Noor Inayat Khan; circa 1943
With the end of the Second World War in 1945, every country heaved a sigh of relief. Although this wasn’t a period marked by absolute peace, countries still had the chance to recover and rebuild. However, the scariest aftermath of the War, were the secrets that were exposed. All the undercover missions that were deployed by the Allied and the Axis powers, and all the agents that were a part of this mission, were exposed, over a period of time. One such unique organization that deployed several such missions was the British-set up – Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Noor with her family
But before we get into the crux of the operation itself, let me give you some insight into the life of the woman, that we are here to read about today – Noor Inayat Khan. Also known as Noor-un-nisa, Khan came from an exotic and culturally mixed background. She was born to an Indian father and an American mother on 1 January 1914, in Moscow, erstwhile Russian Empire, and was the eldest of the 4 siblings. She was brought up in Paris, and educated at the Sorbonne University (Paris). To add up to it all, she was also of royal descent. Her father, Inayat Khan’s maternal grandmother, was the granddaughter of Tipu Sultan, the famous 18th century king of Mysore. Thus, making Noor, of royal descent. Inayat Khan was originally a Sufi preacher and classical musician from Baroda, Gujarat. He used to sing in the royal courts of Baroda and Hyderabad, but left India in 1910, to spread the teachings of Sufism in Europe and America. It was in San Francisco that he met his future wife Ora Ray Baker, who later changed her name to Pirani Ameena Begum. Soon after, the couple left for Russia, where they were the guests of the Tsar and it was here that Noor was born. However, these were turbulent times for the family, marked by economic and political upheaval, due to the tensions between countries. All of this deeply impacted Noor’s life and soon after her birth the First World War broke out, forcing the family to shift to London and then soon to Paris.
(Left) – Noor with her mother; (Right) – A young Noor with her father
It was here, in Paris, that Noor received majority of her education. Her formative years were spent here studying music and medicine. When she was merely 13-years-old, in 1927, her father passed away aged 44. She helped her mother raise her siblings. Soon enough, tensions started reappearing between countries, and the Nazi party’s influence slowly took over Germany. When the German forces invaded France, the entire family relocated to England, landing in Falmouth, Cornwall, on 22 June 1940. All the children were brought up in accordance with the teachings of Gandhiji. Despite this, Noor and her brother Vilayat Khan decided to join the fight against the Nazis.
“I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war. If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians.”
Noor Inayat Khan
A young Noor Inayat Khan
Vilayat joined the Royal Air Force (RAF), and Noor, in November 1940, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She was sent there to train as a wireless operator. Later on, Noor was recruited to join the France section of the Special Operations Executive, and this would prove to be a turning point in Khan’s life. This is because soon after this, in the year 1943, she was posted in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire where she was specially trained to be sent as a wireless operator in Nazi-occupied territories. She was the very first woman to be sent over in that capacity, because females, till the year 1943, were used only as couriers. Which basically meant that their job profile, up until then, included only transporting important documents and other important information from one place to another. The only problem was that Noor was constantly terrified and trembling, as noted by her superiors. During her training, they were subjected to a number of mock interrogations, which were set up to give them a taste of what could happen if they were caught by the Nazis. All of her officers described her as ‘childlike’, ‘very feminine in character, very eager to please.’ One officer even said that she, “Tends to give far too much information. Came here without the foggiest idea what she was being trained for.” But there still were certain qualities that Noor possessed that gave her an edge over the other operators. As a wireless operator, she received ‘adequate’ reports from her officers. Noor had swollen fingers due to a condition called chilblains, which slowed down her speed of typing. However, her speed increased with each passing day. Since she was a trained musician, a harp player to be specific, she was a natural signaler. Noor was also fluent in French, owing to the fact that was brought up in France, for most of her life.
