Speaker 1: Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
Speaker 1: and genocide that may be disturbing. Please take care in listening.
Speaker 1: This series is based on historical characters and real events.
Speaker 1: Some dialogue has been imagined for dramatic purposes when no
Speaker 1: primary source material is available. Virginia Hall had successfully managed
Speaker 1: to save the British pilot in German clutches, but the
Speaker 1: rescue came with the cost. While meeting with the downed
Speaker 1: airman in a public restaurant, she was confronted by the
Speaker 1: Gestapo after the pilot ordered a beer, a drink forbidden
Speaker 1: to the French public. In an effort to cover for him.
Speaker 1: Virginia explained that she was in the Mary a newspaper
Speaker 1: reporter named Brigitte Le Contra, but by doing that, she'd
Speaker 1: exposed her alias to the Nazis earlier in her mission
Speaker 1: than she had hoped. Now she felt she had to move.
Speaker 1: Virginia abandoned her current safe house and leon and set
Speaker 1: up shopping another, notifying Vera Atkins, her unofficial handler with
Speaker 1: the s O back in London, that she was changing
Speaker 1: her street name to Marie. She decided she'd have to
Speaker 1: be smarter about direct contact with Nazis. Going forward, she
Speaker 1: would offer aid to operatives who needed it, but she'd
Speaker 1: have to work more discreetly. Up to this point, Virginia
Speaker 1: could move about in France without much pushback. She could
Speaker 1: use her status as an American to fend off a
Speaker 1: stint in a German prison, so long as she wasn't
Speaker 1: actively stirring up trouble. Though America had thrown financial and
Speaker 1: moral support to the Allied forces, it was still the
Speaker 1: middle of nineteen forty one and the US hadn't officially
Speaker 1: entered the war. As President Roosevelt explained in late nineteen
Speaker 1: the people of Europe, who are defending themselves, do not
Speaker 1: ask us to do their fighting. They asked us well.
Speaker 1: The implements of law, the planes, the tanks, the guns
Speaker 1: freight us which will enable them to fight for their
Speaker 1: liberty and our security. The Democrats controlled both the House
Speaker 1: and the Senate at that point, and believed in tangling
Speaker 1: themselves in an international war would distract from an economy
Speaker 1: that was still recovering from the Great Depression. America was
Speaker 1: confident that the United France, and Britain could feedback Hitler's armies,
Speaker 1: but after the Blitz of nineteen forty Germany's persistent bombies
Speaker 1: of English cities to simphthy from America. The Blitz was
Speaker 1: a series of German air raids and bombing attacks that
Speaker 1: lasted until forcing Britat into their homes for extended periods
Speaker 1: of time and leaving much of London in ruins. As
Speaker 1: one BBC radio reporter recalled, I was walking between solid
Speaker 1: walls of fire. Roofs of shops and office buildings came
Speaker 1: down with a roaring crash. Panes of grounds were cracking
Speaker 1: everywhere from the heat. At Every street was criss crossed
Speaker 1: with innumerable lengths of hose. President Roosevelt began taking bigger
Speaker 1: steps away from neutrality and an effort to help the British,
Speaker 1: eventually offering U S ships to work as convoys for
Speaker 1: British travel around the globe. It wasn't long before the
Speaker 1: Axis powers realized the U S would be more directly involved,
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. With that in mind, the order
Speaker 1: was given yesterday. They sum US some nineteen forty one,
Speaker 1: a date which will live in infamy. The United States
Speaker 1: of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked. Japan bombed the
Speaker 1: U S naval base at Pearl Harbor and what was
Speaker 1: then the U. S Territory of Hawaii, killing two thousand,
Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty five people and wounding over a
Speaker 1: thousand more. The next day, President Roosevelt declared war against Japan,
Speaker 1: officially entering World War two and effectively ending Virginia's cover
Speaker 1: in France, as she was now stationed deep within enemy territory.
Speaker 1: I'm Stephen 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 over the country.
