I see several threads that mention her but not a specific thread, so I though I'd start one! I'm sure everyone knows the story of this brave woman, so I won't recount it. I suppose, as her exploits were clandestine and her captors didn't want any evidence of their brutality, there isn't a lot of infor about her. Please feel free to post anything you have here! Next month my wife and I will visit Salon La Tour, the site of her famous gun battle with the SS. If anyone has been before, I'd love to hear from you!
This site has sadly 'faded away'. It did have some good stuff about Violette on it. Does anyone have any of the pictures or info?
A LIfe In Secrets by Sarah Helm About the life & work of Vera Atkins who operated from 64 Baker St vetting the female agents. Have read it a couple of times, strongly recommended reading.
Yep! A great book! So too her daughter's, 'Young Brave & Beautiful'. Best book on Violette I've read!!
If memory serves me right I think her daughter either wrote or had an account of her mother's life written , certainly I do not consider myself up to lacing the ladies shoes - a very remarkable young woman who gave her all.
As mentioned above here is a link about the Daughter and the book she wrote Violette Szabó, George Cross
Yep! A great book! So too her daughter's, 'Young Brave & Beautiful'. Best book on Violette I've read!! Didn't her daughter once join this forum to promote the book? Very brave woman.
There also used to be a Museum to her in Worcestershire.....never went and not sure if it is still open???????
Here's the link to a Facebook Group dedicated to Violette. The Violette Szabo G.C. Memorial Group | Facebook
There also used to be a Museum to her in Worcestershire.....never went and not sure if it is still open??????? VIOLETTE SZABO - HISTORY OF THIS BRITISH SOE AGENT Next door to Worcestershire, Herefordshire. Still open I think.
Tania Tzabo did indeed briefly pop in once. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/special-forces/12582-wet-sunday-soe-new-book.html#post124851 We all went 'Oooh!'. And I felt like tidying up .
I e-mailed Tania with a question about the battle at Salon La Tour together with a G**gle Earth Map of the village. The next day I had a reply with some extra info. A very nice lady.
Carve Her Name with Pride By R J Minney Violette Szabo’s heroic exploits are not only known within the annals of SOE but transcend into the crowded history of the Second World War. For those who don’t fully know Violette’s story could do no worse than to read this book. The women of SOE paid a particularly heavy price for their actions against a devious and ruthless enemy. These women volunteered to fight within a bastion for a freedom that would be one of the most important in history. “In my view, women were very much better than men for the work. Women … have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men.” Captain Selwyn Jepson, SOE Senior Recruiting Officer. Violette became a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and was recruited into SOE. She had more reason than most to stay at home; a baby, a daughter who tragically would never get a chance to know and grow up with her parents. Losing her husband, Etienne on the 24th Oct 1942 to enemy action must have given Violette a burning desire to act. Violette’s childhood of constantly moving house and playing with tomboyish deeds gave her enormous strength of character in later helping her to operate behind enemy lines. Her determination and adventurous spirit never left her and impressed all who met her. Having already returned from one mission to France she undertook another which she would not come back. Violette was just 23 when she was murdered at Ravensbruck in 1945. War, just months from ending. Not only does the exceptional courage of Violette Szabo resonate to the reader but the agonising wait her family had had to endure at the end of hostilities, when no news was immediately forthcoming. This book was first published in 1956 and had a film based on it starring Virginia McKenna, which was released in 1958. It has a huge benefit in being written not too long after the events described and Minney being able to interview close family and friends while events and memories are relatively fresh. You gain an insight to a young woman who tackled adversity head on and never looked like giving up, an inspiration that is as relevant today as when her story was first told. The photographs in this republished book are a great addition to telling the account of a heroine, a woman whose brightness pushed back the shadows of iniquity. ISBN: 9781848847422 Paperback 192 pages Pen & Sword Military Pen and Sword Books: Military History and Nostalgia Book Publishers
The most beautiful poem came from this... The life that I have Is all that I have And the life that I have Is yours The love that I have Of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours. A sleep I shall have A rest I shall have Yet death will be but a pause For the peace of my years In the long green grass Will be yours and yours and yours. Leo Marks
I can also recommend Tania Szabo's book on her mother Young, Brave & Beautiful Tania Szabo Channel Island Publishing 2007 ISBN 978-1905095209 496pp
Violette Szabo's medals and other paperwork are up for sale in a few weeks. For anyone interested in seeing much of her WW2 documentation, medals etc. Please follow the link and download the pdf catalogue, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of paperwork I've seen, to an extremely special lady. http://www.dnw.co.uk