Violette Szabo

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.

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have

Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years

In the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.

 

After only two years of marriage, 21 year-old Violette Szabo lost her husband, a French soldier killed in Battle. He never had the chance to see their daughter. At at a time when most widows (especially so young!) would be considering things like remarriage and finances, Violette offered her services to SOE.

The organization trained her in night and daytime navigation, escape and evasion methods,  Allied and German weapons, unarmed combat, explosives, and cryptography.

She parachuted into Nazi-occupied France in 1944, and was able to reorganize one of the spy networks that had been broken up by the Nazis, as well as relay information back to London regarding weapons factories and potential bombing targets.

Remember the famous D-Day landings when American, British, Canadian and French troops invaded Normandy? Violette helped sabotage German communications so the Nazis could not hinder or slow down the Ally troops.

Violette was arrested during an impromptu roadblock set up by the Nazis and gave them a hell of a gun fight before finally being taken into custody by the intelligence arm of the SS. She endured interrogation and torture before being sent off to the Ravensbruck concentration camp where she was executed by firing squad. She was only 23 years old.

Violette Szabo is one of the most well known of the SOE operatives, and numerous biographies have been written about her, and her story has even been brought to the big screen. Violette Szabo represents the 13 female SOE agents who lost their lives in the service of freedom and justice.