Speaker 1: Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
Speaker 1: that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please take care
Speaker 1: in listening. This series is based on historical characters and
Speaker 1: real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for dramatic purposes
Speaker 1: when no primary source material is available. Virginia Hall's life
Speaker 1: had changed again. She was back and occupied France, but
Speaker 1: she was no longer working for the British. She was
Speaker 1: an agent of the O S S, America's first independent
Speaker 1: intelligence agency, the forerunner of the CIA. Virginia was living
Speaker 1: in the Cone farmhouse of a respected resistance leader named
Speaker 1: Colonel Vessroau. She was spending the majority of her existence
Speaker 1: in disguise as an old woman, decked out in multiple
Speaker 1: wolf skirts, makeshift prosthetics, and dyed gray hair, all the
Speaker 1: while constantly walking by wanded posters stabled around town with
Speaker 1: sketches of the limping lady. But this new life promised
Speaker 1: Virginia is something she'd been waiting for since she'd had
Speaker 1: a fleet France almost eighteen months earlier, the opportunity to
Speaker 1: take the fight directly to the Nazis. After making initial contact,
Speaker 1: Colonel Vesserot got straight to the point with his newest operative.
Speaker 1: I can't let to you, Virginia, but they've got no
Speaker 1: idea what's they're doing out there? They need the structure.
Speaker 1: The Mackie was a new faction of French, British and
Speaker 1: German freedom fighters. I called them Ragtag in the last episode.
Speaker 1: They were scrappy guerrilla warfare fighters who could blend in
Speaker 1: with the French citizen ray and sabotage German trains, trucks
Speaker 1: and tanks using weapons air dropped by the British. What
Speaker 1: actions have they been engaged in the confection a run
Speaker 1: occasional ambushes on wandering German forces. But our sizes are
Speaker 1: growing too large. It's good we have more men joining
Speaker 1: the resistance, but when now in a difficult position, if
Speaker 1: we're too large, we attract attention. We'll never built an
Speaker 1: army big enough to beat back the Nazis, and we
Speaker 1: don't have the food or weapons to supply our current stock.
Speaker 1: The sad truth as the matter is, we work better
Speaker 1: in the shadows, and more men shrink our cover. How
Speaker 1: many just over a hundred now, Split them up, arrange
Speaker 1: about twenty five in each group, trend them and them separately.
Speaker 1: I don't know anyone who could lead the other groups
Speaker 1: while I'm off training each other. Yes, Colonel you do.
Speaker 1: I'm Steven Talty and from diversion. This is good Assassin's
Speaker 1: Season two. Being killed would be the easy part. Being
Speaker 1: tortured would be the hard part. Our intel suggests she
Speaker 1: is behind many of the prison bricks all over the country.
Speaker 1: She's dangerous, so sabotage plus a little espionage paramilitary operations
Speaker 1: make things blow up. The message for Captain Bobby, I
Speaker 1: believe I have found the nest of the Limping Lady.