Speaker 1: She is dangerous, so sabotage plus a little espionage paramilitary
Speaker 1: operations make things blow up. The message for Captain Bobby
Speaker 1: and I believe I have found the nest of the
Speaker 1: Limping Lady. Episode five, Enemy Territory. It was early and
Speaker 1: Robert Alesha's hunt for the Limping Lady had brought him
Speaker 1: to the doorstep of a French gynecologist and resistance operative
Speaker 1: named doctor jean Ussey and leone France. Alessia had managed
Speaker 1: to trick the doctor into believing he was a priest
Speaker 1: named Robert at coom, a new courier for the French resistance.
Speaker 1: In reality, he was a Nazi spy working directly for
Speaker 1: infamous s S officer Klaus Barbie. Alesha had received information
Speaker 1: from Dr Roussey and concluded a woman named Marie maybe
Speaker 1: the Limping Lady he had been searching for. He wired
Speaker 1: his superiors with a report A message for Captain Bobby.
Speaker 1: This is Alesh. I believe I have found the nest
Speaker 1: of the Limping Lady. Between her rescue of the British
Speaker 1: pilot and Alesha's visit to Dr Hussey's home, the Limping
Speaker 1: Lady had become a major thorn in the side of
Speaker 1: the s S. She had managed to gather intel of
Speaker 1: German missions and plots to target British strongholds in France
Speaker 1: that gave the Brits an edge. But most importantly, the
Speaker 1: Limping Lady was considered by the s S to be
Speaker 1: the leader of a new resistance network named Heckler that
Speaker 1: supplied resistance members with weaponry, housing, and escape roots out
Speaker 1: of the country. In reality, Virginia wasn't just the leader
Speaker 1: of Heckler, but the founder. We tried to confirm why
Speaker 1: Virginia named her unit Heckler, but our research was unsuccessful.
Speaker 1: Her well known wit might be some indication. But whether
Speaker 1: Heckler was named to aggravate the Nazis, there was no
Speaker 1: denying its impact on German war efforts. Over the course
Speaker 1: of about eleven months between August nine and July, Virginia
Speaker 1: masterminded multiple jail breaks free captured British and French resistance fighters,
Speaker 1: returned information to London. And she did it all from
Speaker 1: the shadows. What do you want me to do? Then
Speaker 1: I find the limping Lady, confirm her location, and then
Speaker 1: returned to us. Do not make any attempt to arrest her.
Speaker 1: We don't want to expose you just yet. I don't
Speaker 1: want to tell you how to do your job, Captain.
Speaker 1: But if this really is the limping Lady, I would
Speaker 1: discourage any attempt to imprison her. She won't go to prison,
Speaker 1: She'll go to the camps. Soon after Adolf Hitler became
Speaker 1: chancellor in Germany, the Nazis began to set up a
Speaker 1: number of isolated stations, ostensibly to hold those they deemed
Speaker 1: undesirable until the war ended. These stations, architecturally designed for
Speaker 1: the purpose of suffering and dehumanization, were called concentration camps.
Speaker 1: The first concentration camp was built in Dakout, Germany, just
Speaker 1: outside of Munich, in March of ninety three. So Dachau
Speaker 1: was the most important, the most long lasting of the
Speaker 1: concentration camps that are set up in the first months
Speaker 1: of Hypnostic titorship, and therefore, as such, Dakau was central
Speaker 1: to the destruction of the Bimar Republic and to the
Speaker 1: destruction of the rule of law in Germany. That's Christopher Dillon,
Speaker 1: a senior lecturer of modern German history at King's College, London.
Speaker 1: In two thousand fifteen he published a book called Dakau
Speaker 1: and the s S, a Schooling in violence. Dakau was
Speaker 1: built for political prisoners and perceived threats to the Nazi Party,
Speaker 1: and the majority of its first occupants included Jews, social Democrats,
Speaker 1: German communists, and others perceived as sympathetic to socialist ideals.
Speaker 1: As the camp grew over time, it became home to
Speaker 1: others deemed unsociable, most notably homosexuals, the Roma, and Jehovah's witnesses.
Speaker 1: Once these prisoners arrived, they faced a world of terror.
