Femininity and Resistance
Women resistance fighters and spies took advantage of conventional views on femininity. Men believing women are subservient or sexually deviant meant less suspcion on them. They were radio operators, couriers, chauffeurs, and, yes, even traded sexual favors for information. "[S]pies unearthed secrets, supported the resistance and destroyed the morale of the enemy" (Timeline). These women played an integral role in sabotaging the Nazis.
Women in the Resistance
Numerous resistance organizations existed throughout Europe during the war. Women in the groups would carry out missions that involved activities, such as carrying information, hiding people, and organizing and participating in uprisings against the Nazis.
Haika Grosman was one of the organizers of the Bialystok ghetto underground.
"Grosman was a good looking young woman who maintained an almost elegant presence even in wartime conditions, performing potentially dangerous missions. Her “ammunition” was resourcefulness, arrogance, courage, strong nerves and constant alertness, all of which saved her from virtually hopeless situations. 'My rule' she said, 'was not to hold on to sentiments. My purse was always clean—no personal photographs, no memories. I never wrote a word, kept neither diary nor notes. Everything was measured and calculated'" (Barzel).
In August 1943 during deportations of Jewish citizens to Treblinka for execution, the underground staged an uprising. Grosman helped organie and participated in the uprising. Armed Jews attacked the German forces, and fighting lasted for five days. The uprising was unsuccessful and hundreds of Jewish fighters died in the battle. More than 100 were able to escape, however, including Haika Grosman.
Ala Gertner arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp and assigned to forced labor at Vistula-Union-Metal Works armaments factory. She learned that she and other women in the factory were going to be killed, so they "began smuggling gunpowder and explosives from the factory with plans to destroy one of the crematoriums" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
During an uprising in the camp in October 1944, Jewish Sonderkommando (Special Detachment) at Auschwitz-Birkenau used the smuggled armaments to blow up Crematorium 4, rendering it inoperable. In addition, three guards were killed.
The revolt was crushed by other guards, and almost all involved in the uprising were killed. "The Jewish women, including Gertner, who had smuggled the explosives into the camp were publicly hanged in early January 1945" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Hannah Szenes was one of 32 Jewish volunteer Palestinian parachutists sent into German-occupied Europe. "Their mission was to organize resistance to the Germans and aid in the rescue of Allied personnel" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
"On June 7, 1944, Szenes infiltrated German-occupied Hungary. The Germans captured her and, after several months of torture, they executed Szenes by firing squad. She was 23 years old" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
"Tina was a medical student when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She and members of her sorority joined the underground, and she hid Jews in her house from the beginning of the war. Tina found hiding places for Jewish children, forged passports, and served as a courier for the underground" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
"The Limping Lady"
Using more than twenty aliases and constantly chaging her appearance and persona, U.S. spy Virginia Hall avoided capture "while organising prison breaks and recruiting, training, arming and directing the French underground battle against the Nazis" (Warren).
Despite her accomplishments, Hall was often subjugated, demeaned, and undermined by her male colleagues. Physically, she was a "delicately featured, dark-haired beauty" (Warren) with one leg. After an accidental shooting accident, Hall lost her left leg below the knee. Using a wooden leg she nicknamed "Cuthbert," Hall worked as an ambulance driver in France, and later became the first woman spy to be placed in France by the British Intelligence Unit, Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was the only women spy for twelve months. However, "[t]his “gallant lady,” her SOE commanders concluded, was almost single-handedly changing minds about the role of women in combat" (Purnell), so more women began to be dispatched into the field.
The Nazis knew her only as "the limping lady" and were eager for her capture. They hung warning posters offering a reward for any information on "the most dangerous of all Allied spies" (Waren). At one point, she had to escape them by traversing 50 miles through the Pyrenees mountains on foot.
In 1944, Hall disguised herself "as a 60-year-old peasant woman, criss-crossed the French countryside organizing sabotage missions against the German army. In one OSS report, Hall’s team was credited with derailing freight trains, blowing up four bridges, killing 150 Nazis and capturing 500 more" (Warren).
"'The fact that a young woman who had lost her leg, at a time when disabled women and men were confined to staying at home, was able to overcome prejudice to help the Allies win the Second World War is astonishing,' says her award-winning biographer" (Warren quoting Sonia Purnell).
Hall was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in September 1945; the only woman to receive it in World War II.
After the war, Hall became one of the first women recruits for the CIA in the United States. "But despite her immense capability, Hall was repeatedly overlooked for promotion in favour of less able male colleagues and she died in 1982 without being recognised for her bravery, intellect and patriotism" (Warren). This was most likely preferred by Hall as some of her closest family members did not know the extent of her life as a spy. "'Too many of my friends were killed because they talked too much,' Hall once said, according to her 1982 obituary in The Baltimore Sun" (Knezevich).
Sonia Purnell's biography, A Woman of No Importance, tells Hall's story. Purnell needed nine levels of security clearance in order to gather all of the information for the book.
How Women Mastered The Art of Espionage
(A 50-minute documentary about women spies and members of resistance organizations during World War II)