The short but heroic life of Violette Szabo
Violette Szabo served as an operative for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during WWII. Learn more about her heroic life and tragic death here.
Image: Violette Szabo | Public Domain
World War II was a devastating time of persecution, struggle and suffering. As always in these times of adversity, a plethora of heroes rose to the occasion, eschewing personal safety in favour of helping the common cause.
One such hero is Violette Szabo, an English-French agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Indeed, so impressive were Violette's exploits that she is one of a trio of heroines from WWII to have been posthumously awarded the George Cross.
Below we’ll take a deeper dive into her back story, the courage she displayed in carrying out her important work and her tragic end at the hands of the Nazis.
Early life
Born in Paris to a French mother and an English father, Violette Bushell spent her childhood between the two countries, allowing her to master the languages of both. This skill would prove invaluable later in life.
After the outbreak of the war, she enrolled in the Women’s Land Army and carried out such jobs as picking strawberries, assembling armaments and operating switchboards. It was at this time she met her husband Étienne Szabo, who she brought home on the instructions of her mother who wished to entertain a homesick Frenchman on Bastille Day.
The whirlwind romance culminated in their marriage just five weeks later and the birth of their daughter less than two years on. However, the couple spent the majority of their time apart, with Étienne serving in the French Foreign Legion.
Recruitment to the SOE
Little more than two years after tying the knot, Étienne was killed on duty in northern Africa. The tragedy prompted Violette to sign up with F-Section of the SOE in attempt to his avenge his death.
In July 1943, she received security clearance and spent the next several months training as a field agent in locations across the UK, including the Surrey Hills, the Scottish Highlands and Hampshire. Here, she learned skills such as navigation, weapons training, demolition, cryptography and communications.
A course in escape and evasion demanded that she also qualify as a capable parachutist. However, she badly sprained her ankle at the first attempt, an injury that would prove significant later in her career. She passed at the second attempt.
Missions to France
Due to her injured ankle, Szabo’s deployment was delayed and during this time, it was learned that her unit’s overseas espionage circuit (codenamed Salesman) had been compromised. As such, her first mission became one of reconnaissance.
In April 1944, she was dispatched to German-occupied France and spent the next few weeks gathering intelligence in Rouen and Dieppe. Although her discovery that the Salesman circuit had been damaged beyond repair was devastating, her intel regarding the location of Nazi arms factories proved indispensable as bombing targets for the RAF.
Just over a month later, Violette was deployed on her second mission, parachuting into the outskirts of Limones with orders to coordinate the sabotage of German lines of communication.
Capture, interrogation and execution
While en route to liaise with local maquis (rural bands of guerrilla resistance fighters), Violette and two companions were stopped by a German roadblock. Accounts of the skirmish between the SEO operatives and the Nazi officers do not agree, but it appears that Violette's injured ankle prevented her from escaping, so instead she provided covering fire for her companions to do so without her.
She was transferred to various locations across France, before the Nazi authorities decided they should move their most important prisoners into Germany to enhance security. For this reason, Violette ended up at the infamous concentration camp Ravensbrück, the scene of many atrocities which would later come to light during the most famous trial in history, Nuremberg.
After undergoing horrific interrogation and torture, Violette was forced into back-breaking labour felling trees, fed on extremely meagre rations and given no protection against the winter temperatures. She was eventually executed by being shot in the back of the head at the beginning of February 1945. She was just 23 years old.
Legacy
As well as being awarded the George Cross in 1946, Violette's immense bravery and selflessness was also recognised with the Croix de Guerre in 1947 and the Médaille de la Résistance in 1973.
In 1958, she joined the ranks of several heroines of WWII immortalised on the silver screen with the release of Carve Her Name With Pride, starring Virginia McKenna in the role of Violette. Her daughter Tania published an account of her two missions in 2007 and playwright Libby Mitchell composed a 10-minute play based on her final moments in 2018.
Although Violette's body has never been recovered, she is commemorated in a memorial to the missing in Brookwood Memorial Cemetery in Surrey. She continues to be an inspiration to men and women all over the world today.