Speaker 1: Some of theatum with an oxwid in front of the
Speaker 1: SA prisoners, which is both a punishment for their supposed
Speaker 1: these would also a demonstration to the wider prisoner community
Speaker 1: of the s S is absolute power in the camps.
Speaker 1: Some arrivals are taken off to the camp knock up
Speaker 1: or bunker where they're tormented, are insulted, beaten, deprivate of sleep,
Speaker 1: subjected to attack dogs, and invited to commit suicide. And
Speaker 1: in a handful of cases also you have Nazi apostate
Speaker 1: supposed internal traitors of the movement who were brought to
Speaker 1: the camp and then a kind of gruesomely murdered in
Speaker 1: so called female executions, which is on a killing that
Speaker 1: was quite fashionable in the German right during the Weimar
Speaker 1: Republic in the first commandant of Dakao invoked martial law
Speaker 1: in a unilateral declaration, one that had no validity and
Speaker 1: would not be recognized by the local government, but it
Speaker 1: gave the SS guards grounds for their actions. Years before
Speaker 1: World War Two began in Auschwitz, Comman Down, who had
Speaker 1: cut his teeth at Dakau, wrote a post war memoir.
Speaker 1: He uses the term dak House spirit to describe what
Speaker 1: he calls the unique quote atmosphere of hatred end quote
Speaker 1: in Dakau towards the prisoners, and he saw this as
Speaker 1: being kind of proactively brutal and hectoring guard culture, and
Speaker 1: it almost kind of boyish open joy in inflicting creative
Speaker 1: suffering on the inmates. This dak House spirit was then
Speaker 1: diffused throughout the camp system because ss men who kind
Speaker 1: of earned their spurs and Dakau are then posted to
Speaker 1: set up camps elsewhere and a core ethos of the
Speaker 1: guard mentality with anti Semitism. In fact, fourteen of the
Speaker 1: twenty two prisoners murdered at Dakao in his first year
Speaker 1: of operation were Jewish, even though Jews made up less
Speaker 1: than ten percent of the inmate population at the time.
Speaker 1: If he didn't loudly and publicly hate Jews at all
Speaker 1: times as a Dacaud, you simply wouldn't fit in. It
Speaker 1: was absolutely axiomatic to the world view of Nazi activists
Speaker 1: and party members. Decas primary architect with an AS officer
Speaker 1: named Theodore Acre who became commandant of the camp in
Speaker 1: June of and he was fanatical Nazis, charismatic, pugnacious, devoted
Speaker 1: your no kind of life really outside the s S.
Speaker 1: I can want to guards to hate the prisoners on
Speaker 1: a very personal and emotional level. He wrote, quote SS
Speaker 1: members hate the heart in their breasts must be turned
Speaker 1: to stone and quote So under Ka's command, the guards
Speaker 1: at Dark House and increasing these young males who come
Speaker 1: from the Hitler youth are hazed and drilled in the
Speaker 1: roughest German tradition and encouraged, in turn, to channel their
Speaker 1: resentments of being mistreated during drill onto the camp prisoners
Speaker 1: to cascade them. Guards are promoted full violence and then
Speaker 1: protected from many legal consequences from their actions, so the
Speaker 1: camps really are a lawless space by the Big n
Speaker 1: It was Ica who masterminded the blue and white pajamas
Speaker 1: given to detainees, and it was Ica who oversaw a
Speaker 1: new regiment of Nazi guards and methods that led to
Speaker 1: most of the harsh and often lethal punishments that became
Speaker 1: standard in every camp. The Nazis regularly withheld food from
Speaker 1: their prisoners while simultaneously increasing their workloads. They were literally
Speaker 1: worked to the bone and not given medical treatment for malnutrition, injury, exhaustion,
Speaker 1: and dehydration. If they died, they were merely replaced with others.
Speaker 1: Ica would rise through the ranks and be placed in
Speaker 1: the crosshairs of history, as he was later handpicked by
Speaker 1: Hitler to murder Ernst Rome, a high ranking Nazi who
Speaker 1: Hitler feared was plotting to take over the Nazi Party.
