Noor Inayat Khan

Born January 2, 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire to Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ameena Begum

Born from a wealthy Indian Muslim family, Khan joined the British Auxiliary Air Force in 1940. Recognized out of her class she was selected to join the SOE F. Her superiors held mixed opinions on her abilities to perform as a secret warfare agent as her training was far from complete when the SOE F came to needing her. It was her fluent French, coupled with the sheer need of agents that pushed her through prematurely. Her first mission into France went sour almost immediately. She was involved in the PHYSICIAN network, who over a one month period saw the arrest of most of their radio operators. When the offer was made to bring her out of France and back to Britain she declined. She saw the need for her skills, especially after the largest round up of SOE F members seen so far. She was so adept at transmitting and receiving information she became one of the most wanted British agents in Paris. Her face and name was circulated among all the SD and Gestapo officers in Paris. She spent weeks evading capture. She could only transmit for twenty minutes at a time in a place, before having to move to avoid being found. It was said that “She refused to abandon what had become the most important and dangerous post in France, and did excellent work.”

(The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 38578. p. 1703. 5 April 1949.)

She was given up by a fellow member (Renee Garry), allegedly, for the price of 100,000 francs. The actions of the member might be attributed to her jealousy due to the suspicion she had lost the affections of France Antelme to Khan. Khan was arrested and interrogated by the SD for over a month. Hans Kieffer, a former head of the SD in Paris, testified after the war that she never gave up any information. When the SD took her in they had doubts about the information regarding her ferocity. They had been warned that she was extremely dangerous. It is said she fought so fiercely upon being taken in that the SD officers were afraid of her.

Though she did not talk, her code books were found and eventually lead to the capture of 18 more members of the SOE F. She fought the Nazis from her custody every day until the 13 of September of 1944, when she was shot in the back of the head at Dachau Concentration Camp. It is recorded by a Dutch prisoner that she had been cruelly beaten by a high ranking SS officer, Wilhelm Ruppert, before being shot. It is believed that the beatings where the true cause of death. Her last word has been recoded as;

“Liberté”