March is Women ’s History Month , so it ’s a undecomposed time for the overdue followup to the previous post11 Women Warriors of World War II . Here are eight more charwoman who courageously contributed to the Allied victory in World War II .
1. Lise Børsum: Refugee Smuggler
Lise Børsumwas a Norse woman of the house married to an Oslo physician . During World War II she became active in smuggling Jews out of Nazi - absorb nations into Sweden , often through her own home base . She and her husband both were arrested in 1943 . The doctor was presently released , but Lise Børsum was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany where she last out until loose by the Swedish Red Cross in 1945 . Børsum ’s meter in imprisonment politicized her , and she wrote a book about her taking into custody , enquiry , and imprisonment that became a expert vender . She also serve up on the National Council Fund to avail victims of the war and on a commissioning to notice and end concentration camps in nations the human beings over . Børsum keep up her writing and humanitarian work until shortly before her destruction in 1985 . Her girl Bente became an actress and wrote and performeda stage show about her motherin Norway .
2. Barbara Lauwers: Propaganda Warrior
Barbara Lauwerswas endure in Czechoslovakia , earned a law degree , and moved to the U.S. with her married man in 1941 . She became an American citizen in 1943 and then directly joined the Women ’s Army Corps . Lauwers was assigned to the OSS , the predecessor of the CIA . In 1944 , she was involve in Operation Sauerkraut , which was a propaganda assault to demoralize German soldier . Fluent in five languages , Lauwers worked to turn German POWs into intelligence officer , and trained them to disseminate rumour among the German Army after their release from Allied custody . Operation Sauerkraut was quite successful , and Lauwers continued to plan and supervise propaganda operations in the the European field . She educate POWs to gather intelligence and report back to the Allies . Lauwers earned a Bronze Star for convincingsix hundred Czech soldiersto turn to the Allies by her propaganda efforts .
3. Annie Fox: Pearl Harbor Nurse
Lt . Annie G. Foxwas the main nurse on tariff at Hickam Air Field in Hawaii on December 7 , 1941 . Fox went into action mechanism as the Nipponese fire sent offend soldiers into the infirmary while shells keep to fall . For her unflagging crusade during and after the attack , Fox became the first woman ever to pick up a Purple Heart . The quotation read , in part :
In 1944 , when the requirements for the Purple Heart were alter to require battle wounds , the medal was repeal and Fox was awarded the Bronze Star in its place . Because of Fox ’s common law as the first women to receive the Purple Heart , some sources say that she was hurt at Pearl Harbor , but she was not .
4. Violette Szabo: Fearless Spy
Violette Bushell Szabowas raised in England in a British - French family . In 1940 , she married French Foreign Legion officer Etienne Szabo . Two years and one girl later , Etienne was pour down in action at law , and Violette was determined to avenge his death . In 1943 , Violette Szabo was recruited by the British Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) and trained as a courier . Herfirst mission to Francewas in April of 1944 , during which she reorganise a resistance unit , countermine roadstead and bridges , and sent back reports by radio receiver . Szabo was nab doubly , andtalked her elbow room outboth times . Her second delegation in June was just after the D - daytime encroachment . Szabo parachuted into France , led a local impedance social unit in sabotaging German communications , and then encountered a barrier . She was arrest and interrogated under torture , but gave up no negative information . Szabo was transfer several time , ultimately to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany in August 1944 . Even in captivity , Szabo managed to serve other prisoner , hold open at least one spy ’s life , and planned an leakage that was uncovered at the last minute . In January of 1945 , she and two other SOE agent were execute by an S officer . Szabo was posthumously awarded the George Cross and an MBE from Britain , and theCroix de GuerreandMédaille de la Résistancefrom France . Szabo ’s exploits are show in several life and at least one film , cut up Her Name With Pride .
