Vera Atkins was born Vera Maria Rosenberg to a jewish family living in Bucharest Romania. Her family emigrated to England in 1933 and after a couple of years moved to France.Vera enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study modern languages.Vera later attended finishing school at Lausanne.The surname Atkins was her South African born mother's maiden name,which Vera Adopted as her own.
Atkins returned to England in 1940 and joined the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. She was the assistant to section head Maurice Buckmaster.
After World War Two when the Allied victory in Europe had been accomplished - Atkins went to Germany to investigate the fate of 118 French Section S.O.E. agents who had been listed as missing in enemy territory. Atkins succeeded in every case except one. She uncovered the torture and treatment of the captured agents being beaten and tortured by the Gestapo during interrogation - later being transferred to concentration camps for execution.
The order to execute the S.O.E. Agents came from Ernst Kaltenbrunner Chief of the RSHA, a high ranking Nazi officer, the order is believed to have come directly from Adolf Hitler.
Many of the Agents were unable to walk because of their severe beatings during interrogation and the harsh treatment at the concentration camp. Some were carried to the execution courtyard and then held and shot in the back of the head..or given a lethal injection of phenol, then placed in the crematorium furnace.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was tried and executed at Nuremberg for War Crimes.
Vera Atkins(Who never married) is buried in Zennor Churchyard, Cornwall, the headstone bears the name..Vera May Atkins, C.B.E. Legion d'honneur,Croix de Guerre.
BOOKS:
A Life In Secrets -The Story Of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of S.O.E. by Sarah Helm.
Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War Two. by William Stevenson.
Atkins returned to England in 1940 and joined the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. She was the assistant to section head Maurice Buckmaster.
After World War Two when the Allied victory in Europe had been accomplished - Atkins went to Germany to investigate the fate of 118 French Section S.O.E. agents who had been listed as missing in enemy territory. Atkins succeeded in every case except one. She uncovered the torture and treatment of the captured agents being beaten and tortured by the Gestapo during interrogation - later being transferred to concentration camps for execution.
The order to execute the S.O.E. Agents came from Ernst Kaltenbrunner Chief of the RSHA, a high ranking Nazi officer, the order is believed to have come directly from Adolf Hitler.
Many of the Agents were unable to walk because of their severe beatings during interrogation and the harsh treatment at the concentration camp. Some were carried to the execution courtyard and then held and shot in the back of the head..or given a lethal injection of phenol, then placed in the crematorium furnace.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was tried and executed at Nuremberg for War Crimes.
Vera Atkins(Who never married) is buried in Zennor Churchyard, Cornwall, the headstone bears the name..Vera May Atkins, C.B.E. Legion d'honneur,Croix de Guerre.
BOOKS:
A Life In Secrets -The Story Of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of S.O.E. by Sarah Helm.
Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War Two. by William Stevenson.
Vera Atkins was born Vera Maria Rosenberg to a jewish family living in Bucharest Romania. Her family emigrated to England in 1933 and after a couple of years moved to France.Vera enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study modern languages.Vera later attended finishing school at Lausanne.The surname Atkins was her South African born mother's maiden name,which Vera Adopted as her own.
Atkins returned to England in 1940 and joined the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. She was the assistant to section head Maurice Buckmaster.
After World War Two when the Allied victory in Europe had been accomplished - Atkins went to Germany to investigate the fate of 118 French Section S.O.E. agents who had been listed as missing in enemy territory. Atkins succeeded in every case except one. She uncovered the torture and treatment of the captured agents being beaten and tortured by the Gestapo during interrogation - later being transferred to concentration camps for execution.
The order to execute the S.O.E. Agents came from Ernst Kaltenbrunner Chief of the RSHA, a high ranking Nazi officer, the order is believed to have come directly from Adolf Hitler.
Many of the Agents were unable to walk because of their severe beatings during interrogation and the harsh treatment at the concentration camp. Some were carried to the execution courtyard and then held and shot in the back of the head..or given a lethal injection of phenol, then placed in the crematorium furnace.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was tried and executed at Nuremberg for War Crimes.
Vera Atkins(Who never married) is buried in Zennor Churchyard, Cornwall, the headstone bears the name..Vera May Atkins, C.B.E. Legion d'honneur,Croix de Guerre.
BOOKS:
A Life In Secrets -The Story Of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of S.O.E. by Sarah Helm.
Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War Two. by William Stevenson.
Atkins returned to England in 1940 and joined the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. She was the assistant to section head Maurice Buckmaster.
After World War Two when the Allied victory in Europe had been accomplished - Atkins went to Germany to investigate the fate of 118 French Section S.O.E. agents who had been listed as missing in enemy territory. Atkins succeeded in every case except one. She uncovered the torture and treatment of the captured agents being beaten and tortured by the Gestapo during interrogation - later being transferred to concentration camps for execution.
The order to execute the S.O.E. Agents came from Ernst Kaltenbrunner Chief of the RSHA, a high ranking Nazi officer, the order is believed to have come directly from Adolf Hitler.
Many of the Agents were unable to walk because of their severe beatings during interrogation and the harsh treatment at the concentration camp. Some were carried to the execution courtyard and then held and shot in the back of the head..or given a lethal injection of phenol, then placed in the crematorium furnace.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was tried and executed at Nuremberg for War Crimes.
Vera Atkins(Who never married) is buried in Zennor Churchyard, Cornwall, the headstone bears the name..Vera May Atkins, C.B.E. Legion d'honneur,Croix de Guerre.
BOOKS:
A Life In Secrets -The Story Of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of S.O.E. by Sarah Helm.
Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War Two. by William Stevenson.
