The Lady Is a Spy

by Don Mitchell

  Surprised and embarrassed, Défourneaux replied, “No.”

  After introductions and an exchange of pleasantries, Virginia inquired about mutual colleagues. A few minutes later, they moved from the lobby into the dining room. Défourneaux was stunned to notice that Virginia had a prosthetic leg. He wondered how a woman with this disability could have accomplished all that she had behind enemy lines. Because the Germans were well aware of her work with the Resistance, Défourneaux noted that “she had become a master of disguises, something she continued to practice, for reasons not known to me, here in England.” He believed that she had adopted a disguise specifically to make herself look much older than she actually was.

  During the meal, Défourneaux and Paul fell into a discussion about the Silver Star military decoration. In response, Virginia “entered into a half-hour-long discourse on America and patriotism and how we had not performed our mission for a medal, fame or other recognition, but for our country.” Défourneaux would cross paths with Virginia several more times over the years, and he remembered her as “one of the most courageous, memorable people I have ever known.”

  But true to her character, Virginia was not interested in recognition. Despite the fact that she had already served two dangerous tours as a spy in wartime France, now, in early 1945, she was still anxious to get back in the fight against the Germans.

  At the start of 1945, the tides of war were changing. France had been invaded by the Allies, and the Germans were in retreat, forced to protect their homeland. The OSS continued to press for operations against the occupation forces in Austria. Operation Crocus, the defunct OSS operation to place Virginia and Paul into Austria, had evolved, and the two had now become the Fairmont Team.

  By February, plans were in development for Virginia and Paul to be deployed into Austria. Arrangements were being made to provide them with finances, not only to cover their own expenses, but to subsidize their organization and operations.

  Because of the strong progress of Allied forces against the Germans, OSS headquarters did not want to attempt a large-scale arming of the Austrian Resistance. Headquarters believed that a relatively small-scale effort, supporting the larger military effort, would be most effective. The goal was to deploy teams of five to ten men preparing to attack priority targets such as railroads, communications, and aircraft on the ground. Once sufficient preparations were made for the planned operations, they would await a specific message on a BBC radio broadcast to execute the particular operation.

  Also to be deployed as part of this operation were guerrilla bands of approximately twenty-five to fifty individuals, based in mountain areas, to harass enemy convoys and disrupt enemy communications. Their efforts had to be compatible with the “two basic principles of guerrilla warfare: Stay mobile (hit and run), and never accept a pitched battle with regular troops.”

  Virginia was told to warn her guerrilla forces against taking on more ambitious tasks, such as liberating a village, as it would impose serious logistical burdens, reduce the group’s mobility, and put civilians at risk of Nazi retaliation. Because the Nazis were focused on breaking up the Austrian underground, headquarters admonished Virginia that in recruiting her forces, “you must concentrate on quality of personnel rather than on quantity, so as to be quite sure that each weapon and each pound of explosive will be in the hands of a man who will kill Nazis, obey orders, and keep his mouth shut.”

  Virginia was to supervise acts of sabotage that would finish the work of Allied aerial bombardment, attacking discreet targets such as a switching station in a train yard, rather than the train yard itself, which could be destroyed easily by bombers. The quality of the targets was also far more important than the quantity of targets. Headquarters requested that Virginia and her team make the following targets a priority, which they should attack at their discretion: (1) the German Air Force (e.g., jet propelled fighters, repair shops, factories, and fuel dumps); (2) fuel and oil targets; and (3) enemy communications.

  Additionally, Virginia and her team were to prepare their own target list based on information they collected and developed, inform headquarters about their readiness to attack the targets, and then be able to execute the sabotage when they heard a specific message on a BBC radio broadcast.

  Virginia was to be deployed to Switzerland by land. She would ultimately be going on to serve in the field in the Innsbruck, Austria, area as both the head of her team and the radio operator. One of her team members, with contacts in the Austrian Resistance, would have been infiltrated before her.

  Paul Goillot, who would be serving as the demolition and sabotage instructor and contact with local French Resistance members, would be parachuted into the area later. It was understood, however, that Virginia was to be a free agent, operating as the representative of the OSS, and not under the control of any other Resistance organization. In a discussion about the logistical challenges of getting Virginia into Austria, an OSS official dismissed any concerns about Virginia’s mobility issues: “Diana crossed Pyrénées at 10,000 ft. [and] seems unafraid of walking.”

  Once Virginia and her team reached the Innsbruck region, she was to establish contact “with friendly elements existing among the local population and among foreign deported laborers.” She was also to collect and report on military intelligence in the area, in particular, information on Nazi government and military facilities; any Nazi plans for continuing their political and military activities after the anticipated Allied occupation; the organization of sabotage and guerrilla teams; and organizing parachute supply operations to support those efforts.

  Under the code name Anna Müller, Virginia’s cover story was that she was a German subject who was born in Turkey. She came to France in 1938 and worked in Paris. In 1944, Virginia crossed the French border, through Luxembourg, into Germany, where she went to work in a firm in Stuttgart. According to the cover story, she was to have transferred from Stuttgart to Austria, where she would have gone to work for the German security service.

