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Lilian Rolfe
Lilian Vera Rolfe, (26 April 1914 – 5 February 1945), code name Nadine, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organisation in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents in France allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Rolfe was a wireless operator for the Historian Network based in Orleans. After four months of work in France, she was captured by the Germans on 31 July 1944. She was executed in Ravensbrück concentration camp in late January 1945. Early life Rolfe and her twin sister Helen Fedora Rolfe were the daughters of George Rolfe, a British accountant working in Paris, and a Russian mother. Although she grew up in Paris, Rolfe came to England for a summer in Britain to learn English, but became ill with rheu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, fourth-most populous city in the European Union and the List of cities proper by population density, 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, Fashion capital, fashion, and gastronomy. Because of its leading role in the French art, arts and Science and technology in France, sciences and its early adoption of extensive street lighting, Paris became known as the City of Light in the 19th century. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 inhabitants in January 2023, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population, seventh-largest by population, with over 212 million people. The country is a federation composed of 26 Federative units of Brazil, states and a Federal District (Brazil), Federal District, which hosts the capital, Brasília. List of cities in Brazil by population, Its most populous city is São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has the most Portuguese-speaking countries, Portuguese speakers in the world and is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese language, Portuguese is an Portuguese-speaking world, official language. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a Coastline of Brazil, coastline of . Covering roughly half of South America's land area, it Borders of Brazil, borders all other countries and ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denise Bloch
Denise Madeleine Bloch (; 21 January 1916 – 5 February 1945) was a French citizen who worked as an agent with the clandestine British Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in the Second World War. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Bloch and her family, Jews, evaded capture by the Germans in Paris after its occupation by Nazi Germany in summer 1940. In 1942 the family escaped to Lyon. Bloch became involved in the French Resistance and narrowly avoided arrest in Lyon. Fleeing to southwestern France, she worked for SOE agent George Reginald Starr as his courier. In May 1942, she made a dangerous crossing of the Pyrenees into Spain and hence to SOE headquarters in London to present Starr's request for more aid to his resista ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violette Szabo
Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC (née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission into occupied France, Szabo was captured by the German army, interrogated, tortured, and deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany, where she was executed. Early life Violette Bushell was born on 26 June 1921 in Paris, France, to Charles George Bushell and Reine Blanche Leroy, as the second child of five and the only daughter. Szabo's father, son of a publican from Hampstead Norreys, was serving as a British Army driver in France during the First World War when he met her mother, a dressmaker originally from Pont-Remy, Somme. After the war the couple lived in London, where Charles worked as a taxi-driver, car salesman and shopkeeper. During the early 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression, Bushell and her youngest brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
84 Avenue Foch
84 Avenue Foch () was the Parisian headquarters of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the counter-intelligence branch of the SS during the German occupation of Paris in World War II. Avenue Foch is a wide residential boulevard in the 16th arrondissement that connects the Arc de Triomphe with the Porte Dauphine on the border with the Bois de Boulogne. During the German occupation of Northern France, the buildings at numbers 82 and 86, either side of 84, were also commandeered by the German occupation forces. Counter-espionage activities Number 84 was used for the interrogation of allied SOE agents captured in France (including, for example, Frank Pickersgill, Diana Rowden, and Violette Szabo). Prisoners were regularly brought to the building from Fresnes prison on the outskirts of the city. The second floor was used by the SD's wireless unit known as Section IV. It was under the control of Dr. Josef Goetz. The SD used captured allied wireless sets to transmit bogus code ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nangis
Nangis () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. Nangis station has rail connections to Provins, Longueville and Paris. Coat of arms Azure (heraldry), Azure with six argent roundel (heraldry), roundels. Demographics The inhabitants are called the ''Nangissiens'' in French. See also * Château de Nangis * Communes of the Seine-et-Marne department References External links Official website * Communes of Seine-et-Marne {{Provins-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivet, Loiret
Olivet (, ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Loiret, north-central France. Geography Olivet is located in the northern bend of the Loire, which crosses from east to west. Olivet belongs to the Loire Valley sector between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire, which was in 2000 inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Olivet is 120 km south-south-west of Paris. Olivet is bordered to the north by Orléans and to the south by the Sologne. Olivet is crossed by the Loiret (river), Loiret, a 13 km long river which is both a tributary and a Spring (hydrosphere), resurgence of the Loire. History The first traces of inhabitants belong to the Merovingian era. The water mills along the river were built by monks during the tenth century. The first name of the village, during the eleventh century, was ''Saint Martin du Loiret''. The name ''Olivet'' comes probably from ''Mount of olives''. The village suffered severe destructions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safe House
A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is a dwelling place or building whose unassuming appearance makes it an inconspicuous location where one can hide out, take shelter, or conduct clandestine activities. Historical usage It may also refer to: * in the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger * a place where people may go to avoid prosecution of their activities by authorities. Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad has been described as a "safe house". * a location where a trusted adult, family or charity organization provides a haven for victims of domestic abuse (see also: men and/or women's shelter or refuge) * Right of asylum * sanctuary in medieval law * sanctuary in modern times * Church asylum Safe houses were an integral part of the Underground Railroad, the network of safe house locations that were used to assist slaves in escaping to the pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis () were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters, called ''maquisards'', during World War II. Initially, they were composed of young, mostly working-class men who had escaped into the mountains and woods to avoid conscription into Vichy France's (STO; 'Compulsory Work Service') which provided forced labor for Germany. To avoid capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. They had an estimated to members in autumn of 1943 and approximately members in June 1944. Meaning The maquis made up one component of the mosaic of the resistance in France and Belgium. The maquis refers to the organization of bands of resistance guerrillas which emerged in rural France, mainly in the south. The maquis were emergent in 1943 and were also active in 1944. Originally the word came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, high ground in southeastern France covered with scrub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D-day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on the day selected for D-Day was not ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and time of day, that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tours
Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole functional area (France), metropolitan area was 516,973. Tours sits on the lower reaches of the Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Formerly named Caesarodunum by its founder, Roman Augustus, Emperor Augustus, it possesses one of the largest amphitheaters of the Roman Empire, the Tours Amphitheatre. Known for the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, it is a National Sanctuary with connections to the Merovingian dynasty, Merovingians and the Carolingian dynasty, Carolingians, with the Capetian dynasty, Capetians making the kingdom's currency the Livre tournois. Martin of Tours, Saint Martin and Gregory of Tours were from Tours. Tours was once part of Touraine, a former provi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
