Executed at Dachau

13th September 1944: Noor Inayat Khan is one of four SOE agents who are shot hours after being sent to Dachau concentration camp

Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944), George Cross.

Noor Inayat Khan had been an unlikely agent for the Special Operations Executive, many of the staff at her training school believed she was too naive and honest to survive the treacherous world of spying. Yet she was fluent in French and an accomplished radio operator, and she was sent to France to support the French Resistance in preparations for D-Day.

She arrived in Paris in June 1943, a hazardous time. The Gestapo had begun to unravel the Prosper/Physician network which she had joined, and made mass arrests of men and women in the Resistance movement. She became the only SOE radio operator to remain working in Paris, occupying a vital position. Even though it became obvious that the Gestapo had her description and were actively looking for her, she chose to remain in Paris and continued her work.