Violette Szabo

I see several threads that mention her but not a specific thread, so I though I'd start one!

I'm sure everyone knows the story of this brave woman, so I won't recount it. I suppose, as her exploits were clandestine and her captors didn't want any evidence of their brutality, there isn't a lot of infor about her.

Please feel free to post anything you have here!

Next month my wife and I will visit Salon La Tour, the site of her famous gun battle with the SS. If anyone has been before, I'd love to hear from you!

 

A very brave lady indeed.

Regards
Tom

 

This site has sadly 'faded away'. It did have some good stuff about Violette on it. Does anyone have any of the pictures or info?

 

A LIfe In Secrets by Sarah Helm
About the life & work of Vera Atkins who operated from 64 Baker St vetting the female agents.
Have read it a couple of times, strongly recommended reading.

 

Yep! A great book! So too her daughter's, 'Young Brave & Beautiful'. Best book on Violette I've read!!

 

If memory serves me right I think her daughter either wrote or had an account of her mother's life written , certainly I do not consider myself up to lacing the ladies shoes - a very remarkable young woman who gave her all.

 

As mentioned above here is a link about the Daughter and the book she wrote Violette Szabó, George Cross

 

Yep! A great book! So too her daughter's, 'Young Brave & Beautiful'. Best book on Violette I've read!!

Didn't her daughter once join this forum to promote the book?

Very brave woman.

 

Excellent book.




This out in September
Heroines of SOE: Amazon.co.uk: Beryl E. Escott: Books

 

There also used to be a Museum to her in Worcestershire.....never went and not sure if it is still open???????

 

Here's the link to a Facebook Group dedicated to Violette.

The Violette Szabo G.C. Memorial Group | Facebook

 

There also used to be a Museum to her in Worcestershire.....never went and not sure if it is still open???????

VIOLETTE SZABO - HISTORY OF THIS BRITISH SOE AGENT

Next door to Worcestershire, Herefordshire. Still open I think.

 

I e-mailed Tania with a question about the battle at Salon La Tour together with a G**gle Earth Map of the village.

The next day I had a reply with some extra info.

A very nice lady.

 

Carve Her Name with Pride
By
R J Minney

Violette Szabo’s heroic exploits are not only known within the annals of SOE but transcend into the crowded history of the Second World War. For those who don’t fully know Violette’s story could do no worse than to read this book.
The women of SOE paid a particularly heavy price for their actions against a devious and ruthless enemy. These women volunteered to fight within a bastion for a freedom that would be one of the most important in history.

“In my view, women were very much better than men for the work. Women … have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men.” Captain Selwyn Jepson, SOE Senior Recruiting Officer.

Violette became a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and was recruited into SOE. She had more reason than most to stay at home; a baby, a daughter who tragically would never get a chance to know and grow up with her parents. Losing her husband, Etienne on the 24th Oct 1942 to enemy action must have given Violette a burning desire to act.
Violette’s childhood of constantly moving house and playing with tomboyish deeds gave her enormous strength of character in later helping her to operate behind enemy lines. Her determination and adventurous spirit never left her and impressed all who met her.
Having already returned from one mission to France she undertook another which she would not come back. Violette was just 23 when she was murdered at Ravensbruck in 1945. War, just months from ending.
Not only does the exceptional courage of Violette Szabo resonate to the reader but the agonising wait her family had had to endure at the end of hostilities, when no news was immediately forthcoming.
This book was first published in 1956 and had a film based on it starring Virginia McKenna, which was released in 1958. It has a huge benefit in being written not too long after the events described and Minney being able to interview close family and friends while events and memories are relatively fresh. You gain an insight to a young woman who tackled adversity head on and never looked like giving up, an inspiration that is as relevant today as when her story was first told. The photographs in this republished book are a great addition to telling the account of a heroine, a woman whose brightness pushed back the shadows of iniquity.

ISBN: 9781848847422
Paperback
192 pages
Pen & Sword Military





Pen and Sword Books: Military History and Nostalgia Book Publishers

 

The most beautiful poem came from this...


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.

Leo Marks

 

Brian,

Here is a link regarding Leo Marks.

Leo Marks : Biography

Regards
Tom

 

I can also recommend Tania Szabo's book on her mother

Young, Brave & Beautiful
Tania Szabo
Channel Island Publishing
2007
ISBN 978-1905095209
496pp

 

Thanks Smudge mate

 

Violette Szabo's medals and other paperwork are up for sale in a few weeks. For anyone interested in seeing much of her WW2 documentation, medals etc. Please follow the link and download the pdf catalogue, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of paperwork I've seen, to an extremely special lady.

http://www.dnw.co.uk