Medals awarded to British spy Violette Szabo set to sell for £300k at auction

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British spy who was tortured and executed by the Nazis after being caught when she used up her ammo providing covering fire for escaping comrade

By Amanda Williams for MailOnline
Published: 10:20 GMT, 2 July 2015 | Updated: 15:24 GMT, 2 July 2015

The incredible bravery of a beautiful British secret agent widely considered one of the most courageous women of World War II has been revealed as her gallantry medals are set to sell for up to £300,000.

Violette Szabo, who was executed by the Germans after brutal torture at the hands of SS officers, was posthumously awarded the prestigious George Cross for her heroism on highly-dangerous missions in Nazi-occupied France.

The astonishing bravery of the beautiful 23-year-old has been immortalised in three biographies and the 1958 film 'Carve Her Name With Pride' in which she was portrayed by Virginia McKenna.

Szabo, born Violette Bushell, in Stockwell, South London, joined the Land Army at the outbreak of war and worked as a strawberry picker and then at an anti-aircraft battery.
But after her husband was killed by the Germans at El Alamein in 1942 she vowed to avenge his death, volunteering for the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

On her last mission to disrupt the German response to the D-Day landings, she sacrificed her life for that of a male comrade, providing covering fire until her ammunition ran out so that he could escape.

After her capture, she was brutally tortured by the SS before being shot at the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany in early 1945.

Only four women have been awarded the George Cross since its inception in 1940. The other three were also secret agents for the Special Operations Executive and one of them, Odette Sansom, described Violette as 'the bravest of us all.'

Her medals and an accompanying archive of documents and photos are described as one of the most important collections ever offered for sale in Britain.

The pre-sale estimate for her George Cross group of £250,000 to £300,000 easily outstrips the current record of £93,000.

The collection is being sold by Violette's daughter Tania Szabo who has campaigned to preserve her mother's memory.
Tania, 73, said parting with the medals is tinged with regret but is necessary to secure her own financial future.

She said: 'After many years of actively supporting the legacy of my gallant mother, I have reached a point in my life where I need to make a difficult decision in respect of the future of her medals.

'I have no children and therefore the ongoing custodianship of her medals needs to be addressed. Moreover, I have my own future security to consider.. Therefore, after examining the options, I decided to place her awards up for auction.

'I do so with some regret but it is a decision derived from much careful thought and I have every confidence that the successful purchaser will cherish - and take great care of - them.'

David Erskine-Hill, of London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb, said in the 1950s a campaign was launched to have Violette's George Cross upgraded to a Victoria Cross because of her valour in the face of the enemy.

He said: 'Her award stands at the pinnacle of such distinctions and her legacy yet higher.

'As a consequence, her story has reached an admiring international audience, for it is a story of a brave and beautiful woman, in fact a very special human being, who in reality conquered her foes by an example of stoicism that remains an inspiration to this day.'

Violette was born to an English father and French mother and lived in Stockwell, south London.
After leaving school she worked as a perfumery assistant in a Brixton department store before joining the Land Army in 1940.

She met Etienne Szabo, a dashing French Legionnaire and much decorated soldier, in 1940 and they married after a whirlwind romance of six weeks.

He was killed in the North Africa campaign in October 1942 and never met his four-month-old daughter Tania.
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Violette met Etienne Szabo, a dashing French Legionnaire and much decorated soldier, in 1940 and they married after a whirlwind romance of six weeks. He was killed in the North Africa campaign in October 1942 and never met his four-month-old daughter Tania

Her fluent French and evident courage made Violette an ideal candidate for the SOE, the daring organisation that conducted top-secret espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance missions in Europe in the war.

Her first mission in April 1944 - two months before D-Day - involved her being parachuted over Cherbourg.
She undertook a highly-dangerous solo mission to assess the fate of an SOE network of agents and gathered information about factories producing war materials for the Germans so the Allies could bomb them.

During her undercover mission she was arrested twice by the Germans but released on both occasions after they believed her cover story.

She was picked up and flown home but not before a daring shopping trip to Paris to buy Tania an expensive dress.
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The pre-sale estimate for her George Cross group of £250,000 to £300,000 easily outstrips the current record of £93,000

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Violette's original parachute badge which her parents discovered after she had dropped it and then realised the true dangerous nature of her work

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Violette Szabo's fake French identity card and a letter appointing her friend Vera Maidment to be her daughter Tania's guardians in the event of her death

Her second and last operation took place two days after the Normandy landings in June 1944 when she was parachuted into south west France. It is said she kissed the entire crew of the Liberator aircraft before making her exit.

She and local resistance fighter Jacques Dufour hastily drove to the Dordogne to with a band of comrades to sabotage Nazi communication lines but were stopped by a German checkpoint near Limoges.

Their cover blown, the couple made a run for a nearby wheat field, firing at the guards with their Sten guns.

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Tania Szabø wearing her mother's George Cross and other awards and her father Etienne's medal ribbons

They crawled through the field until Violette was unable to go any further due to exhaustion and an injured ankle. She told Dufour to make his escape.

Dufour later said: 'She insisted she wanted me to try and get away, that there was no point in my staying with her. So I went on while she kept firing.'

Violette continued to engage the enemy for nearly half an hour but was captured after running out of ammunition. Hauled up before an SS officer, she was seen to spit in his face by a local eye-witness.

Taken to Limoges, and then to Paris, Violette underwent terrible torture prior to being transferred to Ravensbruck concentration camp in northern Germany in August 1944.
She remained defiant throughout her ordeal, discussed escape and, to the consternation of her brutal guards led fellow prisoners in a rendition of the 'Lambeth Walk' to boost morale for which she was placed in solitary confinement for a week.
She and agents Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolfe, also of SOE, were executed by a shot to the back of their necks between 26 January and 5 February 1945.. Their bodies were cremated.

In December 1946 it was announced that Violette had been posthumously awarded the George Cross. Her daughter Tania, wearing the dress her mother had bought her in Paris, attended Buckingham Palace to receive the award from George VI.

She said: 'He (the King) leant forward and pinned the George Cross onto my right hand side, saying that as my mother's representative I must always wear it on my right hand side.
'My mother's life was short but lived to the full, with much happiness, joy, some deep sadness and great endeavour.
'She and all those souls who gave their life for our fragile liberties would urge us most strenuously to be ever vigilant and strive to remain free. Lest we forget.'

Tania was brought up by her grandparents and worked as a secretary and a croupier before opening a language studio in Jersey. She now lives in Wales.
 
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