Speaker 1: Episode nine. Agents of Sabotage in May of Virginia had
Speaker 1: split Colonel Vessero's Macki faction into smaller groups of fighters,
Speaker 1: each allowing them to continue working in secret without attracting
Speaker 1: attention from the Nazis. The Makis were ecstatic to be
Speaker 1: led by a real secret agent, though they were slightly
Speaker 1: put off by the site of Virginia in disguise as
Speaker 1: an elderly limping woman. But as Brad Catling, Virginia's great nephew,
Speaker 1: reminded us when we spoke to him, she had a
Speaker 1: commanding presence. I mean, if she walked in the room,
Speaker 1: you knew who was in charge immediately. The words that
Speaker 1: she spoke were inevitabilities. In fact, there was one member
Speaker 1: of the Marquis that had worked with Virginia who said
Speaker 1: that she was very strict and very authoritative, and there
Speaker 1: was one instance where this band said that he had
Speaker 1: taken a home, Eric Bolloxing from Virginia because he hadn't
Speaker 1: done the right thing. In the beginning of her work
Speaker 1: with the Maquis, Virginia felt it necessary to keep up
Speaker 1: her cover. After all, she didn't know who could be
Speaker 1: a defector secretly giving information back to the enemy, and
Speaker 1: she didn't have time to interrogate them all. She was
Speaker 1: still haunted by Robert Alesh, the only man who had
Speaker 1: successfully burned her back in November of forty two. Alesha
Speaker 1: was still out there somewhere, likely still looking for her,
Speaker 1: and that's another reason why she split the Maquis into
Speaker 1: smaller groups. She could communicate distinct information to each and
Speaker 1: if one group was compromised, the others wouldn't be Scouting
Speaker 1: out a rat among twenty five men is difficult, but
Speaker 1: much simpler than among a hundred. Virginia's first lesson was
Speaker 1: to teach the makee man how to hail parachute drops
Speaker 1: for supplies. She gave them appropriate times for scheduling cloudy
Speaker 1: nights in the middle of the week, as well as
Speaker 1: a list of code words for specific items. Maggots was
Speaker 1: the name for anything related to explosive materials, dough used
Speaker 1: for demolition items, and yeast for incendiaries. Virginia also provided
Speaker 1: radio codes so they could schedule the drops when they
Speaker 1: needed them, but this came with a condition. Too many
Speaker 1: drops scheduled would signal locations and routines to the Nazis.
Speaker 1: The drops were lifelines to the resistance. If they were abused,
Speaker 1: the Marquis would be obliterated in a few weeks and
Speaker 1: the Allies would lose one of their most important resistance groups.
Speaker 1: So Virginia counseled the Marquis on how to keep their
Speaker 1: actions under the radar literally. She also taught them how
Speaker 1: to suss out bad intel broadcast by undercovered Germans. By
Speaker 1: this point in time, the Nazis were doing everything in
Speaker 1: their power to sabotage the growing Marquis line. By late
Speaker 1: May of forty four, French resistors were getting ANTSI. They've
Speaker 1: been told to expect the arrival of the Americans, who
Speaker 1: are planning their invasion of Europe, but had been given
Speaker 1: no confirmed timeline. The message was clear reinforcements were coming,
Speaker 1: but the time and day that was a different, ambiguous story,
Speaker 1: and every day of waiting saw the Nazis become more
Speaker 1: and more brutal as they upped their retaliations against the
Speaker 1: French citizenry. The Germans were expecting the American invasion too,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to dwindle French forces as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Seeing this escalation, Virginia made the call that the Maki
Speaker 1: would halt all major operations for a time. She wanted
Speaker 1: to attack right before the Americans crossed the border. That
Speaker 1: way they could sabotage German equipment and give the Nazis
Speaker 1: less time to repair or restrategize. Richis London callings in
Speaker 1: the European news service of the British postcast incorporation. Every evening,
Speaker 1: the resistance operatives would huddle around the radio and listen
Speaker 1: to broadcasts made by the BBC France. They were waiting
Speaker 1: for the message that the Americans had arrived and the
Speaker 1: invasion had begun, so most evenings were disappointing as the
Speaker 1: notice wasn't given the little call, the little call, the
Speaker 1: American novel lamp, because the American girls lacrobello for the few.
Speaker 1: All the truth direct me who. Of course, the English
Speaker 1: didn't rule the airways alone. During this period, there was
Speaker 1: another voice broadcasting, and she was taunting the Allied forces
Speaker 1: from the safety of Berlin. I left on the side
Speaker 1: of profit her work here. I'm not on the side
Speaker 1: of Aldabelt and his Jewish fairness and his British fairness,
Speaker 1: because Anton brought up to be one under decent American.
