Betrayed, Captured, and Tortured

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Betrayed, Captured, and Tortured

The final act of the princess spy’s life was filled with betrayal and unending pain. But her unbreakable spirit led her to endure the worst that was there. In this time, she managed to annoy the Germans by keeping a strong front even while she was breaking apart inside. Finally, she was taken to the Dachau concentration camp where she met her fate bravely with only one word escaping her lips: liberty.

The other agents only knew Nora Baker, not Noor Inayat Khan. Image source: BBC

Even though she wasn't the brightest or the fittest agent in the field, she certainly was the most competent one.

In 1943, the situation deteriorated further, and the war crisis deepened. It seemed that there was not going to be an end to this war, at least, not soon enough.

On 24th June 1943, the Prosper network, where Noor worked as a radio operator, came under the radar of the Germans. The Buckmaster informed Noor that she was going to be flown home. But she refused, thinking that she was the only remaining radio operator in Paris.

The Buckmaster complied and told her to only receive signals and not transmit them. Unfortunately, Noor was betrayed by Renee Garry, the sister of Emile Henri Garry. It is said that she was paid 100,000 francs by the Gestapo to spill the information. There were speculations that her disliking towards Noor led her to side with the Germans.

On 13th October 1943, Noor was arrested by the Germans. She was interrogated and tortured brutally. When the reports were written, it was an admirable surprise to her superiors that Noor resisted all forms of coercion and did not give any information. She lied consistently and repeatedly.

The SD recovered some of her notebooks and were able to get their hands on confidential information such as the message she had transmitted to London.

The Germans had an ace up their sleeves, and they copied her style to send false messages to London and find the whereabouts of other agents. Also, when the F section's air landing officer gave the secrets of the SOE to the SD in Paris, more agents were caught.

It was later revealed that the officer who gave the information had been working for MI6. And this had to be done as it was a part of the deception plan.

Sonya Olschanezky, another agent on the field, sent a message through her fiance Jacque Weil to inform the headquarters to be wary of any transmissions from Madeleine. However, the tip was ignored because colonel Maurice Buckmaster was unaware of Sonia's identity.

This resulted in the deaths of many more SOE agents as the transmissions sent from Noor's radio continued to be treated as genuine.

On 25th November 1943, Noor and a few SOE agents managed to escape from the headquarters but were caught soon.

Two days later, Noor was taken away to be kept in 'safe custody’ while she was being sent to the solitary confinement unit, a place where people could disappear without a trace, where her hands and feet remained shackled for ten months.

Even during that time of extreme torture, she continued to remain uncooperative. Prisoners could hear her cries at night. Noor's solace lay in scratching messages in her cell that were discovered later by other inmates- the name Nora Baker and her mother's home address in London.

The following year she was taken to the Dachau concentration camp with her fellow agents. On 13 September 1944, Noor and her fellows were executed at the concentration camp.

According to the reports, the officers told that the prisoners were not allowed any final wishes. They were not even allowed to see a priest and cried when they realized the fate that had befallen them.