Sisters of night and fog, p.44
Sisters of Night and Fog, page 44
VIOLETTE AND THE SOE
I don’t know that Vera Maidment, childhood friend of Violette and caretaker of Tania, was in the ATS with Violette, but I included her for purposes of story and consolidation of characters.
Violette was recruited for the SOE because of a number of referrals. Henri (Harry) Peulevé and Jack (Jacques Poirier) likely referred her, as did a man named Georges Clement, whom she spent time with at London dance halls. (Henri and Jack both survived the war, and excellent accounts of their experiences can be found in the selected bibliography.) Violette’s time in the Land Army and the ATS, her command of the French and English languages, and her work on the film In Which We Serve all helped get her name to the right people. E. Potter (Selwyn Jepson) was a writer and SOE recruiter. He forwarded Violette’s information along to Vera Atkins.
Clement (Philippe Liewer) and Robert (Bob Maloubier) were devastated about Violette’s arrest. They came down hard on Jacques Dufour, and tried to spring Violette from jail at Limoges, but they were misled by a prison guard who was a crook. Ultimately, Jacques proved himself, becoming a more disciplined maquisard, and the group had many successes, including the liberation of Limoges. Liewer died of a heart attack in Casablanca in 1948. Maloubier went on to live a long and adventurous life of much daring, many adventures, and several marriages.
Maman Marie was Marie Lecompte. She survived Ravensbrück but lost the skirt hiding Violette’s parents’ address. It took Marie thirteen years to find the Bushells, but she was able to track them down after the release of the film Carve Her Name with Pride. Her relationship with the family, especially Tania, brought great comfort to all of them.
Yvonne Baseden (Odette) of the SOE did meet Tania in passing at the SOE offices, and ended up at Ravensbrück. It is unclear if she is the “Yvonne” Virginia mentions went “looting” with her when Königsberg was falling apart, but I made it so to suit the story.
Violette was tortured by the thought that there was a betrayer at SOE headquarters. As investigations after the war got closer to the truth, a fire (likely arson) at the SOE offices broke out in January of 1946, burning 85 percent of all agent files. Suspected betrayers included Nicolas Bodington and Henri Déricourt. The infamous Abbé Alesch, chaplain at Fresnes Prison, betrayed agents who confessed to him to the Gestapo for money. He was executed shortly after the war.
Vera Atkins was haunted by the loss of Violette and so many other agents. Atkins’s tireless hunting of war criminals and testimony at the Nuremberg trials resulted in the imprisonment and execution of many Nazis. When Atkins interviewed the hideous Kommandant Suhren of Ravensbrück and one of his deputies, both expressed admiration for the bravery of Violette, Lilian, and Denise. The cowards apparently regretted they had to carry out the order and wished the Gestapo had been forced to do it.
Finally, inspired by my editor’s comments in her first read-through of the book, I’ve included a short list of situations that involve Violette that seem unbelievable but are true.
Violette’s father did play the “apple on the head” shooting game with Violette.
Violette did steal Clement and Robert’s wanted poster from Rouen.
Violette did take Tania to the SOE offices, and Yvonne Baseden (Odette) saw them.
Violette did run into Jack outside La Madeleine. Incidentally, Jack was hidden for a time at Virginia and Philippe’s building by writer-resister André Malraux, but there was no natural way to work that into the story.
Violette scratched her name into the wall of cell number forty-five at Fresnes Prison.
Violette, shackled, did bring water to Henri and the men on the transport to Germany during an Allied air attack.
Violette did get punished for doing the Lambeth Walk at Appell at Ravensbrück.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Patrick d’Albert-Lake, for kindly speaking to me from France and answering many, many questions on calls and over email about his incredible parents.
To Judy Barrett Litoff and Jim Calio, editor of and consultant on An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d’Albert-Lake, for their conversations and insights.
To my agent, Kevan Lyon, who steered me well in the early drafting stages and cheered me along every step of the way.
To my editor, Amanda Bergeron, whose warmth, understanding, and expertise helped shape this story to fully honor those on its pages.