Speaker 1: There of everything Americans constable thing, concerts of our enemies
Speaker 1: and the elomy complicie to those people who are taking
Speaker 1: against Germany today and include angels ling in the highly
Speaker 1: against America town. Her name was access Sally, and her
Speaker 1: goals were simple, to infuriate and demoralize the American troops
Speaker 1: who were waiting to invade. She had tried time and
Speaker 1: time again to become an actress of Summary now and
Speaker 1: on Broadway, and fails every time. That's Richard Lucas. He
Speaker 1: wrote access Sally, The American Voice of Nazi Germany, the
Speaker 1: first biography of Mildred Giller's also known as access Sally
Speaker 1: Gillers was born in the United States but moved to
Speaker 1: Germany in the nineteen thirties and the hopes of finding fame.
Speaker 1: She was just languishing until she got to Germany. She
Speaker 1: found that she was instead of at the bottom, she
Speaker 1: was near the top, mixing with people who had some
Speaker 1: influence in the German film industry. She was also determined
Speaker 1: to be a success at any cost. In y Geller's
Speaker 1: got a job at the German State Radio Corporation as
Speaker 1: a broadcaster for Reich Radio. She would speak directly to
Speaker 1: American soldiers fighting abroad and their sweethearts back home, and
Speaker 1: she would say, I'm speaking to the women of a miracle,
Speaker 1: the women of America. Don't you wish that you had
Speaker 1: your your husband's home now? Instead they're off fighting for
Speaker 1: the Jewish and the British. She would talk to the
Speaker 1: American fighting and she would insinuate that their wives and
Speaker 1: sweethearts were fooling around behind their back with the fore ASTs.
Speaker 1: Her broadcasts became extremely popular. I think they are popular
Speaker 1: because of the music and because she was playing jazz,
Speaker 1: which was illegal in Germany. She was playing things that
Speaker 1: no other person on Berlin radio was able to play,
Speaker 1: and it was immensely popular with most of the soldiers said,
Speaker 1: we never paid any attention to the political content. We
Speaker 1: just listened to the music. And it was kind of
Speaker 1: a joke too. Because Geller's remained in the American Citizen,
Speaker 1: she was tried as a trader after the war. She
Speaker 1: was discovered because she couldn't bear to part with the
Speaker 1: tape recordings of her broadcasts. A lot of it was
Speaker 1: her ego, her arrogance, her overwhelming desire to be remembered.
Speaker 1: At the end of the trial, she was convicted. Our
Speaker 1: only one count, and that counts treason. Finally, on June one,
Speaker 1: at nine o'clock at night, the broadcast of Resistance was
Speaker 1: waiting for arrived first year as the messengers country the
Speaker 1: Long Sobs of the Violet per formula long in Real,
Speaker 1: Long Off. It came in the form of a poem
Speaker 1: written by the famous nineteenth century French poet Paul Verlaine,
Speaker 1: the lines the long Sobs of the Violence of Bottom.
Speaker 1: We're broadcast by the BBC France channel. It was code
Speaker 1: for the Americans are coming. The Resistance was instructed to
Speaker 1: remain by their radios and await another broadcast the second
Speaker 1: part of the poem that would signal the forty window
Speaker 1: in which the Americans would arrive. And then four days later,
Speaker 1: on June five, the second half of the poem came
Speaker 1: wound my heart with a monotonous languor. That was a
Speaker 1: signal D Day was coming. Ladies and gentlemen, we may
Speaker 1: be approaching a fateful hour. All night long. Bullet must
Speaker 1: have been pouring in from Berlin claiming that D Day
Speaker 1: is here, claiming that the invasion of Western Europe has begun.
