February 23, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, meet the woman the Gestapo once considered "the most dangerous of all Allied spies." Judy Pearson tells the tale of a woman whose bravery was greater than the collapsing world around her.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from history to business
and everything in between. And we tell your stories too,
because some of our very best have been from the
people who listen to this show, from you. And this
next story, well, it's the story of Virginia Hall. And
(00:33):
she's a World War two spy who overcame both physical
and societal ills during a time when the world seemed
to be tearing itself apart. Literally. Now for her story,
as told by Judy Pearson.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Virginia Hall was once asked why she never told her story.
She replied that no one had ever asked her. In
two thousand and three, I began asking. My quest took
me to her niece in Baltimore newly declassified intelligence records
in the National Archives, then to London, Paris, and across
(01:14):
the French countryside. I conducted countless interviews in English and
in French, and read dozens of personal accounts. What ultimately
unfolded was the story of an incredible woman. She was intelligent, brave,
(01:34):
and outspoken. She was loyal, daring and stubborn, but as
a young woman all of Virginia Hall's energies were directed
at becoming a foreign service officer. At high school graduation,
while her chums were thinking of marriage and families, Virginia
announced that the only way for a woman to get
ahead in the world was with an education. After several
(01:58):
undistinguished years at radol Cliff and Barnard, she went to
the Sorbonne in Paris and then the Consulare Academie in Vienna,
from which she graduated in nineteen twenty nine. Back in
the States, now fluent in French and German, she applied
to take the Foreign Service exam. The exam consisted of
(02:18):
three parts. The first was written covering all manner of topics,
including the world history, geography, and sociology. The second tested
the applicants knowledge of a foreign language. Virginia opted for French,
and the third part of the exam, far more subjective,
gave the examiner the power to judge what kind of
(02:39):
officer the applicant would make. Virginia failed, the exam, took
it again and was failed again. It was nineteen thirty
Women had only had the right to vote for ten years,
and the number of female foreign service officers could be
counted on one hand, gender discrimine Nation was hard at work.
(03:02):
She told a family friend that if she couldn't get
into the Foreign Service through the front door, she'd try
going in through the back door, and landed a job
as clerk at the American Embassy in Poland. She once
again applied for the exam, but before she completed it,
she was transferred to the American Consulate in Smyrna now Izmir, Turkey.
(03:24):
Here her life changed forever. On a December Saturday afternoon
hunting expedition with some friends in nineteen thirty three, Virginia's
gun accidentally discharged into her left foot. Despite doctor's best efforts,
gangrene set in, and to save her life, they removed
her leg from the knee down. What might have been
(03:47):
considered by some as a life ending event, Virginia saw
as merely a delay in plans. When she was well
enough to travel, she returned home to Baltimore to recuperate
and be fitted with a seven pound wooden prostics, and
a year later she was back at work, this time
at the American Consulate in Venice, from which she requested
(04:10):
to take the Foreign Service exam yet again, but this time.
Rather than test questions, a letter arrived informing her that,
according to an obscure statute, amputees were not accepted in
the Foreign service. The letter concluded by politely asking Virginia
not to apply again. She simply wouldn't fit in. As
(04:33):
Hitler began blazing across Europe, a discouraged Virginia Hall left
her consular job and went to France. Here her leg
was not an issue. She was gratefully accepted as a
volunteer ambulance driver for the French Army. Nor was her
leg in issue. Several months later, when in London, she
was approached by a Special Operations Executive employee, the SOE.
(05:00):
This undercover paramilitary organization had been created by Winston Churchill too,
as he said, set Europe ablaze. The current war was
unlike any other. The Allies needed extraordinary warfare in the
form of espionage and sabotage. Escaping French military had told
(05:21):
the British that there were many in France who would
be willing to rise up against the Nazis given enough
organization and arms. Leaders who could be infiltrated into the
country were needed, and Virginia fit the bill. The Brits
didn't give a hoot about her gender. In fact, it
was believed that women would make the best spies. This
(05:42):
doesn't surprise those of us who are women, but it
was a revelation to the men. Furthermore, men were being
whisked to Germany as laborers. A man on the streets
in France needed reasons for being there, but a woman
didn't and could travel about more ea. Nor did the
Brits care. How many limbs Virginia had lost. Her disability
(06:05):
was unknown to most. She walked only with a slight limp.