Speaker 1: In ninety four, Here's a man named Abe Melnick reflecting
Speaker 1: at his horrific time as a prisoner at Dakau. In
Speaker 1: the house every morning, other friend of mine and myself
Speaker 1: we had a small card like a little y show,
Speaker 1: and we walked from back to back, and we pulled
Speaker 1: up all the dead people and stacked him up and
Speaker 1: take the rown, dumped them and do it again. And
Speaker 1: some of my own friends I wouldn't even recognize because
Speaker 1: full of lies, lies, monetrician diarrhea, the cent terium, typhoid, everything,
Speaker 1: all that everything hit us Daka was the longest camp
Speaker 1: in operation, only shutting down after its liberation from Allied
Speaker 1: forces in April. It's estimated over two thousand prisoners in
Speaker 1: Dakau throughout the course of its operation, though the death
Speaker 1: toll is disputed. While account of nearly twenty eight thousand
Speaker 1: deaths was talied between nineteen forty, the number from nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three to nine is unknown, as the amount of
Speaker 1: murdered unregistered prisoners can't be counted. The first thing they
Speaker 1: see is like an enormous train of the sidings of Daca,
Speaker 1: which is full of corpses. These are prisoners that have
Speaker 1: been transported from elsewhere in the camp system that have
Speaker 1: died en route. So let's just get absolutely sickening sites,
Speaker 1: these other worldly scenes of suffering and death, as saying
Speaker 1: into everyone's historical consciousness, we have to take a short break,
Speaker 1: stay with us. According to the US Holocaust Museum quote,
Speaker 1: the Nazis and their allies ran more than forty four
Speaker 1: thousand camps, ghettos, and other sites of detention, persecution, forced labor,
Speaker 1: and murder during the Holocaust. Daka was just the first
Speaker 1: of the concentration camps created by Germany. They varied in
Speaker 1: size and function. Some were labor camps and others were
Speaker 1: just execution sites. These were the hellish places that people
Speaker 1: like Robert Alesh were sending Jews, resistance fighters, and those
Speaker 1: who spoke out against the Nazi Party. After receiving permission
Speaker 1: from Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo and Leone
Speaker 1: to hunt down the limping lady, Alesha knew that the
Speaker 1: address Dr Russey had given him wouldn't likely put him
Speaker 1: in direct contact with her. Molestia had spent enough time
Speaker 1: undercover among resistance fighters to know that they all carried
Speaker 1: multiple aliases, and while he was sure that Marie was
Speaker 1: the Limping Lady, he knew that disco bring her real
Speaker 1: identity before making contact would give him an advantage. But
Speaker 1: he couldn't go back to Dr Hussey and ask him directly.
Speaker 1: Alesh once again turned to the Leone churches, adopting his
Speaker 1: persona as a priest to find more information. Forgive me, father,
Speaker 1: for I have seen that it has been seven months
Speaker 1: since my last confession. Forgive me, father, for I have
Speaker 1: seen forgive me six weeks since my last my last confession,
Speaker 1: five months since my last confision. But this method seemed
Speaker 1: to have run its course. The resistance unit known as
Speaker 1: Heckler had dug deep into Leone, and apparently the word
Speaker 1: had gotten out not to trust the clergy with any
Speaker 1: resistance secrets. With his secret weapon taken away, unless went
Speaker 1: back to Barbie for advice. You told me you had
Speaker 1: her Lokay, Sir, I think we should know more about
Speaker 1: her before we show up at her door. What we
Speaker 1: know about her is that she is single handedly taking
Speaker 1: us apart. Hecla is responsible for the Menvy lost at Muzak,
Speaker 1: and now you are hesitating. In July of n Virginia
Speaker 1: had successfully plotted the escape of twelve British agents and
Speaker 1: resistance fighters from a prison called Muzak in the city
Speaker 1: of berger Rock in the southwest of France. It was
Speaker 1: an amazing operation. Over a series of a few months,
Speaker 1: Virginia brought together a number of Heckler operatives who slowly
Speaker 1: and methodically delivered to the prisoners bits of clay in
Speaker 1: tin sardine cans that could be used to make a
Speaker 1: cast of the lock of the barracks door. After successfully
Speaker 1: building a replica of the lock, a locksmith was able
Speaker 1: to build a key that was then smuggled into the
Speaker 1: prison and allowed the prisoners to escape. After their escape,
Speaker 1: Virginia smuggled the agents out of France, through Spain and
Speaker 1: into London, all while never stepping out of the shadows.