Speaker 1: Feet on the ground, on the ground, take cover, he
Speaker 1: walked days. On June, over a hundred and fifty thousand American,
Speaker 1: British and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France,
Speaker 1: and led the invasion against the Germans. It was the
Speaker 1: beginning of the end for the Nazi occupation of France
Speaker 1: and is regarded as the turning of the tide for
Speaker 1: all of World War two. Quickly here the tides turning
Speaker 1: against the Nazis meant it was time for Virginia Hall
Speaker 1: to get her hands dirty again. Keep your voice down,
Speaker 1: speak only when required goo. While Allied troops were storming
Speaker 1: the beaches of northwest France. Virginia instructed groups of the
Speaker 1: Maquis to set bombs on railroad tracks all around hone
Speaker 1: in the center of the country, laying the groundwork for
Speaker 1: the Allies to continue beating back the German forces. While
Speaker 1: the Marquis groups split up, Virginia herself decided to chaperone
Speaker 1: two frenchmen, Robert and Hiel, on their own excursion. They
Speaker 1: arrived at their designated location and around midnight and quickly
Speaker 1: went to work. The tracks led out of Cone about
Speaker 1: ten miles into the nearby city of sure Pray, Laire,
Speaker 1: where the Nazis would need reinforcement if the Allied forces
Speaker 1: kept pushing forward. Packet in here under the steel niece
Speaker 1: is what needs to take the brunt of the explosion.
Speaker 1: I can't see anything. We need to light to know lights.
Speaker 1: There are patrols outlook out sail walk in my books.
Speaker 1: Take it off of me. I don't volunteer boats in
Speaker 1: my lap. Just as Virginia and her men were placing
Speaker 1: the explosives on the tracks, a two man Nazi patrol
Speaker 1: strolled down the other side. We'll find out what happens
Speaker 1: after the break. Hi This is Stephen Talty, host of
Speaker 1: Good assassins. The folks that helped me bring you the
Speaker 1: show have just launched another podcast that we think you'll like.
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Speaker 1: the show on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: and wherever you listen to podcasts. It wasn't supposed to
Speaker 1: business cold, but supposed to yourself. Virginia and her two
Speaker 1: Makia operatives, Robert and Ngiel, rose as they watched two
Speaker 1: German patrol guards stroll their way down the train tracks.
Speaker 1: They had just tied two packs of plastic explosives to
Speaker 1: the rails, and there was no time to remove that.
Speaker 1: If the Nazis saw them, there was no doubt the
Speaker 1: explosives would be discovered and the trio would be shot
Speaker 1: on site. We can shoot them now before they see us.
Speaker 1: If you shoot the noise, will you just bring more gods?
Speaker 1: It will give us time to run and run. Where
Speaker 1: do you plan to just lead them back to camp?
Speaker 1: They'll luck us down like dogs, do not shoot hid.
Speaker 1: As the Nazis approached, Virginia appeared the worst. It was
Speaker 1: practically a certainty that they'd be seen and shot. But
Speaker 1: as the German soldiers got closer, she noticed posing to
Speaker 1: stumble against the brush. Their mutterings were nonsensical, and she
Speaker 1: realized they were drawn. Maybe they had a chance on
Speaker 1: to throw these when they done roll under that bush
Speaker 1: this way. One of the Germans stumbled, the other, catching him.
Speaker 1: In this brief window, Virginia tossed a rock, which clattered
Speaker 1: on the ground behind the soldiers. As they turned, Virginia
Speaker 1: and her men managed to roll under nearby shrubbery covered
Speaker 1: by the leaves and the darkness. What was that? It's
Speaker 1: the Americans? The inision has started. The Nazis approached the
Speaker 1: area where Virginia and the others were hiding. Yeah, let
Speaker 1: him come. Uh the lit bullets just as well as
Speaker 1: the Roopers. They're going to see us. Don't shoot the shields.
Speaker 1: Wait do you see that? Just something? Don't uh give
Speaker 1: I don't see anything place. You're not getting your promotion tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm ordne guy us made the Nazis didn't find them.
Speaker 1: Virginia let out a sigh of relief. Robert asked her
Speaker 1: if they should finish setting up the explosives. Virginia was adamant.
Speaker 1: How else do you expect to win this war? Virginia
Speaker 1: supervised Robert and Gil as they finished their work. They
Speaker 1: tied the pack of explosives to fog signals, two small
Speaker 1: breakable tubes that were glued to the top of the tracks.