  On April 28, Virginia and Paul were in Caserta, Italy, where they had been having preliminary meetings with Austrians to select personnel and equipment they’d need for their planned mission in Austria. They were expected to leave in approximately one week.

  However, just three days later, OSS headquarters decided that it was pointless to risk the lives of Virginia, Paul, and their team because of the rapid military developments that were bringing the war to a close. On May 1, 1945, Virginia was sent a cable from OSS headquarters stating that with the Seventh Army only three miles from where she was supposed to conduct operations, her operation was canceled.

  As the war in Europe was winding down, Allied support to the French Resistance was becoming publicly known, raising concern about the security of the operators still in the field. For example, the April 1945 edition of the popular American publication Reader’s Digest contained an article describing American and British support to the French Resistance. It even included a possible reference to Virginia when it stated: “The wireless telegraphy operators, one of whom was an American girl, are the unsung heroes of French resistance.”

  On May 8, 1945, the Allies formally accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had committed suicide on April 30, 1945, as Allied forces rolled over what was left of Germany’s forces. This was known as Victory in Europe Day, or simply V-E Day—a day of great celebration in Europe, the United States, and throughout the world. Richard Helms, one of Virginia’s OSS colleagues, was in Europe and had somehow acquired a sheet of personal stationery from Adolf Hitler’s Bavarian mountaintop house, embossed in gold with the Nazi swastika symbol and the dictator’s name.

  Official OSS photo of Richard Helms.

  Helms took the opportunity on this momentous day to use a sheet of that stationery to write his three-year-old son in the United States. “Dear Dennis,” Helms wrote. “The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe—three short y
ears ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins.” The OSS agent continued, “He had a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evil in the world. His passing, his defeat—a boon to mankind. But thousands died that it might be so.”

  Helms’s letter to his young son on Hitler’s personal stationery.

  Virginia and Paul, who were now in Geneva, Switzerland, left for France that day, undoubtedly celebrating along with millions. They were headed for Paris but first would spend several days in Lyon.

  Virginia Hall’s war was over. Like so many others, she was wondering what she would do now that peace had arrived at last.

  Virginia Hall had survived World War II unscathed, a remarkable achievement given the risks she took as an intelligence agent through two separate tours of wartime France. Many others in the Resistance weren’t so fortunate, and that included some of the individuals who worked closely with Virginia.

  Soon after Virginia had been forced to flee Lyon, Dr. Jean Rousset was arrested on November 13, 1942. The primary accusation the Germans made against him was that he had worked for Virginia Hall, known at the time as Marie Monin. Dr. Rousset acknowledged that he knew Virginia—it would have been disingenuous to deny it given the number of times she stopped by his office. But he told the Germans that he only knew Virginia as a patient and had no knowledge of any of her other activities. Nevertheless, the Germans placed him in solitary confinement for a year at Fresnes Prison on the outskirts of Paris. Afterward, he was sent to Germany, where he was ultimately placed in the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp.

  At Buchenwald, he was permitted to serve as a physician, tending to the general prisoner population, as well as one or two former Resistance colleagues from Lyon. This in turn led him to meet, and provide healthcare to, French, English, American, and Belgian prisoners who had served as agents.

  After US forces liberated Buchenwald in April 1945, Dr. Rousset returned to Lyon. He brought along with him over 150 medical “fiches” or microfiches—sheets of film containing small images of documents—of American and British prisoners that he had stolen from Buchenwald’s medical files. He passed this material on to US military intelligence. These prisoners, some dressed in civilian clothes, had been apprehended by the Germans while trying to reach Allied lines. The Germans brought the prisoners to Buchenwald, where they stayed for two months and refused to provide anything more than their name, rank, and name of their military unit. On October 19, 1944, the Gestapo took them away from the camp.

  Prisoners at the gates of Buchenwald concentration camp.

  Dr. Rousset’s medical fiches also contained information on English political prisoners, as well as Belgian, French, English, and Canadian agents who were hanged by the Germans on September 14, 1944.

  When Eugene Labourier’s wife was arrested in March 1943, Labourier was able to escape into hiding, carrying on his Resistance work the best he could. The Germans stripped his home of virtually all possessions and took the seventeen trucks in his garage. When Madame Labourier returned to France from a German concentration camp in May 1945, the couple was reduced to wearing clothes given to them by friends. As a result of his service to the Resistance, Virginia recommended that he be granted his request to purchase used army trucks and to be provided additional assistance to restore his life.

