crack. Even more incredibly, he had been provided with a cyanide capsule in case of capture but, either he had lost it, or, more likely, believed, optimistically, that he could still, somehow, talk his way out of his situation. On the third day of his torture, he finally knew that he could not take any more punishment and was on the point of breaking. Seeing an open window, he seized his chance and jumped to his death.

Noor was eventually transferred to Dachau Concentration Camp, taken behind a hut and told that she was to be executed with three other brave women. According to eye witness accounts, they all held hands and wept. Her last word was “Liberte” before she was shot in the back of the head.

Yeo-Thomas, incarcerated at Buchenwald, was, typically, doing his utmost to escape. He, somehow, had himself transferred to the typhus block where he adopted the name of a recently deceased man and was able to survive as an orderly. Eventually, posing as a victim of typhus, he managed to escape, only to be recaptured and sent to a prisoner of war stalag. It wasn’t long before he, once again, successfully escaped, killing a guard in doing so. He managed to evade capture and made his way back to England.

After the war, he was offered the opportunity to return to France and assist in hunting down and identifying those who had betrayed these brave men and women but, when his requisition for arms-which included grenades, knives, machine guns and revolvers -was received, it wasn’t difficult for the authorities to realise exactly what The White Rabbit had in mind for these people and he was stood down.