Speaker 1: This incredible operation was deemed one of the nazis greatest embarrassments.
Speaker 1: Every moment you're standing here in front of me is
Speaker 1: another moment where that woman is transmitting our plans to
Speaker 1: the British and setting us back months. If I go
Speaker 1: to the address and misidentify her, we'll have played our
Speaker 1: hand and all of this will be for nothing. Then
Speaker 1: they'll shows the place on sir. If she's there, you'll
Speaker 1: kill her and we won't have learned anything. We need
Speaker 1: her alive. We need her face on a poster that
Speaker 1: we can shove into the faces of the British so
Speaker 1: we can make them think we know everything about the operations.
Speaker 1: If we capture the Limping Lady, we destroy HECLA. But
Speaker 1: if we haven't confirmed exactly who she is and we
Speaker 1: just kill some woman we could be looking for the
Speaker 1: Limping Lady forever, then go get her. We have to
Speaker 1: imagine this exchange with Barbie was frustrating. For a lesh,
Speaker 1: he would have felt like he was back at square one.
Speaker 1: He considered that if he just knew what the Limping
Speaker 1: Lady looked like beyond her limp, he could make a
Speaker 1: positive idea with a careful interrogation. He also knew that
Speaker 1: if she had to tell as prominent as a limp,
Speaker 1: and she was the leader of Heckler, it was possible
Speaker 1: that other female agents or resistance members might pretend to
Speaker 1: have limps just to keep the Nazis guessing, but Lesh
Speaker 1: couldn't get church parishioners to talk about the resistance and
Speaker 1: confession anymore. They were either not involved or had gotten
Speaker 1: wise dispelling secrets. His priest persona was proving ineffective, so
Speaker 1: he would have to take a more scholastic route and
Speaker 1: review reports made by the Gestapo about past encounters with
Speaker 1: Suspic's civilians. It was here that a Lash learned of
Speaker 1: an instance in which a foreign news reporter had a
Speaker 1: strange encounter with the Gestapo about a year before. Robert Delash, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you are the man who spoke to zoa porter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the cache what exactly major supporters stand out? She
Speaker 1: was a woman, and she was with a man who
Speaker 1: tried other pier shaky fellow, nervous on accident. Her French
Speaker 1: was excellent, but the accident was I believe perhaps Canadian.
Speaker 1: What was her name? I don't remember. Was it Marie? No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Marie Bridget and believe Bridget. M hm. You
Speaker 1: have written a new report that she had a limb. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, and this was about a year ago before
Speaker 1: as a limping lady was known to us. Yes, Sir,
Speaker 1: I didn't seein thing all describe her to me. Virginia
Speaker 1: was described as mid thirties, dark hair with a large,
Speaker 1: slender nose. She had thin eyebrows with a higher than
Speaker 1: normal arch, the curled sharply and thin lips. Her height
Speaker 1: was noted as five ft seven with this description and
Speaker 1: limited other options. Unless decided on his next move. After
Speaker 1: the break, he pays a visit to the address given
Speaker 1: to him by Dr Hussey. It's unclear if Robert Alesh
Speaker 1: felt any guilt for what he was doing. When Germany
Speaker 1: first became a threat to Europe. He had originally sited
Speaker 1: against them, and record show he even considered himself part
Speaker 1: of the resistance, aligning with the French and working to
Speaker 1: hide immigrant Jews in his parish. But when the Nazis
Speaker 1: took over all of France and forty two and Alesha
Speaker 1: was arrested for his activities, he quickly switched sides and
Speaker 1: never seemed to look back. Now he was in league
Speaker 1: with some of the top ranking Nazis stationed in France,
Speaker 1: although it seems he was not himself a designated member
Speaker 1: of the Gestapo. With his connections to the s S,
Speaker 1: he likely could have run and escaped to almost anywhere
Speaker 1: in the world, but instead Alesh chose to stay and work,
Speaker 1: maybe hoping to build an identity in this new world.
