Denise Bloch
Denise Bloch | |
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Croix de Guerre |
Denise Madeleine Bloch (French pronunciation:
Bloch and her family,
Early life
Bloch was born to a
Working for the Resistance and SOE
In Lyon Bloch became a secretary for Jean-Maxime Aron, a Jewish engineer for
After Aron's arrest, Bloch went into hiding in Lyon and later Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. She dyed her black hair blond as a disguise, but her height of 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm) made her conspicuous. In January 1943, Sarrette accompanied Bloch to Toulouse which was the territory of SOE agents George Reginald Starr and Henri Sevenet. Starr and Sevenet initially regarded Bloch as a nuisance and Starr proposed "to liquidate her." However, they decided instead to evacuate her over the Pyrenees to Spain. The mid-winter crossing on foot was thwarted by heavy snow. Bloch returned to Toulouse where she first met Starr in person. He was impressed and invited her to become his courier and stay with him at his base in a house in the isolated village of Castelnau-sur-l'Auvignon. The two became inseparable and possibly lovers. Starr had no radio operator at the time and Bloch weekly made the long journey to Toulouse to communicate with SOE headquarters in London with SOE agent Marcus Bloom's radio. However, in April 1943, Bloom was arrested by the Germans. Without a means of communicating with London and in desperate need of supplies for his resistance groups, Starr sent Bloch to London with a written report of his activities and as an advocate for him. She walked across the Pyrenees mountains with Maurice Dupont as a guide, but the Spanish briefly arrested her and confiscated Starr's report. Bloch made her way to the British territory of Gibraltar and was flown to England, arriving there on 21 May.[7]
Illustrating that the Germans knew of Bloch, on 29 June 1943 she was convicted in absentia and sentenced to ten years hard labor.[8]
In London, Bloch was debriefed by SOE and expressed the desire to return to France. SOE initially opposed her return as she was known to the Germans and SOE's French section deputy Nicolas Bodington complained that she was a security risk and should be removed from SOE. Bloch, in return, was contemptuous of the SOE. Eventually, SOE decided to train her as a radio operator and send her back to a different area of France where she was not known.[9]
Return to France
On 2 March 1944, with fellow SOE agent and former racing car driver,
Imprisonment and execution
Bloch was interrogated at SD headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch in Paris and imprisoned at Fresnes Prison. On 8 August 1944, with the allies advancing on Paris, Bloch and other captured SOE agents was sent by train to Germany. In late August she reached Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. Along with SOE agents Violette Szabo and Lilian Rolfe she volunteered for a work party at Torgau in Saxony, where conditions were better than at Ravensbrūck. They attempted, but failed to escape. Sent back to Ravensbrück, they were beaten and put in an underground bunker. On 19 October, they were sent to Königsberg in Brandenburg where they were forced to do heavy labor in winter conditions. Recalled to Ravensbrück in late January 1945, they were in pitiful condition. Rolfe was no longer able to walk and Bloch was "suffering from gangrene." A few days later they were taken to the courtyard by the crematorium. Camp commandant Fritz 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 the Gestapo "did not themselves carry out the execution."[13][3]
Bloch's family gravesite at the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris memorialises her life and execution.[citation needed]
Recognition
Awards
UK | 1939-45 Star
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UK | France and Germany Star | |
UK | King's Commendation for Brave Conduct
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France | Légion d'honneur (Chevalier)
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France | Croix de Guerre with palm
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France | Médaille de la Résistance |
Monuments
- Brookwood Memorial as one of 3,500 "to whom war denied a known and honoured grave".[14]
- FANY memorial (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) in Wilton Road, Kensington.
- Tempsford Memorial as one of the women of the SOE who went out from RAF Tempsford and other airfields and port to aid resistance movements in occupied Europe, 1941 - 1945
France
- Valençay SOE Memorial in Valençay, Indre, in the "Roll of Honour" of the 91 men and 13 women members of the SOE who gave their lives for France's freedom.
Notes
- ISBN 9780300208573.
- ^ Perrin, Nigel. "Denise Bloch". Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ^ a b Perrin.
- ISBN 9780752487298.
- ISBN 9781445673608.
- ISBN 9781594206177.
- ^ Glass 2018, pp. 46–48, 52, 63–65, 72–75.
- ^ O'Connor 2016, p. 266.
- ^ O'Connor 2016, pp. 266–267.
- ^ Vigurs 2021, p. 145.
- ^ Vigurs 2021, pp. 145–146.
- ^ Escott 2010, p. 146.
- ^ Escott 2010, pp. 146–148.
- ^ Register from record of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission [Brookwood Memorial], May 2012