Noor playing the Veena
Vera Atkins (the intelligence officer for F Section), became one of Noor’s closest confidante. Noor never told her mother the actual reason behind her disappearance. All she told her mother was that she was going abroad, but to Africa. It was Atkins’ job to keep a steady flow of “good news” between the family of the operators and the operators themselves. When an agent goes missing, the family will be made aware of the whole truth. But Noor asked Atkins to break the bad news to her mother only when they were sure that she was dead. Atkins agreed. Noor had found it most difficult to say goodbye to her widowed mother, and that is where her main problem laid.
Vera Atkins, one of Noor’s closest confidante
All of this, led to Noor becoming the first woman radio operator to be dropped off behind enemy lines, on 17th June, 1943. In France, she took up the name ‘Madeleine’. Everything worked well in Noor’s favour for 3 months – she successfully dodged the Nazis by constantly changing her location and appearance. She used every trick in the book in those three months. However, on 13th October, 1943, luck was not on Noor’s side. She was betrayed by a fellow SOE officer – Renée Garry, who was later suspected of working as a double agent for the German Intelligence (the SS). Noor was arrested and taken to the Gestapo headquarters in Paris. One of the former heads of the Gestapo revealed that Noor did not let out a single piece of information, and lied consistently. However, the Germans found her notebook where she had written down all the messages that she’d sent out as an SOE operator. This was something that all the SOE officers were warned against. But it could be possible that this part of the training must have been omitted for Noor, due to the relatively shorter training that she was given, owing to the time restrictions. By referring to her notebook, the Germans impersonated Noor for quite some time, as they continued to send messages to the SOE on her behalf. As a result, nobody in London caught whiff of her arrest.
The B2 radio set to be carried by Noor
On 25 November 1943, Noor attempted to escape with two fellow SOE officers but was caught. She was then asked to sign a document, renouncing all future attempts of escape, but Noor refused. She was then taken to Germany two days later, “for safe custody” and imprisoned at Pforzheim, a city in Germany. Here she was placed in solitary confinement for 10 months. She was shackled at her hands and feet and nobody, not even the inmates, were made aware of her identity. She refused to give out any information and continued to remain uncooperative. Some of the inmates could hear her crying at night, due to the conditions in which she remained trapped. But she was able to make some of the inmates aware of her name ‘Nora Baker’ and her mother’s address in London, by scratching it on the bottom of the mess’s cups.
Memorial bust of Noor Inayat Khan in Gordon Square Gardens, London
On 12th September, 1944, Noor Inayat Khan along with four other female SOE officers, was abruptly transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. The following day on 13th September, all four women were taken to the crematorium and shot. The last word she ever uttered was – ‘Liberté’. And so, ended the life of another extraordinary princess – Noor Inayat Khan. Noor was only 30-years-old when she was executed. A campaign was launched in 2018, to make Noor the face of the of the £50 note. But instead the Bank of England announced that the new face was going to be a scientist’s. A woman, who as a young girl was described as a ‘quiet’, ‘shy’ and ‘sensitive dreamer’, went on to become the first woman radio operator, to be dropped off behind the enemy lines. A girl who was brought up in accordance with Gandhiji’s teachings, ended her life in a German concentration camp. Noor Inayat Khan was a writer, a musician, an artist, and a dreamer. She was everything but an SOE officer. However, she defied all odds, came over her fear of weapons and went from being a ‘clumsy’ and ‘childlike’ girl to a trained female SOE wireless operative.
(Left) – Noor’s Khan’s inscription at the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede, England memorializing those without a known grave ; (Right) – Noor’s memorial plaque at the Dachau Memorial Hall
This was the life of Noor Inayat Khan. Despite the torture that she was subjected to by the Nazis, her identity remains relatively obscured and hidden. This, is my attempt, to bring forward the lives of those women who remain lost in the pages of our history.
Sources:
https://www.livehistoryindia.com/herstory/2018/11/24/noor-inayat-khan-the-secret-agent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan#Women’s_Auxiliary_Air_Force
This is what I need instead of a boring chemistry lecture!
Great job?
Haha! Anything’s better than chemistry! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