Noor Inayat Khan: WWII Assignment

  

        Noor Inayat Khan was a wartime British secret agent of Indian descent who is best known as being the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the Special Operations Executive. 

Born on New Year's Day in 1914 in Moscow, Khan had an Indian father and an American mother. Khan's father moved his family first to London and later to Paris, where she began her education and decided to try making a career from writing children stories. However, this path was not meant to be her ultimate destiny and she ended up escaping to England after the fall of France. In November 1940 Khan put down the pen and paper and traded it in for the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force). In late 1942, she was recruited to join SOE as a radio operator. A year later in June 1943 she was flown to France to make history by becoming the first radio operator for the 'Prosper' resistance network in Paris. She even had a codename 'Madeleine’ to try and protect her from harm. Shortly after arriving in Paris many members of the network were arrested, but Khan refused to evacuate the country. She remained in France and spent the summer moving from place to place, trying to send messages back to London while staying out of trouble and trying to avoid capture. 

Khan’s good luck with avoiding capture unfortunately didn't last much longer. In October, she 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 almost made it out when she had a successful attempt at escaping from prison, but it was only a couple hours before she was recaptured. 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.

But Khan isn't remembered for the tragic end to her short life, instead she is thought of as one of the courageous individuals fighting for their rights and the rights of others in a time when this wasn't acceptable. For her courage she was awarded the George Cross in 1949.

Sources:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/inayat_khan_noor.shtml
• http://www.enemyofthereich.com/about-the-film/
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEnoor.htm