[BITList] More - Violette Szabo

[John Feltham]

Quite The Loveliest Poem Written.. and it was a Code Poem.


For those few who might not know the name, Violette's story was told  
in the film Carve Her Name With Pride (1958). She was an agent of SOE  
(Special Operations Executive) and was sent into occupied France  
twice. The first time she returned safely (after helping to regroup  
the resistance in one area after it had been "blown" and most of the  
resistance people captured).

On her second mission, the day after D-Day, she was to help organise  
all the resistance groups in the Limoge area so that they could stop  
(or hinder) the Das Reich Panzer Division that was rushing up from the  
South of France to try to force the allies off the Normandy beaches.

Violette (only aged 23) was travelling between two groups when she &  
the leader of one of the groups, ran into an advance column from the  
panzer division. Violette held them at bay allowing the Frenchman to  
escape. She was captured and tortured for her codes, but she didn't  
reveal anything. So they threw her in Ravensbruck concentration camp.  
Sometime in 1944 she was taken out and shot !!

Violette was the first woman to be awarded the George Cross, the  
highest civilian award for bravery, usually regarded as the equivalent  
to the Victoria Cross. She was also awarded the Croix de Guerre by the  
French.

The film is probably best known for the famous poem


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


In the film they say that it was written by Violette's husband,  
Etienne. But we know that it was really written by Leo Marks and given  
to Violette to use as a code poem. Leo was the head of agents codes at  
SOE, even though he was only 22!!




ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.