The life of a princess...waving to the adoring public from your coach, dancing the night away
at royal balls, withstanding violent torture and imprisonment by the German gestapo - Wait,
what? Let’s back up there for a second. Today on Nutty History, we’re shining the spotlight on Noor
Inayat Khan, an Indian princess who abandoned a cushy lifestyle and promising career to spy for
the British in World War II. But before our mission can begin, you have an assignment.
Hit that subscribe button and let us know what nutty history you’d like to hear about next.
To her family, she was Noor Inayat Khan. Growing up in London, she was known as Nora Baker.
As a British agent sent to German-occupied France, she was given the identity of Jeanne-Marie Renier.
And over the radio, she sent her top secret messages under the codename
“Madeleine.” It makes introducing yourself a logistical nightmare. But if Noor Inayat Khan
had any trouble keeping track of her many aliases, she never showed it. While hiding out as a radio
operative, she constantly reworked her identity. She frequently changed her address, dyed her hair
and altered her appearance so the German Gestapo were unable to discover the true location
and identity of the mysterious and infamous Madeleine. At least, for a time.
Raised as a pacifist, and a lover of music, poetry, and children’s literature, Khan was
as unlikely a war hero as they come. But in other ways, it seems she was destined for greatness.
For starters, she was a descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in
South India. Also called the “Tiger of Mysore,” Khan’s great-great-great-grandfather fought
staunchly against British colonialism in India, making her later enlistment with the British
military all the more ironic. Aside from being descended from real life royalty, Khan’s father,
Inayat Khan, was well known in his own right for bringing Sufism to the Western world.
The new Sufi Order he founded taught universal love and harmony, with the aim
of bringing those from different national, racial, and religious backgrounds together
to exchange ideas and learn from one another. So, basically the exact opposite of the Nazi message.
One of Khan’s brothers continued their father’s global teachings of Sufism, while another was a
renowned composer. On her mother’s side, Khan’s uncle was famous yogi and philosopher, Pierre
Bernard. Basically every member of the family did something worthy of their own Wikipedia article.
And I thought my family had high expectations...As a literal princess with a familial background in
artistic and scholarly endeavors, no one was asking or expecting Noor to join the wartime
effort. She was interested in a career path in child psychology and writing for children.
But rather than continuing in her own passions, which were more aligned with
penning the next Good Night Moon, Noor Inayat Khan felt a duty to fight against fascism.
When the war broke out in 1939, Noor Inayat Khan trained as a nurse in France with the Red Cross.
Just before France surrendered to Germany the following year, Khan fled on a boat
back to England with her mother and sister, perhaps using the first of her nine lives.
In the UK, Khan joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force where she trained as a wireless operator.
Khan didn’t know it at the time, but she was being spied on herself by the Special
Operations Executive. The SOE recruited Khan to train as a radio operative in occupied territory,
the first woman to hold the position. Khan disappeared overnight to attend spy school,
where the royal pacifist learned to handle guns and explosives, pick locks, send letters in code,
and even kill. But despite her later success, Khan didn’t receive rave reviews from her superiors
during her training. Her report described her as “not over-burdened with brains,”
and “unsuited to work in her field.” Ouch. They also didn’t think it was in her nature to lie and
conceal her identity, citing that she revealed her British background with habits like pouring
milk into her cup before tea. But Khan wasn’t one to let the haters get her down. After being given
another chance to back out and insisting she was capable, Khan was dispatched to France as
part of the resistance network Prosper, tasked by Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze.”
Within a week, top operatives of Prosper were captured by the Gestapo.
That might sound like these top operatives weren’t so top notch at their jobs,
but transmitting radio messages during France at the time was incredibly dangerous work. So
dangerous, in fact, that the life expectancy for agents at the time was two to six weeks. After
the capture of her superiors, Khan was told to return to England, as her position was too risky.
But Khan insisted on staying behind enemy lines. For three months, she single-handedly performed
the work of six radio operatives. Drawing on old contacts from her time living in France,
Khan hid from the Germans, transmitting messages to London from various locations.
Her messages contained crucial intel for the allies, allowing them to organize aid and arms
drops to the French Resistance and getting safe passage back home for injured airmen.
German intelligence was well aware of Khan’s presence. They didn’t know her name,
and struggled to find her location, but they could often hear her transmissions and were actively
hunting down the agent. But despite her supposed lack of brains, Khan narrowly escaped German
capture on several occasions. Radio operatives had to carry their wireless set with them,
which could be a dead giveaway of their identity, especially as they were banned at the time. Khan’s
radio was disguised as a suitcase, and added a 20 lb weight she had to lug around whilst on the run.
On one occasion, she was stopped and questioned on the Metro by two German officers, who let her go
after she passed off the set as a cinematographic apparatus. Big words usually do the trick!
In another instance, Khan was setting up the illegal device outside of her room
when she was surprised by a German officer who resided in the very same apartment building.
Despite being caught red-handed, Khan charmed the officer into believing she
simply wanted to listen to the radio. He even ended up helping Khan set up the device,
unwittingly assisting the British forces. In this case a little flattery went a long way.
With the Germans hot on her trail, it was a betrayal by the closest to Khan that led to
her downfall. A French woman, Renee Garry, was the sister of Khan’s circuit leader,
agent Henri Garry. In a tale as old as time, Renee Garry supposedly lost the affections
of another SOE agent, France Antelme, to Noor Inayat Khan. In retaliation, she allegedly sold
Khan’s location to the Germans for 100,000 francs. Garry was put on trial after the war but escaped
conviction by just one vote. Another possible suspect of Kahn’s betrayal to the Germans was
Henri Déricourt. Déricourt was an SOE officer suspected of working as a double agent for the
Germans and providing them with information to takedown the Prosper network. However,
some historians have suggested that Déricourt was actually a triple agent, who betrayed SOE
agents under British instructions to gain German trust and later feed them false information.
Raise your hand if you’re confused. Whether it was the betrayal of Garry, Déricourt, or both,
Khan was arrested in October of 1943. Just hours after her capture, she attempted her first escape.
Khan’s many escape attempts led to her classification as a “highly dangerous” prisoner.
In one attempt, she and several other prisoners made it out of the prison window and onto the
roof. As luck, or lack thereof, would have it, the Royal Airforce began dropping bombs as the
escapees were on the roof, which led to an air raid siren and a room search by the Germans. After
being discovered and re-captured on the roof, Khan was sent to Pforzheim prison, where she was kept
shackled in solitary confinement. Ever the crafty communications expert, Khan managed to scratch
messages on her food bowls to other prisoners, who exchanged words of support and information about
the war. But sadly, for this princess there was no happily ever after. For ten months, Khan was kept
as a prisoner of war, where she was starved and tortured. But she never revealed any information.
She was eventually taken to Dachau concentration camp, with three other female agents, not knowing
that their accompanying officer secretly held their execution orders. Upon her arrival at the
camp in September of 1944, Khan and the other prisoners were executed by a firing squad.
Before she died, the radio operative was able to convey one final message with her last word:
“Liberté.” In keeping with her father’s Sufi teachings, Noor Inayat Khan hoped that the
bravery of Indians during the war would earn recognition and help bridge the divide between
English and Indian people. Mission accomplished - Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross for
her heroism. Her story also brings attention to the 2.5 million Indians that volunteered for WWII,
making up the largest single volunteer army. Would you have had the guts of Noor Inayat Khan?
Would you have abandoned your upbringing to act as an agent in a German-occupied war zone?
Let us know in the comments, along with what unlikely heroes you’d like to hear about next.