Violette Reine Elizabeth (Bushell) Szabo

On June 26, 1921 Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell was born. She grew up in Paris, France where her father was a second hand car dealer. Her family later moved to London, England. She met Etienne Szabo during World War II and on August 2, 1940 they were married. Etienne Szabo was an officer in the Free French Forces and they married just before he was sent to North Africa to fight the Italians. Etienne was tragically killed in the battle of El Alamein. Her husband died just a little after she gave birth to her first daughter Tania Szabo. Then she joined the S.O.E. The S.O.E. stands for Special Operations Executive. The S.O.E. sent her to France.

Her first trip behind enemy lines took her to Lysander, near Paris in April of 1944. She organized a group of resistance fighters who blew up bridges and roads. She identified important military targets for English bombers. Violette was arrested but later freed. Sadly she only made one more trip into France. Right after the allies landed at Normandy, Violet parachuted to a place near Limoges on June 7, 1944. Her mission was to go behind enemy lines and blow up things like communication lines. After a brief gun battle she was captured when her ammunition ran out. She was taken to Ravensbrück, a concentration camp in Germany in August 1944. Violette was also spent three months at Konigsburg on the Russian Front. Violette Szabo was executed by a German firing squad on or about February 5, 1945. Her body was cremated. Violette was only 23 years old! In 1958 there was a movie made about Violette called Carve Her Name with Pride.

image from Amazon.com

for more information:
http://www.violette-szabo-museum.co.uk/foyer.htm
http://www.violetteszabo.org/  
http://www.jerseywartunnels.com/Content/H08/Szabo.aspx
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEszabo.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/exclusions/features/gordonbrown/nosplit/ftgordonbook5.xml

last edited 4/4/08

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