To the team at Berkley—Claire Zion, Craig Burke, Jin Yu, Sareer Khader, Jeanne-Marie Hudson, Lauren Burnstein, Brittanie Black, Michelle Kasper, Emily Osborne, and Alison Cnockaert—for all their work producing the book and getting it into readers’ hands.
To my father, Robert Shephard, and my in-laws, Richard and Patricia Robuck, for their boundless enthusiasm and support.
To Frank Damico, for his eagle eye in copyediting, and to Frank and his wife, Sheri, for their support and friendship.
To the archives and resources made available from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Violette Szabo Museum, the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society, the Frank Falla Archive, and cometeline.org.
To Olivia Beattie at Biteback Publishing, for permission to use the epigraph from Maurice Buckmaster’s They Fought Alone.
To my husband, Scott, and our three sons, for their love and encouragement, and for enduring at least one conversation a day that I start with “You know, back in World War Two . . .”
And to God, for helping me find Violette and Virginia and all of the brave women and men whose stories must be told.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fleming, Thomas. “Deliver Us from Evil.” Reader’s Digest, August 1991.
Guiet, Jean Claude. Dead on Time: The Memoir of an SOE and OSS Agent in Occupied France. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2016.
Helm, Sarah. Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women. New York: Anchor Books, 2015.
Litoff, Judy Barrett, ed. An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d’Albert-Lake. With afterword by Jim Calio. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.
Maloubier, Robert. SOE Hero: Bob Maloubier and the French Resistance. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2015.
Minney, R. J. Carve Her Name with Pride. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword Military, 2013. First published 1956 by George Newnes (London).
Ottaway, Susan. Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have. London: Thistle Publishing, 2002.
Perrin, Nigel. Spirit of Resistance: The Life of SOE Agent Harry Peulevé, DSO MC. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword Military, 2008.
Poirier, Jacques R. E. The Giraffe Has a Long Neck. London: Leo Cooper, 1995.
Rochester, Devereaux. Full Moon to France. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.
Rossiter, Margaret L. Women in the Resistance. New York: Praeger, 1986.
Rothman-Le Dret, Catherine. L’Amérique déportée: Virginia d’Albert-Lake de la Résistance à Ravensbrück. Nancy, France: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1994.
Stevenson, William. Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II. New York: Arcade, 2007.
Szabó, Tania. Young, Brave and Beautiful: The Missions of Special Operations Executive Agent Lieutenant Violette Szabó. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2015.
Tartière, Drue. The House Near Paris: An American Woman’s Story of Traffic in Patriots. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946.
Watt, George. The Comet Connection: Escape from Hitler’s Europe. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990.
READERS GUIDE
SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG
ERIKA ROBUCK
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Who do you align with more—Violette or Virginia—and why? In what ways are the women most different, and what common threads do they share?
What did each woman have to overcome before she became a part of the Resistance? During? After?
Discuss how Virginia and Philippe both complemented and challenged each other.
Discuss how Violette and the men she loved—Étienne and Henri—complemented and challenged each other.
Do you think Virginia should have gotten involved earlier in the Resistance? Why or why not?
Do you think Violette should have gone on her missions to France? Why or why not?
Do you think you would have joined the Resistance in some capacity?
Both women had to weigh their family ties and responsibilities when deciding to become involved in Resistance work. How would those factors affect your decision if you were in their places?
Would you have worked in the munitions factory at Torgau?
Discuss the lowest moments for each woman in the book. Discuss the most triumphant.
What aspects of the book will resonate longest with you?
Photo by Nick Woodall
ERIKA ROBUCK is the national bestselling author of Receive Me Falling, Hemingway’s Girl, Call Me Zelda, Fallen Beauty, The House of Hawthorne, and The Invisible Woman. She is a contributor to the anthology Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion and to the Writer’s Digest essay collection Author in Progress. Robuck lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.
CONNECT ONLINE
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Erika Robuck, Sisters of Night and Fog