At the SOOEZ training camps, Virginia learned things her Baldemoret
contemporaries would never have imagined. I had the good fortune
to interview one of the instructors while I was in London.
Leslie Fernandez, taught SOOEE recruits, including Virginia, physical combat, in
(06:28):
other words, how to kill. And Virginia wasn't shown any
favoritism because of her missing leg. She wouldn't have accepted
it anyway. The only training she didn't receive was in parachuting,
the primary means by which agents were infiltrated. It was
nineteen forty one and America had not yet entered the war,
(06:49):
Virginia would be free to enter France as a non combatant,
which she did using journalism as recover.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And when we come back, we'll continue this story, Virginia
Hall's story, The Spy with a Wooden Leg, and to
hear about her grit, her perseverance, and rising above the odds.
Where we love stories like this. The Spy with the
Wooden Leg continues after these messages. Folks, if you love
(07:29):
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't cut
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
(07:51):
and terrific online courses.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And we returned to our American stories. And when we
left off, Virginia Hall was sneaking into France back in
nineteen forty one, not a time actually to be going
into France, and she was posing as a journalist to
act as a British intelligence operative. Let's return to the author,
(08:30):
Judy Pearson.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I spent hours digging through the British National Archives at
Kew and the Imperial War Museum archives in London, both
of which were rich in material. I heard the oral
histories of those recruited agents who had daringly dropped into
occupied France where Virginia and others awaited them. When I
arrived in France, after spending several days digging through the
(08:54):
archives in Paris, I rented a car and took off
across the country to visit firsthand all of the cities
Virginia had worked from. She was ultimately sent to Lyon,
the center of resistance activities in unoccupied France, so I
went to Lyon as well. There, under her journalism cover,
(09:15):
while ostensibly collecting information for newspaper articles, Virginia was also
collecting information about Nazi activities. Her flat, innocently appearing as
that of a hard working writer, was the clearinghouse for
every British agent who was sent to central France in
nineteen forty one. Through Virginia, they were able to connect
(09:39):
with fellow agents and contact others to help them. They
collected counterfeited money and wireless radios needed to perform their work.
When they were captured and imprisoned, Virginia worked on their escapes.
She organized her own group of resistance members in Lyon
and had contacts in Marseille and at the Spanish border,
(10:00):
two places from which people could disappear should the need arise.
She and her group saved innumerable lives of both downed
Allied pilots kneading passage out of France and agents who
were being hunted by the Gestapo. But it wasn't long
before Virginia herself became hunted. Klaus Barbie, later known as
(10:22):
the Butcher of Lyons, spread the word that a lady
with a limp, an Englishman or a Canadian, was wanted
in connection with espionage activities. His posters announced that Virginia
was the most dangerous of all Allied spies and that
everyone should help him find and destroy her. Virginia's exodus
(10:43):
across the Pyrenees Mountains, the rugged chain that separates France
from Spain, was in November nineteen forty two. The cold
and rigorous march would have been exhausting for anyone, but
Dragging a seven pound wooden leg through the snow made
a all the more difficult for Virginia. She hadn't dared
tell the guide about her leg. He was already grumbling
(11:06):
because she was a woman. At one point she was
able to Radio London to tell them she was on
her way out of France. She mentioned that Cuthbert, her
clever nickname for her leg, had become quite tiresome. The
recipient of the message, ignorant of the leg's name, wired
back that if Cuthbert had become tiresome, she should have
(11:28):
him eliminated. At the end of the grueling thirty mile journey,
Virginia was arrested in Spain for not having papers. She
was imprisoned for six weeks, released only after her former cellmate,
a Barcelona prostitute, was able to get word to the
British consulate that she was being held. By the time
(11:50):
Virginia had returned to England in early nineteen forty three,
a new intelligence organization had been born. Its name was
the Office of Stretchategic Services the OSS. It was patterned
after the SOE with one exception. It was pure bred
American led by a hero from World War One named
(12:11):
General wild Bill Donovan. Virginia was desperate to get back
into the fight, and transferring.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
To the OSS made sense.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Since she was an American, but there was a concern
she was now a hunted woman whose sketched picture had
been spread throughout France.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
A return could only be facilitated.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
If she were disguised that of an old peasant woman
fit the bill. On her second trip to occupied France,
Virginia's intelligence and ingenuity served her and saved her many times.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
This time she acted.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
As her own radio operator, setting up numerous resistance cells.