Speaker 1: The mechanism was a pretty simple one. Once the train
Speaker 1: rode over and crushed the signals, the plastic explosives would
Speaker 1: detonate under the track, derailing the train, warping the tracks
Speaker 1: and stopping the transport of valuable German supplies. The Marquis
Speaker 1: wanted to keep the Germans either in the skies, where
Speaker 1: they'd have to deal with American and British pilots or
Speaker 1: on foot, where they'd have to congregate in large groups
Speaker 1: in order to transport supplies. By sabotaging the trains, the
Speaker 1: resistance could poke holes in major German movements. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Virginia awoke to good news. The Machi had sabotaged five
Speaker 1: separate rail tracks the night before, derailing four trains and
Speaker 1: obliterating the only feasible pathways for the Germans to move
Speaker 1: supplies and information around France. With the American invasion quickly
Speaker 1: advancing from the northwest, the Nazis would have no choice
Speaker 1: but to retreat. As the master mind, Virginia's operations helped
Speaker 1: turn the tide of the war in France. She went
Speaker 1: on to become a major player in an astounding seventy
Speaker 1: one rail sabotages that followed, which in turn served to
Speaker 1: inspire even greater French resistance across the country. Allied armies
Speaker 1: of Normandy pushed closer to Eich. Other immediate objectives the
Speaker 1: port of Cherbourg and the railway town of can Ten
Speaker 1: miles Inland, an American flying wedge of parachute troops and
Speaker 1: infantrymen has cut the main line of German communications to
Speaker 1: Cherbourg by capturing the town of Saint Mara Gliza, nineteen
Speaker 1: miles away and sweeping on across the main Peninsula railway
Speaker 1: and the highway that runs parallel to it. Virginia's reputation
Speaker 1: in both the O s S and the Maquis continued
Speaker 1: to grow. In a month's time, she reported to London
Speaker 1: that she was now leading a group of four hundred
Speaker 1: Maquis foot soldiers separated its smaller groups. She continued to
Speaker 1: ray neal London with new reports of German movements and intelligence,
Speaker 1: as well as continuing to schedule parachute drops to arm
Speaker 1: the growing resistance. She led dozens of sabotage missions, trapping
Speaker 1: Nazi soldiers with detonations that destroyed bridges, tunnels, and railroads.
Speaker 1: The Germans were becoming boxed in supplies dwindling. This was
Speaker 1: a watershut period for the resistance. They were starting to
Speaker 1: win and other resistance leaders were starting to mimic Virginia's plots.
Speaker 1: All over France, different factions of the Maquis were driving
Speaker 1: the Nazis into embarrassing losses and at the same time
Speaker 1: growing in number. By August, Virginia was leading almost fred
Speaker 1: Maquis resistance fighters. She had come a long way in
Speaker 1: a decade, but she still found herself thinking about her
Speaker 1: old adversary, Robert Alesh. He had receded to the back
Speaker 1: burner as Virginia took up command to the Marquis, though
Speaker 1: he consistently plagued her nightmares. At the end of the
Speaker 1: war was around the corner. She wondered if she'd ever
Speaker 1: see him again. She wondered if a leash would be
Speaker 1: brought to justice, and if she'd be the one to
Speaker 1: do it. More about the fate of Alesh after the break.
Speaker 1: After infiltrating Virginia's s OE faction of heckler In and
Speaker 1: turning over many of Virginia's operatives to the s S,
Speaker 1: Robert Alsh eventually found himself in an uncomfortable predicament. Hello,
Speaker 1: can you hear me? This is Alesh awaiting ortis. I
Speaker 1: am on day three of radio silence. If the RASH
Speaker 1: needs me out of Paris, I really need money and transportation,
Speaker 1: but I have not received any new intent. Please uspond.
