Noor Inayat Khan

Blue plaque at her Bloomsbury residence.
Noor Inayat Khan: Muslim war hero who became 'unlikely spy' for Britain in WWII honoured with blue plaque

 

There is a fitting memorial at Valencay in the Indre Department to those who lost their lives while serving with SOE F Section in France.

Dedicated in May 1991 when there were still some SOE survivors to witness the service,it lies on the northern outskirts of Valencay on the D 956 roundabout where the road meets the D 37.

Quite an imposing memorial...missed the dedication but passed through the area a few months later in September 1991 and was able to take photographs of the memorial and the memorial tablets to the dead which are located at the edge of the roundabout

 

4 Taviton Street, Bloomsbury, London

 

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan

Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan
Great Lives
Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan was an Indian muslim princess who became an under-cover agent for the ‘SOE’ – Churchill’s Special Operational Executive. She’s one of only a handful of women in the second world war awarded The George Cross, the highest civilian decoration in the UK.
Noor's story will take us from Moscow to London, then Paris. There will be Sufism interwoven with Indian classical music and tales of sultans and maharajas. Her life championed by actor, writer and director Priyanga Burford, known for roles in ‘Innocent’ and ‘Silent Witness’ and the comedy series ‘The Thick of It’. She’s also had a brush with espionage herself, appearing as a scientist in the James Bond blockbuster ‘No Time to Die’.
Having discovered Noor whilst searching for inspiration for her own writing, Priyanga became fascinated by a woman who defied expectations and demonstrated immense courage and bravery. Discussion features guest expert Sufiya Ahmed, author of 'My Story: Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan'.
Presented by Matthew Parris
Produced by Nicola Humphries

See also... other thread... Noor Inayat Khan

 

https://www.danhillmilitaryhistorian.com/archive

The SOE wireless operators lecture in the link has a focus on Noor. Very sad story.

 

Noor Inayat Khan - Wikipedia



Noor Inayat Khan was abruptly transferred to the Dachau concentration camp along with her fellow agents Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment and Eliane Plewman, and at dawn on the following morning, 13 September 1944, the four women were executed.[43]
A Gestapo man named Max Wassmer was in charge of prisoner transports at Karlsruhe and accompanied the women to Dachau.[44] Another Gestapo man named Christian Ott gave a statement to US investigators after the war as to the fate of Noor and her three companions. Ott was stationed at Karlsruhe and volunteered to accompany the four women to Dachau because he wanted to visit his family in Stuttgart on the return journey.[45] Although he was not present at the execution, Ott told investigators what Wassmer had told him.
The four prisoners had come from the barrack in the camp, where they had spent the night, into the yard where the shooting was to take place. Here he [Wassmer] announced the death sentence to them. Only the Lagerkommandant and the two SS men were present. The German-speaking Englishwoman (the major) notified her companion about the death sentence. All four of the prisoners had grown very pale and wept; the major asked if they could protest against the sentence. The Kommandant declared that nobody could protest against the sentence. The major then requested to see a priest. The camp Kommandant denied the major's request on the ground that there was no priest in the camp. Now the four prisoners were ordered to kneel with their heads facing a small mound of earth before they were killed by the two SS men, one after another by a shot through the back of the neck. During the shooting, the two Englishwomen held hands and the two Frenchwomen did the same. For three of the prisoners, the first shot caused their deaths, but for the German-speaking Englishwoman, a second shot needed to be fired because she still showed signs of life after the first shot was fired. After the shooting of these prisoners the Lagerkommandant said to the two SS men that he took a personal interest in the jewellery of the women and that this should be taken into his office.[46]
This is an unreliable account because Ott told the investigator that he had asked Wassmer the following question after he was told what had happened to the women: "But tell me, what really happened", to which Wassmer replied: "So you want to know how it really happened?"[47]
In 1958, an anonymous Dutch prisoner asserted that Noor was cruelly beaten by an SS officer named Wilhelm Ruppert before she was shot from behind.[48] Her last word was reported as "Liberté".[49][50] Noor was survived by her mother and three siblings

 

Codename Madeleine
She is mentioned in 'A Man called Intrepid' by the man who gave her the means of resisting interrogation without lying.

She was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre with Gold Star. A blue plaque commemorates her at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where she stayed in 1942–3.



A word about the George Cross as opposed to the Victoria Cross.

The Victoria Cross website says that the VC requires an act of extreme bravery in the presence of the enemy.

So six months torture by the Gestapo is not considered bravery and the Gestapo aren't the enemy then?

The only woman the win a Victoria Cross was Elizabeth Webber Harris. No mistake a very brave woman, but the enemy in her case was Cholera.

Have I made a point here?

 

This is a pretty lame reply on my part (hopefully you will read it as a "guest" though) as you have joined the bretheren of the banned.

The point you have made here is that you have little understanding of the criteria for the awarding of particular gallantry awards.

Have a read up on that prior to any further axe grinding please.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

P.S. What's the weather like on St Helena? (a cheap shot I know but sometimes you just have to take them)