Three months after returning to France, the greatest armada the
world had ever seen crossed the Channel for the D
Day landings. When the signal was given, her resistance cell
went into action, cutting off Nazi supply lines and disrupting
(13:13):
their communications, all in a successful effort to aid the
Allied invasion of Europe.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
By the fall of.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Nineteen forty four, all of France was liberated. During Virginia's
second stint in the country, she had had the pleasure
of leading fifteen hundred resistance volunteers who killed one hundred
and fifty Nazis and.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Captured five hundred more.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Her team had sabotaged numerous transportation and communication links. Virginia's
leadership in Saint Croix was not only admired, it became legendary.
They called her La Madon. The Madonnavirginia was awarded the
(14:01):
Member of the British Empire, the French Cordigier of Ekpalm,
and the American Distinguished Service Cross, the only woman in
World War Two to receive that American distinction. But Virginia
wasn't interested in accolades. She wanted to continue her work
in espionage. Although the OSS had been dissolved, Virginia was
(14:23):
one of the first women on board the new intelligence
agency known as the Central Intelligence Group. It became the
Central Intelligence Agency in December nineteen forty seven. But the
new world of intelligence was very different from the one
Virginia had previously been a part of. Communism was the
(14:43):
enemy now, and as one observer put it, Joseph Stalin
made Hitler look like a boy scout. Virginia wanted desperately
to become an operative again, willing to undergo whatever training
was necessary, but at the advanced age of forty one,
she looked upon as old school.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Her skills were outdated.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And her aggressiveness was offensive to the younger men who
were her superiors. Her experience was dismissed as not pertinent.
After all she'd been through and all the sacrifices shed
gladly made, Once again, Virginia Hall didn't fit in. Virginia
(15:27):
had married Paul Goyot in nineteen fifty, a French American
she had met toward the end of the war. She
accepted mandatory retirement from the CIA in nineteen sixty six,
and she and Paul moved to a farm in Barnestown, Maryland.
They raised poodles, gardened and grew old together. Virginia died
(15:48):
in nineteen eighty two, and Goyo.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Followed five years later.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
She was never bitter about the fact that her career
hadn't begun or ended.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
As she would have liked.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Ratherrgin r Guinia chose to remember the magnificent days in
the Middle, the days when her clever mind and brave
heart helped defeat fascist bent down world domination.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And a special thanks to Judy Pearson and by the way,
her book about Virginia Hall was called Wolves at the Door,
The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy. And I
had never heard that story, and I'm a big World
War Two buff and it doesn't get better than a
story like that. I mean, the woman accidentally shoots her
(16:42):
foot off and for most people that's it. She gets
turned down once twice, but is determined to be a
member of the Foreign Service, eases her way into France
when most people who'll be running from France it's the
Nazis coming to occupy the country, and all to Klaus Barbie,
the butcher has her as the most wanted person in
(17:06):
the Nazi regime when it comes to spies. Certainly, what
an impact she had her life, What an example, and
by the way, to be the only woman to win
the American Distinguished Service Cross. I don't know why more
of us don't know this story, but that's what we
do here in our American stories. And my goodness, what
(17:27):
Judy Pearson did hear? The author? I mean, she literally
walked in Virginia Hall's shoes, traveled all over Europe just
to honor her story. And these are the kind of
writers and researchers we love to put on the show
Virginia Hall Story, the Spy with the wooden leg here
on our American stories,
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from history to business
and everything in between. And we tell your stories too,
because some of our very best have been from the
people who listen to this show, from you. And this
next story, well, it's the story of Virginia Hall. And
(00:33):
she's a World War two spy who overcame both physical
and societal ills during a time when the world seemed
to be tearing itself apart. Literally. Now for her story,
as told by Judy Pearson.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Virginia Hall was once asked why she never told her story.
