Female Spies: Courage and Espionage in WWII

During World War II, women of all backgrounds work as spies: Krystyna Skarbek, the Polish aristocrat whose daring exploits earn her the title of "Churchill's favorite spy," Andrée de Jongh, the Belgian girl whose ambitious escape network will save hundreds of Allied airmen, Josephine Baker, the glamorous singer whose fame provides the perfect cover for her anti-Nazi activities, and brothel owner Kitty Schmidt, whose Nazi-run establishment offers both secrets and pleasures.

Many brave women defy societal norms and play a crucial role as spies during World War II. Australian Nancy Wake sacrifices her comfortable life to spy on the Gestapo, sisters Jacqueline and Eileen go undercover together but are torn apart by fate, Betty Pack makes her way through Europe and America, enduring more than just a broken heart to gather secret information. The sacrifices and contributions of each woman underscore their commitment to the Allied cause.

They are the heroines and villains of the story: Hannie Schaft and Truus and Freddie Overseegen are Dutch girls who decide to take a ruthless revenge attack in the face of the Nazi occupation, Velvalee Dickinson uses an ingenious method to thwart the American war effort, Zheng Pingru risks her life to hunt down a collaborator, mother of three Odette Sansom fights against the Nazis in France, Catherine Dior, the fashion designer's sister, leaves her mark with the Resistance and a perfume.

In occupied Manila, Claire Phillips was tasked with spying on Japanese soldiers in her nightclub. Peggy Utinsky and Naomi Flores joined the Filipino resistance movement to provide medicine and food to Allied prisoners of war. Yoshiko Kawashima, the Chinese princess, betrayed her country of birth to serve Japan, the country where she grew up. Betty McIntosh worked for a predecessor of the CIA and helped, among other things, to take action against Japanese soldiers. Peruvian Elvira Chaudoir served the British secret service as a double agent.

Joey Guerrero was a Filipino spy who suffered from leprosy and extracted important information from Japanese soldiers. Marie Madeleine-Fourcade worked for the French and British secret services; after the war she became a member of the European Parliament. The French agent Violette Szabo was exposed by the Nazis and died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Pearl Witherington was the only woman to command a network of resistance groups in France. Long before Julia Child became a cooking icon in the USA, she worked as an intelligence officer. Vera Schalburg, alias Vera Eriksen, a native Russian, spied for the German Abwehr. Her cover was exposed in England in 1940 and she was imprisoned, after which her traces were initially lost. In 2012 her story was made into a film (“The Beautiful Spy”). The German Ursula Kuczynski - code name: Sonja - joined the Soviet military intelligence service GRU during the Second World War.