Speaker 1: In June of nineteen forty four, just days after D Day,
Speaker 1: the Germans slowly began to retreat from Paris, leaving the
Speaker 1: city torn between Allied and Axis forces. Robert Alesh was
Speaker 1: not an idiot. He could tell that the Germans were
Speaker 1: losing this war. In a matter of three months, the
Speaker 1: Nazis were pushed out of the majority of France, beaten
Speaker 1: back by combined American, British and French forces, before the
Speaker 1: Allies regained control of Paris and liberated the city on
Speaker 1: August twenty fifth, nineteen forty four. Alesh quickly escaped the country,
Speaker 1: traveling back to his original home in Luxembourg. There, nobody
Speaker 1: knew about his association with the Nazis and he wasn't
Speaker 1: considered a criminal, but he still needed a job. It
Speaker 1: was here he decided to officially return to the seminary,
Speaker 1: so he forged a letter from the Archbishop of Paris
Speaker 1: to a Belgian bishop. In it, the fake archbishop spoke
Speaker 1: highly of Aleshous credentials and even noted that he attempted
Speaker 1: to rebel against the Germans during the occupation. His deception
Speaker 1: was successful, and beginning in November nineteen forty four, Alash
Speaker 1: began work as a chaplain in Brussels. What Alesh didn't
Speaker 1: know was that Virginia decided to spend her last months
Speaker 1: as an intelligence agent with O. S. S writing up
Speaker 1: a report on Alesh, his movements during the war, as
Speaker 1: well as his methods and allegiances. It was a damning
Speaker 1: article that provided a physical description of the man, as
Speaker 1: well as crediting Alesh with espionage and treason that led
Speaker 1: to the arrests and deaths of multiple resistance members. Virginia
Speaker 1: may not have been given the latitude to hunt for
Speaker 1: Alesh herself, but she refused to let him get away
Speaker 1: that easily. Just six months later, in Robert, Lesh was
Speaker 1: discovered and identified by the Allies in Luxembourg, arrested and
Speaker 1: sent back to France. They had used Virginia's reporting to
Speaker 1: track him down. I know you as me. He is
Speaker 1: a verdict. Alesha must have wondered how exactly he'd been caught.
Speaker 1: He's been so careful for so long. As the jury
Speaker 1: reached a consensus, he must have thought back on the
Speaker 1: limping lady. He had found her, but not captured her,
Speaker 1: damaged her network of spies, who was never able to
Speaker 1: hand her over to his superiors. He must have believed
Speaker 1: that somehow she had a hand in his arrest. Of course,
Speaker 1: we know what Aleshed didn't that. Virginia's writings painted a
Speaker 1: damning portrait of a priest who abdicated his divinical duties
Speaker 1: in order a prophet of the Nazi regime, and it
Speaker 1: was her reporting that did him in. Mr Lee, Judge,
Speaker 1: the court finds Robert Alsh guilty of high treason. He
Speaker 1: turned out to be the worst of all possible characters.
Speaker 1: That's bread Catling again, Virginia's grand nephew. She was right,
Speaker 1: she was right to to not trust him completely, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately the rest of her network did, and you know,
Speaker 1: they paid the price. There was only one resolution for
Speaker 1: a lesh. He was found guilty of his crimes and
Speaker 1: sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad on January.
Speaker 1: The end of World War Two was indeed around the corner.
Speaker 1: The l has continued to advance, the German forces in
Speaker 1: the East fell to a hellish Russian winter, and on
Speaker 1: April the German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead.
Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a brilliant bunker. Now we're
Speaker 1: breaking into our programs for the second time tonight, this
Speaker 1: time with some splendid news from Moscow. Berlin has fallen
Speaker 1: eight days later, Germany surrendered to the Allied Powers. Note
Speaker 1: that the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Americans
Speaker 1: would go on to drop two atomic bombs on the
Speaker 1: Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August six and eight,
Speaker 1: killing over a hundred thousand people. Exactly what that cloud
Speaker 1: looked like, I do not suppose any words will ever describe.