Speaker 1: The Nazis promised. He come a long way, and we
Speaker 1: haven't been able to find any evidence that he ever
Speaker 1: planned to turn back. I wish with all my heart
Speaker 1: that everyone fighting in this war could have come with
Speaker 1: me through the bobbed wire offense that leads to the
Speaker 1: inner compound. The app following the end of the war
Speaker 1: in the world started to learn of the devastating number
Speaker 1: of people killed in the concentration camps, starting with Belson
Speaker 1: in Germany. Richard Dimbleby described what he found there in
Speaker 1: his role as a war correspondent for the BBC. But
Speaker 1: beyond the barrier was a whirling cloud of dust, the
Speaker 1: dust of thousands of slowly moving people, laden in itself
Speaker 1: with the deadly typhus job. And with the dust was
Speaker 1: a smell, sickly and thick, the smell of death and decay,
Speaker 1: of corruption and filth. I passed through the barrier and
Speaker 1: found myself in the world of a nightmare. Dead bodies,
Speaker 1: some of them in decay, lay strewn about the road
Speaker 1: and along the rutted tracks, on each side of the
Speaker 1: road were brown wooden huts. There were faces the windows,
Speaker 1: the bony, emaciated faces of starving women too weak to
Speaker 1: come out sid An estimated six million Jewish people were
Speaker 1: murdered at the hands of the Nazis. Sometimes when we
Speaker 1: hear numbers so large, it's difficult to put them into perspective.
Speaker 1: So consider this. More Jews were murdered in concentration camps,
Speaker 1: then there are people currently living in the entire city
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. While the Holocaust can't give us a
Speaker 1: perfect number for all its casualties due to the Nazis
Speaker 1: destroying their records as camps were being liberated, it remains
Speaker 1: the most well documented and accurate count of genocide in
Speaker 1: human history. I've seen many terrible sites in the last
Speaker 1: five years, but nothing, nothing approaching the dreadful interior of
Speaker 1: this hot At Belson, the dead and the dyeing lay
Speaker 1: close together as Alest approached the address give into him
Speaker 1: by dr who say he shifted into his father, a
Speaker 1: con persona. He would only get one chance with this lead,
Speaker 1: and he still wasn't sure if this Marie was in
Speaker 1: fact the limping lady. Mm hmmmm, Yes, Marie Marie, it's father.
Speaker 1: Can have you treated the cats on the roof? Yes,
Speaker 1: but they won't take a brandy come in father. Coming
Speaker 1: up on the next episode of Good Assassins, being burned
Speaker 1: is devastating. That means your whole network could be compromised.
Speaker 1: Your number one thing is that tingly spider sense. Right,
Speaker 1: they've been banging the fourth there's made landings that all
Speaker 1: around about give on the long coat of front North
Speaker 1: Africa and somewhere on the web coat. Whatever it is
Speaker 1: the Gestapo wants, they'll demand it in exchange from making
Speaker 1: the pain end, and then at the end they'll mainly
Speaker 1: execute the people. If you have any questions for us
Speaker 1: about Good Assassins, if you're curious about some aspect of
Speaker 1: Virginia Hall story, or have any comments on the podcast,
Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at
Speaker 1: good Assassins at diversion audio dot com. Make sure you
Speaker 1: spell assassins correctly. Again, that's Good Assassins at Diversion Audio
Speaker 1: dot com. We'll try to answer your questions on a
Speaker 1: future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: diversion Pods. Good Assassins is a production of Diversion Audio
Speaker 1: in association with iHeart Podcasts. This season is hosted by
Speaker 1: Steven Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter, Produced and
Speaker 1: directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions. Story
Speaker 1: 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 mikayla Is Caerdo, Raphael
Speaker 1: cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman, John Pierkese, Andrew polk or Lock,
Speaker 1: Cassidy Manouel 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 S Simply for Diversion Audio