  Madame Andre Michel (also known as Maggy) and Monsieur Moran (known as Eugene) were arrested separately by the Germans in the early winter of 1943. Maggy was taken to Fresnes Prison, where she denied doing anything for the Resistance. She was even confronted in prison by Eugene, who had apparently confessed everything to the Germans. Nevertheless, she adamantly denied even knowing Eugene. Virginia stated that “Maggy however stuck to her guns and a very enraged Gestapo was unable to get more than a denial of any knowledge of Eugene” or of Virginia. As a result, the Germans sent her off to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women in northern Germany. Maggy returned to Lyon at the end of the war, in poor health and without any resources. Virginia recommended that she be recognized for her work and provided compensation.

  Monsieur J. Joulian and his wife were arrested in April 1943. He was taken to Fresnes Prison, and his wife was taken to Montluc Prison in Lyon, where her front teeth were knocked out and her arm broken. She was released after two months when attending physicians stated that she would not live much longer if she stayed in the prison. Monsieur Joulian was moved around several times, finally ending up in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he was liberated by American forces.

  When Virginia saw the couple in June 1945, they were still in pain from their experiences as prisoners. She found Monsieur Joulian almost unrecognizable from his imprisonment: “his shins were laid open by blows of a pickaxe, in an effort to persuade him to talk and his back slashed up by a razor blade.” While Joulian still owned his factory at the end of the war, he had no money to begin work, nor had he been given any compensation for his work for the SOE. Virginia strongly advocated that this case be opened and examined and that maximum compensation be provided to Joulian and his wife.

  After Virginia had fled Lyon in November 1942, Germaine Guerin continued to supply food and shelter to members of the underground in Lyon who needed it. One day, she was at the safe house in the Rue Boileau where “the Siamese twins” were staying. The doorbell rang at an unusual time of day, and Germaine sensed that something must be wrong. She opened the door to see seven members of the Gestapo standing before her. She stalled long enough to allow the twins to slip out of the flat through a window to safety. Germaine was arrested and taken away, careful not to mention the existence of other safe houses, at least one of which was occupied. She was sent to Fresnes Prison, and ultimately to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.

  Germaine Guerin was returned to France on April 5, 1945, as part of a prisoner exchange. Her possessions had all been taken by the Germans, and the wealthy benefactor who subsidized much of her efforts to support the Resistance movement was suffocated in a crowded train car on the way to Germany. Virginia recommended that Germaine be recognized for her work and provided compensation.

  One evening in April 1943, while having dinner with Eugenie Catin and a woman named Madame Beson at a safe house in Lyon, the Newton brothers’ apartment was stormed by the Gestapo. The brothers were imprisoned and tortured by Klaus Barbie, the ruthless head of the Gestapo in Lyon.

  During this same time, a woman who worked as a radio operator for a Resistance circuit was arrested in Lyon and interrogated regularly by Barbie. She would later recall Barbie interrogating a Jewish prisoner in the cell next to her:

  The cell door opened, he didn’t pronounce the prisoner’s name, he said, “So, have you decided to talk? You’re a bastard,” and he took out his revolver … He said, “You dirty Jew” and so on … I heard the prisoner say, “Please, don’t kill me, I’ll tell you everything. I’ll tell you everything, don’t kill me,” and then, at the same time, bang, bang, and it was all over. The next day, I quickly asked the person who brought the soup round, “Next door?” and was told, “We tidied everything up, it’s finished.” Barbie had killed him, he had shot him. We lived bathed in terror.

  Interior of a cell at Fresnes Prison.

  This was the sort of ordeal the brothers, and so many others, were forced to endure. But they refused to give up any secrets to Barbie, and the following month they were transferred to the Fresnes Prison, where their interrogation continued. Still refusing to talk, they were sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where they were able to escape execution by constantly altering their prisoner identification numbers. When Buchenwald was liberated by the Americans the month before the war ended, Artus and Auguste were two of the four surviving British agents left in the camp.

  After being arrested with the twins, Madame Eugenie Catin was sent to Fresnes Prison as well as several other prisons. She ultimately wound up at the Holleisc
hen concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. She stayed there until May 1945, when the camp was liberated by American forces. When Madame Catin’s husband learned of her arrest, he escaped to the mountains for a while. He returned to their home to find that the Germans had stripped the apartment of all their possessions. Virginia recommended that Madame Catin be recognized for her work and provided compensation.

  After Peter Churchill’s first mission to France in early 1942 when he worked with Virginia, Churchill made two additional expeditions later that year to Antibes, on the French Riviera. In training another circuit in sabotage, he worked particularly closely with two SOE agents, a wireless operator and a French-born courier named Odette Sansom. The attempts to create an effective Resistance effort were thwarted by internal squabbling, the German invasion of unoccupied southern France in November 1942, and poor operational security.

  In an effort to elude capture by the Nazis, Peter moved the remnants of the circuit to Saint-Jorioz, France. After returning to France for consultation, Peter parachuted back into the area in April 1943, and within hours, he and Odette were betrayed and arrested at their hotel in Saint-Jorioz. The couple was initially held by Italian authorities, and they represented themselves as married, with Peter falsely claiming to be a relative of British prime minister Winston Churchill. It was their hope that this claim would make them less likely to be executed as spies. The ruse appeared to work.