Speaker 1: Unlike any other phenomenon in the world has ever seen,
Speaker 1: it was possessed of some diabolical activity, as though it
Speaker 1: were a horrible form of life. Just days later, the
Speaker 1: President announced at seven pm today the unconditional and from
Speaker 1: an unqualified surrender of the Japanese. And then, finally, on
Speaker 1: September two, world War two officially ended. Yes, the NDC
Speaker 1: mobile unit in the heart center on the posting focus
Speaker 1: of a Shire station time enjoy esterday and looked uptown
Speaker 1: over a toy feeling writing back faces lifted charley and
Speaker 1: brightly and grisly happy at the back. In May of Virginia,
Speaker 1: Hall had returned to Paris to take stock of the resistance.
Speaker 1: She discovered that many of her friends and associates hadn't survived.
Speaker 1: Some had been executed on site by the Nazis. Others
Speaker 1: were worked to death in concentration camps, and some disappeared
Speaker 1: without a trace. Doctor Hussey, however, was not among the fatalities.
Speaker 1: He had survived both the friend prison and then eighteen
Speaker 1: horrible months in Buchebald and reunited with Virginia. During her
Speaker 1: time in the city, Virginia realized that even if the
Speaker 1: war in Europe was going to end, there was still
Speaker 1: a lot of work to be done bringing justice to
Speaker 1: the surviving Nazis. Just as she did with Robert Alesh,
Speaker 1: Virginia wrote up multiple reports with regards to what she
Speaker 1: saw during her time with both Britain's s OE and
Speaker 1: the American Office of Strategic Services. Her reports named multiple
Speaker 1: Nazis and spies and would be instrimental in their respective
Speaker 1: arrests and trials. But when you think of a trailblazer,
Speaker 1: she absolutely embodies it. It's someone who was willing to
Speaker 1: defy all convention him. She broke so many barriers, and
Speaker 1: I think she she just embodies that selfless sacrifice, that
Speaker 1: sense of mission that is to that extreme, I think
Speaker 1: is fairly rare. She did it because she thought she
Speaker 1: was fundamentally writing a wrong that's Karen Schaefer, a former
Speaker 1: CIA operative we heard from an episode six. Schaefer sees
Speaker 1: Virginia is a huge inspiration, a key figure in the
Speaker 1: history of intelligence, and in fact, with Schaeffer retired in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, she was given a portrait of Virginia.
Speaker 1: There could not be a more incredibly thoughtful retirement gift.
Speaker 1: Putting me even in the same planet with Virginia Hall
Speaker 1: is about as good as it gets. You don't want
Speaker 1: bands practice like marching bands practice. The conductor is standing
Speaker 1: on the platform, Brad Cat, Virginia's great nephew. It seems
Speaker 1: to me that Virginia saw the world that way. She
Speaker 1: saw the big picture as well as the infinite details,
Speaker 1: and was able to react within those and make really
Speaker 1: good decisions. On and the now declassified memorandum to President
Speaker 1: Harry Truman O s S Director William J. Donovan wrote,
Speaker 1: Miss Virginia Hall, an American civilian working for this agency
Speaker 1: in the European theater of operations, has been awarded the
Speaker 1: Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in connection with military
Speaker 1: operations against the enemy. We understand that Miss Hall is
Speaker 1: the first civilian woman in this war to receive the
Speaker 1: Distinguished Service Cross, despite the fact that she was well
Speaker 1: known to the Gestapo. Ms Hall voluntarily turned to France
Speaker 1: in March ninety four to assist in sabotage operations against
Speaker 1: the Germans. Through her courage and physical endurance, even though
Speaker 1: she had previously lost a leg in an accident. Miss
Speaker 1: Hall succeeded in organizing, arming, and training French resistance forces,
Speaker 1: which took part in many engagements with the enemy and
Speaker 1: a number of acts of sabotage, resulting in the demolition
Speaker 1: of many bridges, the destruction of a number of supply trains,
Speaker 1: and the disruption of enemy communications. Inasmuch as an award
Speaker 1: of this kind has not been previously made during the
Speaker 1: present war, you may wish to make the presentation personally. Ever,
Speaker 1: the pragmatist Virginia was only willing to accept the prestigious
Speaker 1: Distinguished Service Cross once the fanfare around it died down.
