Despite unimaginable torture by the Nazis, imprisonment in concentration camps and uncertainty over the fate of her lover and fellow spy, Allied agent Odette Sansom never betrayed the clandestine ring she was part of in occupied France during World War II.
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While operating under the code name “Lise,” the French-born, British-residing Sansom helped aid the resistance in her homeland. Her actual name — which changed after the war during her several marriages — would be honored in the annals of espionage when she received the George Cross after the war. She was the first woman who had faced enemy fire to receive the honor, the second-highest award in the UK.
A posthumous UK postage stamp honoring her for her wartime service lists her as Odette Hallowes, the surname of her third husband.
While her exploits made her a celebrity in ensuing years, Sansom has become largely forgotten. A recently published book, “Code Name Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy,” by Larry Loftis, aims to set the record straight.
“It’s a story of a particular heroine whom 99 percent of people — 99 percent of WWII historians — probably don’t know who she is,” Loftis told The Times of Israel. “Her family is thrilled I wrote about her life.”
Sansom, who died at 83 in 1995, had an eventful life — especially during WWII. She entered espionage unexpectedly and proved to be great at it. Her skill at spycraft was noted by her commanding officer, Peter Churchill, as they helped the French Resistance while avoiding master German spycatcher Hugo Bleicher.
Sansom and Churchill developed a romantic relationship that Sansom relied upon to keep them safe after they were captured by the Nazis. She told her captors that she was married to Churchill and that he was kin to British prime minister Winston Churchill — lies that the Nazis swallowed even as they tortured her gruesomely, pulling out all 10 of her toenails.