She replied that no one had ever asked her. In
two thousand and three, I began asking. My quest took
me to her niece in Baltimore newly declassified intelligence records
in the National Archives, then to London, Paris, and across
(01:14):
the French countryside. I conducted countless interviews in English and
in French, and read dozens of personal accounts. What ultimately
unfolded was the story of an incredible woman. She was intelligent, brave,
(01:34):
and outspoken. She was loyal, daring and stubborn, but as
a young woman all of Virginia Hall's energies were directed
at becoming a foreign service officer. At high school graduation,
while her chums were thinking of marriage and families, Virginia
announced that the only way for a woman to get
ahead in the world was with an education. After several
(01:58):
undistinguished years at radol Cliff and Barnard, she went to
the Sorbonne in Paris and then the Consulare Academie in Vienna,
from which she graduated in nineteen twenty nine. Back in
the States, now fluent in French and German, she applied
to take the Foreign Service exam. The exam consisted of
(02:18):
three parts. The first was written covering all manner of topics,
including the world history, geography, and sociology. The second tested
the applicants knowledge of a foreign language. Virginia opted for French,
and the third part of the exam, far more subjective,
gave the examiner the power to judge what kind of
(02:39):
officer the applicant would make. Virginia failed, the exam, took
it again and was failed again. It was nineteen thirty
Women had only had the right to vote for ten years,
and the number of female foreign service officers could be
counted on one hand, gender discrimine Nation was hard at work.
(03:02):
She told a family friend that if she couldn't get
into the Foreign Service through the front door, she'd try
going in through the back door, and landed a job
as clerk at the American Embassy in Poland. She once
again applied for the exam, but before she completed it,
she was transferred to the American Consulate in Smyrna now Izmir, Turkey.
(03:24):
Here her life changed forever. On a December Saturday afternoon
hunting expedition with some friends in nineteen thirty three, Virginia's
gun accidentally discharged into her left foot. Despite doctor's best efforts,
gangrene set in, and to save her life, they removed
her leg from the knee down. What might have been
(03:47):
considered by some as a life ending event, Virginia saw
as merely a delay in plans. When she was well
enough to travel, she returned home to Baltimore to recuperate
and be fitted with a seven pound wooden prostics, and
a year later she was back at work, this time
at the American Consulate in Venice, from which she requested
(04:10):
to take the Foreign Service exam yet again, but this time.
Rather than test questions, a letter arrived informing her that,
according to an obscure statute, amputees were not accepted in
the Foreign service. The letter concluded by politely asking Virginia
not to apply again. She simply wouldn't fit in. As
(04:33):
Hitler began blazing across Europe, a discouraged Virginia Hall left
her consular job and went to France. Here her leg
was not an issue. She was gratefully accepted as a
volunteer ambulance driver for the French Army. Nor was her
leg in issue. Several months later, when in London, she
was approached by a Special Operations Executive employee, the SOE.
(05:00):
This undercover paramilitary organization had been created by Winston Churchill too,
as he said, set Europe ablaze. The current war was
unlike any other. The Allies needed extraordinary warfare in the
form of espionage and sabotage. Escaping French military had told
(05:21):
the British that there were many in France who would
be willing to rise up against the Nazis given enough
organization and arms. Leaders who could be infiltrated into the
country were needed, and Virginia fit the bill. The Brits
didn't give a hoot about her gender. In fact, it
was believed that women would make the best spies. This
(05:42):
doesn't surprise those of us who are women, but it
was a revelation to the men. Furthermore, men were being
whisked to Germany as laborers. A man on the streets
in France needed reasons for being there, but a woman
didn't and could travel about more ea. Nor did the
Brits care. How many limbs Virginia had lost. Her disability
(06:05):
was unknown to most. She walked only with a slight limp.