Speaker 1: She refused to distract from honoring the thousands of lives
Speaker 1: that were lost in pursuit of stopping the Germans. Virginia
Speaker 1: retired from the O s S shortly after, on September
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, nineteen forty five. She would then go on
Speaker 1: to work for the U. S A's newly formed Central
Speaker 1: Intelligence Agency in nineteen forty seven, as well as the
Speaker 1: Special Activities Division, but she was never able to get
Speaker 1: along with her superiors, who seemed to undervalue the work
Speaker 1: she'd done in the war. In nineteen fifty seven, Virginia
Speaker 1: married Frenchman Paul Guayot, an agent she had met in
Speaker 1: her O s s days, and finally retired in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty six. Of course, she would have continued on had
Speaker 1: she not reached the mandatory retirement age of sixty. Virginia
Speaker 1: and Paul eventually moved to a farm in Barnesville, Maryland,
Speaker 1: where she lived out the rest of her days until
Speaker 1: she passed away in nineteen eighty two. It's impossible to
Speaker 1: state the historical importance of Virginia Hall. She was an
Speaker 1: exceptional secret agent and one of the most important spies
Speaker 1: in American history. It's believed that were her hands on work,
Speaker 1: she saved thousands of lives across Europe. It was an
Speaker 1: instrumental figure in defeating the Nazis. The language employed in
Speaker 1: the official Distinguished Service Cross citation notes working in a
Speaker 1: region infested with enemy troops and continually at the risk
Speaker 1: of capture, torture, and death. Ms Hold is played rare courage, perseverance,
Speaker 1: and ingenuity. Her efforts contributed materially to the successful operations
Speaker 1: of the Resistance forces in support of the Allied Expeditionary
Speaker 1: forces in the liberation of France. How do we define
Speaker 1: our heroes through their work, their beliefs, their sacrifices. Virginia
Speaker 1: Hall was not just a spy. She existed as a
Speaker 1: beacon of determination and persistence in the face of fascism.
Speaker 1: At every turn, Virginia continued to fight, to live undercover,
Speaker 1: in uncomfortable he in hellish circumstances, all to rid our
Speaker 1: world of an epidemic that wiped out millions of lives.
Speaker 1: Virginia refused to accept limits placed on her by others.
Speaker 1: She battled sexism, able ism, and agism throughout her career,
Speaker 1: and she still made for herself an identity not out
Speaker 1: of ego, but of service. She is the very definition
Speaker 1: of a hero. Coming up on the next episode of
Speaker 1: Good Assassins, they took everything out they could. They started
Speaker 1: making fires in the synagogues. Well, when this news got
Speaker 1: back to Gebel's and to Hitler, they blew refused. At least,
Speaker 1: that's what most people believed for more than seventy years.
Speaker 1: But in two thousand sixteen, Armad Purer, the German journalists
Speaker 1: we spoke to meet an amazing discovery. If you have
Speaker 1: any questions for us about Good Assassins, if you're curious
Speaker 1: about some aspect of Virginia Hall story, or have any
Speaker 1: comments on the podcast, we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Please email us at Good Assassins at diversion audio dot com.
Speaker 1: Make sure you spell assassins correctly. Again, that's Good Assassins
Speaker 1: at Diversion Audio dot com. We'll try to answer your
Speaker 1: questions on a future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Diversion Pods. Good Assassins is a production
Speaker 1: of Diversion Audio in association with I Heart Podcasts. This
Speaker 1: season is hosted by Stephen Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter,
Speaker 1: Produced and directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions.
Speaker 1: Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman,
Speaker 1: additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by
Speaker 1: Tyler Cash featuring the voices of Mikhaela Is Caerdo, Raphael
Speaker 1: cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman, John Pierkes, Andrew polk or Lock,
Speaker 1: Cassidy Monouel Falciano, Sean Gormley, Matthew Ament and Steve Rautman.
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing
Speaker 1: by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and
Speaker 1: Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio Diversion Audio