#OnThisDay, 22 Feb 1943, Sophie Scholl is sentenced to death and immediately executed, alongside her brother and a friend, for distributing anti-Nazi literature at her university in Munich, Germany.
Her cellmate said her last words to her were “how can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go.”
#WomenInHistory #History #WorldWar2 #EuropeanHistory #Histodons
Very early #OnThisDay, 29 Feb 1944, Madeleine Damerment parachuted into occupied France to be an agent for the British Special Operations Executive.
She was French, and had previously run escape lines for downed airmen. She escaped France in 1942, and then chose to return.
She was immediately arrested when she landed as the network had been betrayed. She was executed at Dachau in Sept 1944.
#OnThisDay, 25 Mar 1941, the first WRNS arrive at Bletchley Park in the UK. They operate the Bombe machines used for decoding German Enigma machine messages. Their work helps shorten World War 2.
Very early #OnThisDay, 6 Apr 1944, Lillian Rolfe and Violette Szabo separately arrive in occupied France to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SEO). Rolfe is a wireless operator, Szabo a courier.
Szabo returns to the UK at the end of April but goes back to France in June 1944 and is captured. Rolfe is captured in July 1944.
They are executed together, by shooting, in Ravensbrück concentration camp in Feb 1945.
#WomenInHistory #WorldWar2 #History #Histodons #EuropeanHistory
Very early #OnThisDay, 12 Apr 1944, Odette Wilen parachutes into France to work as a wireless operator for the British Special Operations Executive. The SOE supports the French resistance.
Wireless operators were at the greatest risk of discovery, as their position could be triangulated whenever they were transmitting messages back to London.
Wilen evades capture by minutes and escapes over the Pyrenees. She lives until 2015.
"My comrades, who did far more and suffered more profoundly than I, are not here to speak. Because of this, I speak for them."
#OnThisDay, 16 April 1943, Special Operations Executive agent Odette Samsom is arrested by the Gestapo in France. The British SOE worked with the French resistance.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #BritishHistory #WorldWar2
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#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.
She's never captured.
She died in 2023, in New Zealand.
Very early #OnThisDay, 30 April 1944, New Zealander Nancy Wake parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported French Resistance to Nazi occupation.
Nick-named 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo, she is never captured. She died in 2011.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons
Very early #OnThisDay, 6 May 1944, Marguerite 'Peggy' Knight parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance.
Knight fought her way out of an attempted capture, and returned to the UK in September 1944.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons
#OnThisDay, 14 May 1943, Vera Leigh returns to France to work as a courier for the British Special Operations Executive.
A fashion designer, Leigh had fled France in 1942 after running escape lines for Allied airmen.
After her return, Leigh carried documents and equipment such as guns and explosives around her network's area. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, she was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons
#OnThisDay, 8 Jun 1944, Violette Szabo returns to occupied France by parachute for her second posting with the British Special Operations Executive.
She is captured two days later, after a gun battle. She's tortured and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She is killed in Jan 1945. Her daughter Tania received the George Cross on her behalf in 1947.
Violette Szabo's story was filmed as Carve Her Name With Pride (1958).
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons
