Code Name: Lise

by Larry Loftis

she signed up for the war knowing that arrest (and execution) was a very real possibility—almost

Odette was not only the most highly decorated woman of World War II, she was the most highly decorated spy—male or female.

“In twenty or twenty-five years’ time, there is going to be another war,” Grandfather would say,

“and it will be your duty, both of you, to do as well as your father did.”

Odette heeded the instruction and, as Hemingway put it, became strong in the broken places.

masters of mayhem.

“Captain Jepson, you must know that I am a very simple, ordinary woman.

Jepson returned to his desk and made a final notation at the bottom of Odette’s dossier:

“Direct-minded and courageous. God help the Nazis if we can get her near them.”

“All on,” he yelled. “Three bulls. Next please.”

“Do you think you’re going to prison?”

“I don’t know. But it’s as well to be prepared.”

She had written a batch of letters for her children, she said, all undated,

and asked if he could post them one week at a time.

Just as it touched the water, Odette fired and the bottle exploded.

I am only responsible to my own conscience.”

It was still raining when Father Paul left but Peter

noticed that his cell was no longer dark. Nor his spirit.

My prayers for guidance are always answered

and I sometimes find words are put into my mouth.”

he opened Goethe

He who has not eaten his bread in tears,

He who has not sat up weeping upon his

bed throughout the night ...

He knows you not, Oh Heave...

notwithstanding Odette’s sickness, “at no moment did

her courage or her determination to struggle to survive falter.”

on each piece of cardboard used for the peaks she wrote: “Made in England.”

First, after the Reichstag fire in 1933, individual

fundamental rights were terminated by decree, and actions

now taken by the Gestapo were not subject to r...

In our darkest moments, Aristotle had said, we must focus to see the light.

IN HER LIFE OF darkness Odette began to despair.

She was sick, starving, lonely, and in a very real sense, dying.

She prayed to God, saying that she had done...

now “you must take over.” Almost...

the food hatch was opened and a plate of ...

It was the first plate Odette had se...

“There was a reason,” Sühren said.

“The British and the Americans landed in the South of France

where you worked as a British ...

of this, you were punished by order of...

It was belligerent defiance, but she was determined to go down fighting.

all of whom were implicated in the July 20 attempt on Hitler’s life.

Tomorrow was her birthday. She would be thirty-three.

Odette had seen enough. She demanded to see Sühren.

the George Cross was—Britain’s second-highest honor—and

“Mommy, is the George Cross the best you could do?”

of the 250 or so to be decorated, Odette was the only woman.

“I asked that you should lead the procession, Madame, as no woman has done so before [or] during my reign.”