Throughout the Second World War, the German Army and the SS would deal with threats of
resistance very seriously.
Across their occupied lands, thousands of people who were suspected of defying the germans
were brought to gallows inside of towns and cities where they were executed.
Young women such as Lepa Radic were condemned to death for being involved in Partisan activities,
and inside of France there was a huge resistance element that eventually would help to liberate
the country from Hitler’s rule and regime.
But to be part of the French Resistance was incredibly dangerous, and if caught the Gestapo
would arrest people, torture and interrogate them and then condemned them to death.
The whole part of the Nazi occupation was to strike fear into the hearts of locals,
and to scare them into submission.
But inside of France, there was one woman who would pay the ultimate price for her role
in the resistance, but before she was brutally executed, Charlotte Leitner had been a successful
model who had worked inside of Paris, modelling for some very famous fashion brands.
But as the war came to her doorstep, she took action.
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of the French Model shot by the SS.
Remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Charlotte Lotka was born on the 19th December 1907 in New York, and she emigrated with her
parents as a young woman to her families native Poland, and then in 1924 she moved to France
and Paris.
She completed an apprenticeship, however then she was noticed by one of the best fashion
houses in Paris for her looks.
She was known as a beautiful woman, and she would model for some incredibly famous brands
including Elizabeth Arden.
Whilst modelling, she also began a literature course, and she would in 1933 meet Jacques
Trolley de Prevaux.
He had a brilliant career in the navy, and had become a captain, however at the start
of the Second World War he remained loyal to the government, and then the Vichy Regime.
He was later appointed President of the naval tribunal of Toulon, and whilst here he established
contacts with the French Resistance, and he became known to the Franco-Polish intelligence
network known as F2.
Prevaux would work as an informer to F2 under the name ‘Vox,’ and his wife Charlotte
would take the codename ‘Kalo’ and the pair would obtain information about the German
Navy, and they would then pass this on.
They were working as spies for the German’s enemies, which was incredibly dangerous.
Within a decade, Charlotte had gone from working as a model in the Paris fashion houses, to
now living a sheltered life as a member of the French Resistance.
Her husband would later become the head of a network called Anne.
The F2 network was later disbanded to protect the agents from arrest, but Prevaux and Charlotte
would not he in control of a branch that covered Marseilles Toulon and Nice.
They would learn about more German Naval and Air units and then passed this information
on, and they also learned of the coastal defences and fortifications, and these secrets were
then passed to the Allies.
But Charlotte and her husband had been living dangerously for some time, and they began
to attract unwanted attention from the German authorities inside of Paris.
The Gestapo were hunting down many different resistors and people suspected of being involved
in selling and passing secrets.
The gestapo in France were notoriously brutal, and they would lock up suspects and torture
them terribly inside of prisons.
Some were even killed by their ordeals at the hands of the Gestapo.
Charlotte fought for the Resistance also in the south of France for a number of years
before she was arrested by the Germans on the 29th March 1944.
She was in Nice when the Gestapo broke down and shattered the door to her room, and then
they led her away.
She was interrogated a number of times the next day, and was imprisoned in Fort de Montluc.
The Germans treated her very well and they did not know she was in fact of Jewish origin.
She would have been treated much worse if they knew this, and she was allowed special
concessions and privileges compared to other prisoners.
If the Gestapo knew the truth, she would have probably been deported immediately to a concentration
camp, or would have been immediately scheduled for execution.
She was held inside of Fort de Montluc for a number of months.
The was a prison which was used by the Gestapo, and it had a history of many prisoners being
shot within the walls.
It’s believed that 15,000 during the Second World War were imprisoned there, and over
900 were executed within it.
But as the war was turning heavily against the Germans following D-Day and the Normandy
Invasions, the Allies were pushing the Germans back further.
The orders to execute prisoners inside of prisons were given, and many of these were
liquidated.
On August 19th 1944, at 7pm the fatal order to execute prisoners rang out in the prison.
The officer in charge yelled out the names in the corridor of those who were going to
be executed, and he bellowed 3 womens names and then Charlotte’s name.
Charlotte believed to begin with she was to be liberated, and she thought that she was
going to be freed, but this was not the case.
Minutes later she realised that she would in fact be executed, and because of this,
the joy turned to great sorrow and upset.
She was led out of her prison cell by officers, and the 3 other women who were all crying
accompanied her.
They left the prison building, and they were then handed over to a group of SS executioners.
These men were heavily armed, and they then manhandled the women.
They shouted abuse at the women, and then things turned violent, as they battered Charlotte
and the other 3 women with their rifle butts, and the then thew women were shoved onto a
truck.
Charlotte Leitner and the other women were taken to the airfield Born, which was 10km
from the centre of Lyon near to where they had been held.
They may have believed at this moment that they were being repatriated to other nations,
however this was not the case.
At the airfield, a number of trenches and shell holes had been made, and the women including
Charlotte were told to stand on the edge of the trenches and pit.
Then an execution squad made up of machine gunners emerged, and Charlotte would have
known her final moments were soon to be over.
As she stood on the edge of the Pitt he executioners fired their machine guns, and Charlotte Leitner
was executed, and killed.
She fell into the pit and trench, and the Germans were so hasty in their killings that
they did not even make sure that she was dead, and her body was covered with earth and rubble.
The executions carried out on the airfield were some of the last performed by the NAzis
before they fled Lyon. 109 prisoners in total would be taken to the airfield where they
were killed, and Charlotte Leitner was just one of those.
She was a woman who was a well known model in Paris, however as the Second World War
came to France her life would be changed.
Alongside her husband she played a key role in defying the German armed forces, and today
her story is one which deserves to be well known.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe
Thanks again for watching