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  • Noor Inayat Khan was in the midst of a desperate escape.

  • She had been imprisoned for her activities as an Allied spy,

  • but with the help of a screwdriver and two other prisoners,

  • she was back under the Parisian stars.

  • As she began to run,

  • her thoughts leapt to the whirlwind of events that had brought her here

  • Born in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Muslim father and an American mother,

  • Noor was raised in a profoundly peaceful home.

  • Her parents were Sufi pacifists,

  • who put their faith in the power of music and compassion.

  • They moved to Paris,

  • where Noor studied child psychology and published children's books.

  • But all this changed with the advent of the Second World War.

  • In May 1940, with the German army ready to occupy Paris,

  • Noor and her brother were faced with a difficult choice.

  • As pacifists, they believed that all disputes should be settled non-violently.

  • But witnessing the devastation across Europe,

  • they decided that standing on the sidelines was not an option.

  • Traveling to England,

  • Noor volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force

  • and trained as a radio operator.

  • She immersed herself in wireless operations and Morse code

  • unaware that she was being monitored by a secret organization.

  • The British Special Operations Executive was established

  • to sabotage the Germans in Nazi-occupied countries.

  • As a trained radio operator who knew Paris well and spoke fluent French,

  • Noor was an attractive recruit.

  • In her interview, she was warned that wireless operation

  • was some of the most dangerous work in the intelligence field.

  • Operators had to lug a conspicuous transmitter through enemy territory,

  • and the clandestine agency couldn't protect her if she was caught.

  • Noor accepted her assignment immediately.

  • While she was determined to take her pacifist principles as far as possible,

  • Noor had to learn the art of espionage.

  • She learned how to contact intelligence networks, pick a lock,

  • resist interrogation and fire a gun.

  • In June 1943 she landed in Angers, south of Paris,

  • and made her way to the city armed with a false passport,

  • a pistol and a few French francs.

  • But her network was compromised.

  • Within a week of her deployment,

  • all her fellow agents were arrested, and Noor was called home.

  • She convinced her supervisors to let her stay

  • which meant doing the work of six radio operators singlehandedly.

  • Over the following months,

  • she tracked and transported supplies to the French resistance,

  • sent reports of Nazi activity back to London

  • and arranged safe passage for allied soldiers.

  • This work was essential to building the French resistance

  • and Allied intelligence networks

  • and, ultimately, ending the war.

  • Protected only by her quick thinking and charisma,

  • she frequently talked her way out of questioning.

  • When the Gestapo searched her on the train,

  • she gave them a casual tour of herfilm projector.”

  • When an officer spotted her hanging her aerial,

  • she chatted about her passion for listening to music on the radio

  • and charmed him into helping her set up the cable.

  • In her entire four month tenure,

  • her sharp wits and stealth never failed her.

  • But her charm had inspired lethal jealousy.

  • In October 1943, the sister of a colleague,

  • in love with an agent that loved Noor,

  • sold her address to the Gestapo.

  • Noor refused to give away any information,

  • focusing instead on her escape.

  • Secreting a screwdriver away from the guards,

  • they were able to loosen a skylight and slip out into the night.

  • But just as the prisoners began to run for their lives,

  • an air raid siren alerted her captors.

  • Noor was caught once again and sent to a German prison.

  • Then, on to Dachau concentration camp.

  • Despite being tortured, deprived and isolated,

  • Noor gave nothing away.

  • In the moments before her execution

  • she is thought to have shoutedLiberté!”

  • Since her heroic sacrifice,

  • Noor has been honoured as a hero who waged secret battles behind enemy lines

  • paving the way for freedom without ever taking a life.

Noor Inayat Khan was in the midst of a desperate escape.

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