At the SOOEZ training camps, Virginia learned things her Baldemoret
contemporaries would never have imagined. I had the good fortune
to interview one of the instructors while I was in London.
Leslie Fernandez, taught SOOEE recruits, including Virginia, physical combat, in
(06:28):
other words, how to kill. And Virginia wasn't shown any
favoritism because of her missing leg. She wouldn't have accepted
it anyway. The only training she didn't receive was in parachuting,
the primary means by which agents were infiltrated. It was
nineteen forty one and America had not yet entered the war,
(06:49):
Virginia would be free to enter France as a non combatant,
which she did using journalism as recover.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And when we come back, we'll continue this story, Virginia
Hall's story, The Spy with a Wooden Leg, and to
hear about her grit, her perseverance, and rising above the odds.
Where we love stories like this. The Spy with the
Wooden Leg continues after these messages. Folks, if you love
(07:29):
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't cut
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
(07:51):
and terrific online courses.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And we returned to our American stories. And when we
left off, Virginia Hall was sneaking into France back in
nineteen forty one, not a time actually to be going
into France, and she was posing as a journalist to
act as a British intelligence operative. Let's return to the author,
(08:30):
Judy Pearson.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I spent hours digging through the British National Archives at
Kew and the Imperial War Museum archives in London, both
of which were rich in material. I heard the oral
histories of those recruited agents who had daringly dropped into
occupied France where Virginia and others awaited them. When I
arrived in France, after spending several days digging through the
(08:54):
archives in Paris, I rented a car and took off
across the country to visit firsthand all of the cities
Virginia had worked from. She was ultimately sent to Lyon,
the center of resistance activities in unoccupied France, so I
went to Lyon as well. There, under her journalism cover,
(09:15):
while ostensibly collecting information for newspaper articles, Virginia was also
collecting information about Nazi activities. Her flat, innocently appearing as
that of a hard working writer, was the clearinghouse for
every British agent who was sent to central France in
nineteen forty one. Through Virginia, they were able to connect
(09:39):
with fellow agents and contact others to help them. They
collected counterfeited money and wireless radios needed to perform their work.
When they were captured and imprisoned, Virginia worked on their escapes.
She organized her own group of resistance members in Lyon
and had contacts in Marseille and at the Spanish border,
(10:00):
two places from which people could disappear should the need arise.
She and her group saved innumerable lives of both downed
Allied pilots kneading passage out of France and agents who
were being hunted by the Gestapo. But it wasn't long
before Virginia herself became hunted. Klaus Barbie, later known as
(10:22):
the Butcher of Lyons, spread the word that a lady
with a limp, an Englishman or a Canadian, was wanted
in connection with espionage activities. His posters announced that Virginia
was the most dangerous of all Allied spies and that
everyone should help him find and destroy her. Virginia's exodus
(10:43):
across the Pyrenees Mountains, the rugged chain that separates France
from Spain, was in November nineteen forty two. The cold
and rigorous march would have been exhausting for anyone, but
Dragging a seven pound wooden leg through the snow made
a all the more difficult for Virginia. She hadn't dared
tell the guide about her leg. He was already grumbling
(11:06):
because she was a woman. At one point she was
able to Radio London to tell them she was on
her way out of France. She mentioned that Cuthbert, her
clever nickname for her leg, had become quite tiresome. The
recipient of the message, ignorant of the leg's name, wired
back that if Cuthbert had become tiresome, she should have
(11:28):
him eliminated. At the end of the grueling thirty mile journey,
Virginia was arrested in Spain for not having papers. She
was imprisoned for six weeks, released only after her former cellmate,
a Barcelona prostitute, was able to get word to the
British consulate that she was being held. By the time
(11:50):
Virginia had returned to England in early nineteen forty three,
a new intelligence organization had been born. Its name was
the Office of Stretchategic Services the OSS. It was patterned
after the SOE with one exception. It was pure bred
American led by a hero from World War One named
(12:11):
General wild Bill Donovan. Virginia was desperate to get back
into the fight, and transferring.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
To the OSS made sense.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Since she was an American, but there was a concern
she was now a hunted woman whose sketched picture had
been spread throughout France.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
A return could only be facilitated.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
If she were disguised that of an old peasant woman
fit the bill. On her second trip to occupied France,
Virginia's intelligence and ingenuity served her and saved her many times.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
This time she acted.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
As her own radio operator, setting up numerous resistance cells.
