Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent
PREFACE xvii for several years and liberation found them without resource or home After 10 years of struggles of patience and of joys life finally allowed them to be together They celebrated their 50-year wedding anniversary in 1994 What were their ages in fact at the time of my interviews Pearl was 80 and Henri 84 Their stories prove that age remains above all a matter of the soul and the heart Henri and Pearl were not sour or sad or withdrawn into themselves Quite the contrary This text makes no pretense to being elegant literature it is a real testimony told with everyday words My main guideline when transcribing notes and tape recordings was respect for the facts there was no thought of romanticizing anything Pearl and Henri didn’t agree about everything but they held in common some important traits traits you could call altru ism courage and youthfulness Their story can be no doubt a source of hope and strength to young people who are con fronted with a challenging life Up until the time of my interviews Pearl had refused to expose her personal history in such a manner it was only for its potential benefit to young people that she eventually agreed to do so
INTRODUCTION On October 21 1940 when the Blitz the German bombing of British cities was in full swing Winston Churchill gave the following speech over BBC British Broadcasting Corporation radio to any people in Nazi-occupied France who might be listening Frenchmen For more than 30 years in peace and war I marched with you and I am marching still along the same road Tonight I speak to you at your firesides wherever you may be or whatever your fortunes are Here at home in England under the fire of the Boche we do not forget the ties and links that unite us to France Here in London which Herr Hitler says he will reduce to ashes and which his airplanes are now bombarding our people are bearing up unflinchingly Our air force has more than held its own We are waiting for the long promised invasion So are the fishes Remember we shall never stop never weary and never give in and that our whole people and empire have xix
xx INTRODUCTION vowed themselves to the task of cleansing Europe from the Nazi pestilence and saving the world from the new Dark Ages Do not imagine as the German-controlled wireless tells you that we English seek to take your ships and colonies We seek to beat the life and soul out of Hit ler and Hitlerism that alone that all the time that to the end Good night then sleep to gather strength for the morning For the morning will come Brightly will it shine on the brave and true kindly upon all who suffer for the cause glorious upon the tombs of heroes Thus will shine the dawn Vive la France It was necessary for the British prime minster to remind the French of their countries mutual ties a few months ear lier beginning on May 26 1940 the British Expeditionary Force BEF trained British soldiers who had come to assist France against the German invasion during the Battle of France evacuated for Great Britain via the shores of Dunkirk leaving France to fight Germany alone Although the BEF much smaller than the French army had been overwhelmed by the Germans many French people felt betrayed by Operation Dynamo the British evacuation from Dunkirk They felt even more betrayed when shortly after the French had surrendered to the Germans on June 22 1940 the British sunk a powerful fleet of French ships near Algeria after the French navy refused to surrender them killing more than 1,000 sailors in the process in order to prevent Germany from using the ships to invade Britain France and Britain had been allies if somewhat mistrustful ones during World War I and had simultaneously declared war on Germany when the Nazis had invaded Poland on September
INTRODUCTION xxi 1 1939 But by the time Churchill delivered his encouraging speech many of the French saw Britain as a traitor and because most of Europe lay in the shadow of the swastika Churchill’s words of hope seemed empty However at that moment the British prime minister was preparing to offer those in Nazi occupied countries more than just words he had already given the go-ahead to an organization that would help them fight their Nazi oppressors A few months earlier on July 16 1940 when the Battle of Britain the air war between the German Luftwaffe and Brit ain’s Royal Air Force RAF had begun in the skies above Brit ain Hitler had issued an official directive called Operation Sea Lion ordering the invasion of Great Britain That same night Winston Churchill summoned his minister of economic war fare Hugh Dalton and famously directed him to set Europe ablaze with an organization initially planned by the govern ment of the previous prime minister Neville Chamberlain that would locate assist supply and train willing resisters within occupied countries by sending them British-trained agents who were native speakers of the occupied country or who could pass as such The organization was to be top secret and it wasn’t until years later that most people discovered its name the Spe cial Operations Executive SOE However those within the British Secret Intelligence Ser vice MI6 or SIS found out about it almost immediately and were very critical of the new organization They were afraid that the SOE’s main objectives sabotage of the German war machine would adversely affect MI6’s quiet gathering of infor mation And because the need to fight the Nazis from within the occupied countries was urgent SOE agents trained for a relatively short period of time causing MI6 to brand it unprofes sional and amateurish an opinion that was initially shared by
