Virginia Hall: The Most Dangerous Allied Agent

Virginia Hall, courtesy of Lorna Catling.

Once, just after reporting to the OSS officer on her radio, Virginia heard a car drive up to the cottage. She thought it was probably an agent coming to see her, but out of practiced caution she hid her radio and went downstairs. When she opened the cottage door, she was shocked to find a group of German officers.

The commanding officer asked her why she was there. In her best "old woman" voice, she explained that she worked for the farmer and his mother. Apparently not satisfied with her answer, the officer sent three of his men into the cottage, and upstairs to her room. Virginia could hear them knocking things over. If they found her radio, she would certainly be arrested. Her heart was beating so wildly, she was sure the soldiers could see it. Would they find the radio? Should she run? How far could she get before she was shot? Wild questions passed through her mind but she remained outside with the soldiers as seconds passed into minutes.

Finally, one of the men came down and handed something to his commanding officer. Virginia couldn't see what it was. The officer looked at the item, then back at Virginia. He walked up to her. Virginia almost stopped breathing.

Excerpt from "Virginia Hall: The Most Dangerous Allied Agent" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Diet Eman: Gestapo on the Phone

Diet Eman, 1940. Courtesy of Diet Eman.

Soon Hein and Diet were both busy with Resistance work, usually apart from each other. Diet would deliver false identification papers and extra ration cards to whoever needed them, whether it was on a farm or in the city. There was one very small apartment in The Hague, rented by a middle-aged woman named Mies, which was being used to hide 27 Jews, an incredibly dangerous number. Even in the country where it was much safer than in the bustling, populous city, there were never that many Jews hidden in one place. Diet regularly delivered the ration cards to Mies but she warned her repeatedly that it was just a matter of time before they were all discovered. Mies allowed Diet to move some of the Jews out of the apartment and into safer locations, but the next time Diet visited, Mies had taken in more Jews.

For her own safety, Diet decided to always phone the apartment before knocking, just to avoid being arrested herself. One day, when Diet called, a strange man’s voice answered the phone. Diet hung up and tried again. Again, the man answered. After calling a third time and hearing the same voice answer, Diet went over to the grocery store across the street from the apartment. Surely, if the Gestapo had raided the apartment, people in the store would be talking about it.

They were.

Excerpts from "Diet Eman: Courier for the Dutch Resistance" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Diet Eman: Invasion of the Netherlands

Diet Eman, 1940. Courtesy of Diet Eman.

On May 10, 1940, 20 year-old Diet Eman woke to what sounded like someone beating a rug with a mattenklopper (rug beater). But she suddenly realized that it was the middle of the night and that the “pop-pop-pop” sound was coming much too fast to be a Dutch housewife doing her chores.

Diet ran to join her father and mother, who were already standing outside in the front of their house. There, up in the night sky, they could see an airplane battle. They all ran back into the house and turned on the radio. It was true: Hitler had invaded the Netherlands, only a few hours after promising over the Dutch radio that he wouldn’t. They were at war with Nazi Germany.

In spite of the danger, the next day Diet decided to bicycle to work at the bank as usual. She was surprised when she was stopped on the street by a Dutch policeman who ordered her to slowly speak the words schveningen and schapenscheerder. The Dutch police were trying to weed out Germans posing as Dutch who would most likely not be able to pronounce those Dutch words.

But no matter how many phony Dutchmen the police were able to find, the Germans kept coming. After five days of defensive fighting, and after the city of Rotterdam was bombed to the ground, the Netherlands surrendered to Germany.

Opening paragraphs of "Diet Eman: Courier for the Dutch Resistance" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Hannie Schaft: A Gun in Her Bag

Hannie Schaft, courtesy of the Hannie Schaft Memorial Foundation

The winter of 1944-45 was a particularly cold one that would become known in the Netherlands as the hunger winter. Certain areas of hte Netherlands had already been liberated by the Allies, but the western sections were still in the control of the Germans when, on March 21, 1945, a dark-haired, bespectacled young woman on a bicycle was stopped at a checkpoint -- a concrete wall with a narrow opening built over a street -- in the northwestern city of Haarlem. The guards searched the girl's bag and found a bundle of illegal newspapers. She was obviously part of the local Dutch Resistance. This didn't surprise them; they had discovered many women working for the Resistance during the occupation. But they found something else in the bag that did surprise them: a pistol. Most female resisters in the area didn't use weapons. If this woman's hair hadn't been so dark, the soldiers might have thought she was "the girl with the red hair" who had been spotted during several assassinations but who had thus far evaded capture. They arrested the woman and took her away for questioning.

Opening paragraph of "Hannie Schaft: the Symbol of the Resistance" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Diet Eman: Her Resistance Work Begins

Diet Eman and her fiance, Hein Sietsma, 1939.

(Diet Eman)

When Diet first saws the German soldiers goose-stepping into her city, The Hague, she vowed not to speak a word of German as long as the Germans remained, even though she could speak it fluently. She also stopped socializing with Dutch friends whose families were eager to entertain German soldiers in their homes, homes that were now decorated with portraits of Hitler.

But Diet wanted to do more than avoid the German language and Nazi sympathizers. She and her fiance, Hein Sietsma, formed a Resistance group with some friends. At first, they just listened to the forbidden BBC broadcasts together and spread what they heard to as many people as they could. But when the Nazis began to enact laws against Dutch Jews, Diet's Resistance work began in earnest.

Excerpt from "Diet Eman: Courier for the Dutch Resistance" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Who were the members of the White Rose?

The following is a sidebar contained within the chapter "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose" from "Women Heroes of World War II."

"Who Were the Members of the White Rose?"

"The White Rose was not a membership club in the usual sense. It began casually with a group of university friends who often met to discuss art, music, literature, and philosophy. Soon they realized that they had the same political opinions. They were all decidedly anti-Nazi and, inspired by the successful duplication of Bishop von Galen's sermon, decided to write their own "sermons" of protest. The core group, the ones most responsible for the creation and distribution of the leaflets, were Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Traute Lafrenz. But numerous others were involved, such as fellow student and friend Jurgen Wittenstein, who edited several of the leaflets, and Kurt Huber, a university professor, who wrote the sixth leaflet."

Taken from "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans

"One associate of the White Rose said later that Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell were the minds of the White Rose (because they were the principal authors) but that Sophie was its heart. She helped to copy, distribute, and mail the leaflets and was also in charge of the group's finances, which included buying paper and stamps from many different post offices so as not to create suspicion.

For suspicion there certainly was. The Gestapo was desperate but unable to discover the pamphlets' authors. They called on anyone who received a leaflet to turn it in or face immediate arrest. The Gestapo thought the perpetrators must be a large group. Little did they know that the most active members of the White Rose totaled a mere six people!"

Excerpt from "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.