Three months after returning to France, the greatest armada the
world had ever seen crossed the Channel for the D
Day landings. When the signal was given, her resistance cell
went into action, cutting off Nazi supply lines and disrupting
(13:13):
their communications, all in a successful effort to aid the
Allied invasion of Europe.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
By the fall of.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Nineteen forty four, all of France was liberated. During Virginia's
second stint in the country, she had had the pleasure
of leading fifteen hundred resistance volunteers who killed one hundred
and fifty Nazis and.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Captured five hundred more.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Her team had sabotaged numerous transportation and communication links. Virginia's
leadership in Saint Croix was not only admired, it became legendary.
They called her La Madon. The Madonnavirginia was awarded the
(14:01):
Member of the British Empire, the French Cordigier of Ekpalm,
and the American Distinguished Service Cross, the only woman in
World War Two to receive that American distinction. But Virginia
wasn't interested in accolades. She wanted to continue her work
in espionage. Although the OSS had been dissolved, Virginia was
(14:23):
one of the first women on board the new intelligence
agency known as the Central Intelligence Group. It became the
Central Intelligence Agency in December nineteen forty seven. But the
new world of intelligence was very different from the one
Virginia had previously been a part of. Communism was the
(14:43):
enemy now, and as one observer put it, Joseph Stalin
made Hitler look like a boy scout. Virginia wanted desperately
to become an operative again, willing to undergo whatever training
was necessary, but at the advanced age of forty one,
she looked upon as old school.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Her skills were outdated.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And her aggressiveness was offensive to the younger men who
were her superiors. Her experience was dismissed as not pertinent.
After all she'd been through and all the sacrifices shed
gladly made, Once again, Virginia Hall didn't fit in. Virginia
(15:27):
had married Paul Goyot in nineteen fifty, a French American
she had met toward the end of the war. She
accepted mandatory retirement from the CIA in nineteen sixty six,
and she and Paul moved to a farm in Barnestown, Maryland.
They raised poodles, gardened and grew old together. Virginia died
(15:48):
in nineteen eighty two, and Goyo.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Followed five years later.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
She was never bitter about the fact that her career
hadn't begun or ended.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
As she would have liked.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Ratherrgin r Guinia chose to remember the magnificent days in
the Middle, the days when her clever mind and brave
heart helped defeat fascist bent down world domination.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And a special thanks to Judy Pearson and by the way,
her book about Virginia Hall was called Wolves at the Door,
The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy. And I
had never heard that story, and I'm a big World
War Two buff and it doesn't get better than a
story like that. I mean, the woman accidentally shoots her
(16:42):
foot off and for most people that's it. She gets
turned down once twice, but is determined to be a
member of the Foreign Service, eases her way into France
when most people who'll be running from France it's the
Nazis coming to occupy the country, and all to Klaus Barbie,
the butcher has her as the most wanted person in
(17:06):
the Nazi regime when it comes to spies. Certainly, what
an impact she had her life, What an example, and
by the way, to be the only woman to win
the American Distinguished Service Cross. I don't know why more
of us don't know this story, but that's what we
do here in our American stories. And my goodness, what
(17:27):
Judy Pearson did hear? The author? I mean, she literally
walked in Virginia Hall's shoes, traveled all over Europe just
to honor her story. And these are the kind of
writers and researchers we love to put on the show
Virginia Hall Story, the Spy with the wooden leg here
on our American stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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