Khan was a wartime British secret agent of Indian descent who was the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France

Khan was a wartime British secret agent of Indian descent who was the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was arrested and eventually executed by the Gestapo.

Noor Inayat Khan was born on New Year's Day 1914 in Moscow to an Indian father and an American mother.

She was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century Muslim ruler of Mysore. Khan's father was a musician and Sufi teacher.

He moved his family first to London and then to Paris, where Khan was educated and later worked writing childrens' stories. Khan escaped to England after the fall of France and in November 1940 she joined the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force).

In late 1942, she was recruited to join SOE as a radio operator. Although some of those who trained her were unsure about her suitability, in June 1943 she was flown to France to become the radio operator for the 'Prosper' resistance network in Paris, with the codename 'Madeleine'.

Many members of the network were arrested shortly afterwards but she chose to remain in France and spent the summer moving from place to place, trying to send messages back to London while avoiding capture.

In October, Khan was betrayed by a Frenchwoman and arrested by the Gestapo. She had unwisely kept copies of all her secret signals and the Germans were able to use her radio to trick London into sending new agents - straight into the hands of the waiting Gestapo.

Khan escaped from prison but was recaptured a few hours later. In November 1943, she was sent to Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was kept in chains and in solitary confinement. Despite repeated torture, she refused to reveal any information.

In September 1944, Khan and three other female SOE agents were transferred to Dachau concentration camp where on 13 September they were shot.

For her courage, Noor Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949.

Comments

Meet The Man Who Broke World Record By Sleeping With 57 Women In 24 Hrs But Later Rushed To Hospital

Meet The Man Who Broke World Record By Sleeping With 57 Women In 24 Hrs But Later Rushed To Hospital Meet a man who managed to make it to the Guinness book of records after breaking a long standing world record of sleeping with 57 women in a span of 24 hours. The 34 year old man hailed from Singapore and broke the record in Prague, the capital of Czech Republic, in an annual event run by a local brothel. According to reports, the unnamed man disclosed that he had been training hard for months to break the previous record which stood at 55 and he was delighted that he broke it. Quoting him, he said, “I've always been a bit of a sex addict, and when I learned that the brothel was having a world record attempt I knew I had to come and give it a go. I take it really seriously and train for it just like an athlete would prepare for a marathon. In some ways, it's actually much harder than a lot of professional sports.`` The Singapore man was very focused on his goal in that by mid...

Honoring Leo Henry Schweiter: Veteran of World War II, The Korean War and The Vietnam War

Honoring Leo Henry Schweiter: Veteran of World War II, The Korean War and The Vietnam War Leo Henry Schweiter was born in Wichita Kansas on April 16, 1917. Leo enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. He then transferred to the 101st Airborne Division. While serving as Captain and Assistant Chief of Staff G-2 Intelligence Officer Schweiter took part in the Normandy airborne landings on June 6, 1944. During this time he was knocked unconscious by a grenade blast. Captain Schweiter was subsequently captured by the Germans but released a day later upon their retreat. A veteran of Operation Market Garden, the Siege of Bastogne and the counter attack at Haguenau, Schweiter remained in service with the US Army after World War II. Leo Henry Schweiter would go on to serve with the 7th Infantry Division during the Korean War. In 1959 he was named Chief of Staff of the 8th Infantry Division and later became Assistant Chief of Staff, G2, Headquarters, in the XVIII Airborne Corps. During...

The Holocaust: 18. War Crimes

**The Holocaust: 18. War Crimes** G.M. Gilbert was one of the prison psychologists during the Nuremberg war crimes trial. On April 9, 1946 he had a brief conversation with Colonel Rudolph Hoess, who had been the commandant of Auschwitz. The following is an excerpt of his book *Nurember Diary*: We discussed briefly his activity as the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp from May, 1940, to December, 1943, which camp was the central extermination camp for Jews. He readily confirmed that approximately 2 1/2 million Jews had been exterminated under his direction. The exterminations began in the summer of 1941. In compliance with [Hermann] Goering's skepticism, I asked Hoess how it was technically possible to exterminate 2 1/2 million people. "Technicall?" he asked. "That wasn't so hard -- it would not have been hard to exterminate even greater numbers." In answer to my rather naive questions as to how many people could be done away with in an hour, et...

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog