Lilian Rolfe | |
|---|---|
 Lilian Rolfe | |
| Nickname | Nadine |
| Born | (1914-04-26)26 April 1914 Paris, France |
| Died | 5 February 1945(1945-02-05) (aged 30) Ravensbrück concentration camp, Germany |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Women's Auxiliary Air Force Special Operations Executive First Aid Nursing Yeomanry |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 |
| Rank | Ensign |
| Unit | Historian |
| Battles / wars | Second World War |
| Awards | Member of the Order of the British Empire Mentioned in dispatches Croix de Guerre (France) |
Lilian Vera Rolfe,MBE (26 April 1914 – 5 February 1945), code nameNadine, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestineSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) organisation inFrance duringWorld War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especiallyNazi Germany. SOE agents in France allied themselves withFrench Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.
Rolfe was a wireless operator for the Historian Network based inOrleans. After four months of work in France, she was captured by the Germans on 31 July 1944. She was executed inRavensbrück concentration camp in late January 1945.
Rolfe and her twin sister Helen Fedora Rolfe were the daughters of George Rolfe, a British accountant working in Paris, and a Russian mother, who was Jewish, and so Lilian was halachically Jewish. Although she grew up in Paris, Rolfe came to England for a summer in Britain to learn English, but became ill withrheumatic fever. In 1933, when she was nineteen, the family moved toRio de Janeiro,Brazil. Rolfe was working in the press section of the British Embassy when World War II began in 1939. Part of her job was monitoring German ship movements in and out of Rio. In February 1943, Rolfe left Brazil and her family behind to join the war effort in England. Her ship was badly damaged, probably by a Germanmine, in the ocean crossing. In England she joined theWAAF on 16 May 1943. Her facility with languages brought her to the attention of the SOE and she joined the organization on 24 November 1943. SOE trained her as a wireless operator. She was unhappy during her training because of a failed romance.[1][2]
On 5 April 1944, Rolfe was dropped off byWestland Lysander airplane at a clandestine airfield near the village ofAzay-sur-Cher (nearTours) in German occupied France. Strapped around her waist was a wireless which weighed only 4 kg (8.8 lb) including its carrying case, a vast improvement over the cumbersome B-2 wireless weighing 15 kg (33 lb) used by previous SOE agents.[3] Rolfe was assigned to work in the Historian network (or circuit) headed by George Alfred "Teddy" Wilkinson and based in the city ofOrleans. At the time of her arrival, SOE was infiltrating numerous agents, especially wireless operators, into France in preparation of the Allied invasion of France, (D-day), which would take place on 6 June 1944.[4]
In accordance with SOE doctrine to minimize contact with other agents, Rolfe did not meet with Wilkinson until 2 June. In the meantime, she met and worked with the local French resistance organization, theMaquis, sought out landing sites for clandestine aircraft and parachute drops of supplies, and establishedsafe houses. She sent a total of 67 wireless messages to SOE headquarters in London enabling the SOE to air drop supplies and arms for the Maquis in preparation for their role in hindering the German response to the D-day landings. She moved from place to place and between transmissions hid her radio in various locations. She was involved in a skirmish between the Germans and the Maquis nearOlivet.[5][6]
In late June, Wilkinson was captured (and later executed) by the Germans. Rolfe continued working under a local leader named Pierre Charié. However, on 31 July the retreating Germans swept the town ofNangis to arrest suspected resisters. In one house they anticipated finding a resister, but instead they found Rolfe, an unexpected treasure, a SOE wireless operator. Her documents were suspicious and they soon found her radio.[7]
Rolfe was interrogated at SD headquarters at84 Avenue Foch in Paris and imprisoned atFresnes Prison. On 8 August 1944, with the allies advancing on Paris, Rolfe and other captured SOE agents was sent by train to Germany. In late August she reachedRavensbrück concentration camp for women. Along with SOE agentsViolette Szabo andDenise Bloch she volunteered for a work party atTorgau in Saxony, where conditions were better than at Ravensbrūck. They attempted to escape but failed. Sent back to Ravensbrück, they were beaten and put in an underground bunker. On 19 October, they were sent toKönigsberg in Brandenburg where they were forced to do heavy labor in winter conditions. Recalled to Ravensbrück in late January 1945, they were in poor health. Rolfe was unable to walk and Bloch was "suffering from gangrene." A few days later they were taken to the courtyard by the crematorium. Camp commandantFritz Suhren read the order for their execution and they were each shot in the back of the head with a small caliber pistol. Their bodies were cremated. An eyewitness said the women were "very brave" and that Commandant Suhren was annoyed that theGestapo "did not themselves carry out the execution."[8][9]
Rolfe's name is engraved on theRunnymede Memorial inSurrey, England. The "Lilian Rolfe House" at the Vincennes Estate,Lambeth was dedicated to her memory. In her honour, the government of France posthumously awarded her theCroix de Guerre.[10] In the town ofMontargis in theLoiret département, where she had been active, a street was named for her alias: "Rue Claudie Rolfe". As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, she is listed on the "Roll of Honour" on theValençay SOE Memorial in the town ofValençay, in theIndre departément of France. Like many female agents she was seconded into theFirst Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) when she joined SOE. Thus she is also commemorated on the FANY memorial atSt Paul's Church Knightsbridge in London. On 19 August 2021 a plaque was installed on the house Rolfe was born in (32 avenue Duquesne in the7th arrondissement of Paris) due to the efforts of Barbara Cronk, a member of the Rolfe family.[11]
In the 1958 filmCarve Her Name with Pride, the character of Lilian Rolfe was played by Anne Leon.
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| Member of the Order of the British Empire[citation needed] | 1939–1945 Star | France and Germany Star | War Medal withMentioned in dispatches[citation needed] |
| Croix de Guerre (France) | |||
