Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 1 of 6

between May 1941 in July 1944 the French section of the Special Operations Executive the SOE infiltrated 39 women into France 15 were captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in concentration camps throughout Germany only three survived the death caps as Hitler's armies swept over for them in Europe they brought with them a new concept in terror one woman and Australian was thrown into an active involvement to stand against this for two and a half years she assisted the escape of thousands of Allied servicemen across southern France to the safety of neutral Spain after training as a saboteur she was parachuted back into occupied France to work and fight with some of the toughest marque men in the French Resistance she proved so daring and effective that Gestapo headquarters in Berlin made her the most wanted woman of the Second World War my name is Nancy wait Oh the Special Operations Executive in London she was known as Helene to the French Resistance Andre but to the German Gestapo in France she was called the white mouse Nancy was born in Wellington New Zealand in 1912 her family settled in Sydney Australia when she was 2 years old as a child Nancy dreamt of seeing the world and in 1932 at the age of 20 she sailed from Sydney with an adventurous spirit as a kid I used to have three wishes one was to see New York London and Paris I went to New York and I loved it I loved the hustle and bustle of New York I went to London I didn't like it at first but I grew to love London and I love it very much now but I came over for long we came to Paris and I fell in love with it and I've been in love with it ever since there to me it was an exciting world this was a city for women they had their beautiful dresses they wore them well they have hats and they had gloves and beautiful shoes life was fairly cheap city bromance French champagne pink bites flowers gallant men and looked like today where they go out and have to pay their way michael--ah spacious me I could have never been out if I had to pay my way I was always invited out and fetched of my home and taken home or to somebody else's home maybe but I this them a flirt I loved good-looking men especially Faceman and I suppose I was a dizzy and thing then of course you see you all change because dizzy as I was before the war during the occupation IV came something quite opposite but the German was a different thing she was the enemy so she had to be illuminated but of course the French were very gallant and I said you've gotta shoot as I said we can't possibly shoot a woman so I said well if you're not any shooter our shooter Nancy began working as a freelance journalist to support herself and the N traveling France writing articles mainly for the American press agencies on the halcyon days of the 1930s even the American Wall Street crash and subsequent world oppression did not impinge on the French Way of life with a dogged gaiety the French lifestyle remained unaffected by the Gathering Storm around its shores this was Germany in 1933 Adolf Hitler had swept into pond Nazi ideology nurtured from the evil recesses of the human heart was now firmly established hello yeah Vienna was and is today a beautiful city and to my mind look like Paris in many ways but they're just before the war it was like another city where fear had swept into the lives of the people in the winner in Berlin as part of Nancy's reporting assignments she saw the outcome of those and Nazi policies the persecution of religious and minority people by Hitler's brown chest and the new word that entered human language Gestapo but it was in Vienna that I realized that this was this was for real and at the time I was so shocked by that I thought well he's if error I can do anything I'll do it and it was it was really because of the persecution of those people that I think I ever got involved it's a dreadful thing to see human beings being persecuted especially for an Australian girl I mean we'd never had anything like that in Australia I mean I couldn't even persecute a cat little adder a human being born and raised on the other side of the world Nancy embraced France as her country it was a natural union with personalities and she fitted in well with her wire-haired terrier named after the aperitif pick on but in myself Nancy was to find another lint in her life Rafi steel industrialist only [ __ ] yes I met avi in Marseilles and the years later I married him clearly in the Town Hall in Marseille he was a charming person an industrialist here and spoke perfect English liked England admired the British very much and then it was a wallet laughter that was a very happy marriage he didn't last all that long of course because the war came along and we became involved in things and with the German occupation became obvious that I had to leave and and I didn't see him anymore the 1st of September 1939 German troops crossed the Polish border World War 2 had begun within nine months Czechoslovakia Poland Denmark Norway Belgium and Holland had been overrun and had capitulated June the 20th 1940 Paris was now under the heel of the Nazis

Channel: Don Rollins

Views: 73,294

Keywords: Nancy-Wake, Resistence, fighter, WW2, Australian

Id: 36PtQ3TxZJI

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/IvanEedle]

Her story of WWII told from her perspective.

From Wikipedia:

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake AC GM (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011) served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war. After the fall of France in 1940, she became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. By 1943, Wake was the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head.