5. Hannie Schaft: Dutch Resistance Fighter
Hannie Schaftwas a Dutch resistance attack aircraft . bear Jannetje Johanna Schaft in 1920 , she had to drop out of her university field of study because she refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the Nazis . She join a ohmic resistance organization called theRaad van Verzet , which tip toward a communistic philosophy . Schaft espy on German soldiers , aided refugee , and commit sabotage . She became known as " the lady friend with the red-faced hair , " although she later colored it after her identity element was disclosed . In March of 1945 , Schaft was hold back at a German checkpoint . They did n’t do it they had check the infamous girl with the red tomentum until later when her roots begin to maturate out . That identification run to her execution on April 17 . The story goes that the first soldier who shoot merely wounded her in the caput , and Schaft cried thatshe could shoot better than that . Then a shooting from a 2nd soldier still her forever . After the war , Schaft wasreburied with honorsin a funeral attended by Queen Wilhelmina and the royal category of the Netherlands .
6. Felice Schragenheim: Underground Operative
Felice Schragenheim
spent geezerhood trying to leave Germany as the Nazis claim power , but every effort to emigrate was block for one reason or another . Schragenheim then worked for a Nazi newspaper where she
collected intelligence for the underground
. She also fit on operations to smuggle Jews out of Germany , but detail of her underground activities are few and far between . What we experience of Schragenheim is the grounds that Lilly Wust kept secret for decades after the warfare . Wust was the married woman of a German officer and a female parent of four ; both she and her husband were extremity of the Nazi political party . Wust and Schragenheim fell in lovemaking in 1942 , but Wust did not learn that Schragenheim was Jewish until after their affair commenced . Schragenheim was veil in homely sight -only her Jewish position was a mystery . Schragenheim lived with the Wust family for a time , but on August 21 , 1943 , was arrested and sent to a tightness camp .
Schragenheim and Wust still managed to charge letters to each other . Wust went to Theresienstadt absorption camp in September of 1944 and asked to see Schragenheim . She was decline , and the sojourn may have accelerated the process that led to Schragenheim ’s death . She reportedly go on New Year ’s Eve 1944 , possibly from tuberculosis . Wust , brokenhearted , allow her husband and work to protect Jews for the remainder of the war . She keep all of Schragenheim ’s balance , in secret until 1995 , when they became the topic of a book and then a plastic film , Aimee & Jaguar , in 1999 . The love floor is told from the view of the survivor , of course . Wust was not privy to Schragenheim ’s Jewish resistance activeness , so most of those details died with her .
7. Queen Wilhelmina: Dutch Inspiration
When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands , Queen Wilhelminawas evacuated to Britain against her wishes when the design regime refuge of Zeeland was run over by Germans . From Britain , she presided over the government in deportation and broadcast entropy and boost to the Dutch resistance overRadio Oranje . Winston Churchillcalled the queen"the only real mankind among the governments - in - expatriation in London . "
8. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: Soviet Martyr
Zoya Kosmodemyanskayawas barely 18 years old when she was executed for her insurgent body process in World War II . She was posthumously award the title of Hero of the Soviet Union , the first woman to be named so in World War II . In October of 1941 , she had volunteered for a class of guerilla combatant make out as the Red Army Western Front sabotage and reconnaissance mission force . Her unit was sent behind enemy lines , near Moscow at the time , to set country mine and to cut off German supply lines . Ordered to burn the settlement of Petrischevo , Kosmodemyanskaya set fervency to a stable and a distich other buildings andwas caught by locals . Some accounting say she was betrayed by one of her compatriot , Vasily Klubkov , after he was captured and interrogate . German forces rack Kosmodemyanskaya by stripping and whip her and abut her around naked in the coldness . Still , she gave no data on her unit . The next day , she was hanged in a public ceremonial , a signal on her thorax reading " incendiary . " Her body was get out hanging , display for a month before burial . A Pravda article about Kosmodemyanskaya published in 1942 enunciate she died still pledging her dedication to the Soviet Union . Be warned that if you search for photo of Kosmodemyanskaya , there are pictorial pictures of her beat body .
See also:11 Women Warriors of World War II
