Eileen Nearne, 1921-2010

[Bilge_Rat]

Lest we forget:

Ms. Nearne, her older sister, Jacqueline, and their brother, Francis, were recruited by the Special Operations Executive. In March 1944, Didi Nearne followed her sister in parachuting into France, remaining there, under the code name Agent Rose, after her sister was airlifted back to Britain.

Ms. Nearne, known as Didi, volunteered for work that was as dangerous as any that wartime Britain had to offer: operating a secret radio link from Paris that was used to organize weapons drops to the French resistance and to shuttle messages back and forth between controllers in London and the resistance.

After several narrow escapes, she was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1944 and sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp near Berlin, a camp that was primarily intended for women, tens of thousands of whom died there.

Ms. Nearne survived, though other women working for the Special Operations Executive were executed in the Nazi camps.

As she related in postwar debriefings, documented in Britain’s National Archives, the Gestapo tortured her — beating her, stripping her naked, then submerging her repeatedly in a bath of ice-cold water until she began to black out from lack of oxygen. Yet they failed to force her to yield the secrets they sought: her real identity, the names of others working with her in the resistance and the assignments given to her by London. At the time, she was 23.

The account she gave her captors was that she was an innocent and somewhat gullible Frenchwoman named Jacqueline Duterte, and that she had been recruited by a local businessman to transmit radio coded messages that she did not understand.

She recalled one interrogator’s attempts to break her will: “He said, ‘Liar! Spy!’ and hit me on the face. He said, ‘We have ways of making people who don’t want to talk, talk. Come with us.’ ”

From Ravensbruck, Ms. Nearne was shuttled eastward through an archipelago of Nazi death camps, her head shaved. After first refusing to work in the camps, she changed her mind, seeing the work assignments as the only means of survival.

In December 1944 she was moved to the Markleberg camp, near Leipzig, where she worked on a road-repair gang for 12 hours a day. But while being transferred yet again, she and two Frenchwomen escaped and eventually linked up with American troops.

Even then, her travails were not over. American intelligence officers initially identified her as a Nazi collaborator and held her at a detention center with captured SS personnel until her account, that she was a British secret agent, was verified by her superiors in London.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/wo...R_HP_LO_MST_FB

rest in peace

[frau kaleun]

And they called them the "weaker sex."

RIP, brave lady.

[antikristuseke]

That only means women have sex less forcefully than men
It is all consensual of course.

Does this rag smell of chroloform to you, by any chance?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

That only means women have sex less forcefully than men

You really need to get out more.

[antikristuseke]

I am at work, just got a surprise visit from my boss. Last time he showed up here was 2 months ago, I just got promoted to this sites supervisor, meaning I get to pick the new person that comes to work here when a collegue of mine has to go do his national service, my 4 month trial period ends in two weeks so I suppose things are going well. I may be able to get out more to test that hypothesis of mine

[Schroeder]

Wow, that was a brave lady.
Rest in Peace.

(I think we need a more serious salute smiley. This one isn't too good for occasions like that....)

[antikristuseke]

Crap, forgot to pay my respects to that brave woman.

[Gerald]

[Takeda Shingen]

We thank her for her service.

[Catfish]

Being a spy in a foreign country during a war needs some courage !
Brave woman indeed. Rest in Peace.

Greetings,
Catfish

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

(I think we need a more serious salute smiley. This one isn't too good for occasions like that....)

My friend Rick Sniper always used <S> for salutes of respect.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

Crap, forgot to pay my respects to that brave woman.

I was wondering what the heck you were on about.

Anyhow we should all be greatfull for this brave womans life.

I would really like to hear details on her clandestine radio contacts. I bet it would be a fascinating story.

Rest in Peace.

[antikristuseke]

I get distracted easily when at work, it is the abject boredo mof my work, my appologies. No, I am not trying to be sarcastic.

[Bilge_Rat]

yes, very brave woman and as the article points out, she was never quite the same after the war because of her experiences.

One question I have concerns this quote:

the Gestapo tortured her — beating her, stripping her naked, then submerging her repeatedly in a bath of ice-cold water until she began to black out from lack of oxygen.

why is it torture when the GESTAPO does this, but when American interrogators use a similar technique, i.e. waterboarding, it is not torture?

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

yes, very brave woman and as the article points out, she was never quite the same after the war because of her experiences.

One question I have concerns this quote:

why is it torture when the GESTAPO does this, but when American interrogators use a similar technique, i.e. waterboarding, it is not torture?

It IS torture. Don't let yourself be fooled by "patriotic" hubbub

Greetings,
Catfish