Lost agents of Second World War remembered

Around every street corner in London lurks a story. Sometimes remarkably similar ones.

In the space of a few weeks, plaques have gone up denoting the achievements and contributions to the war effort by two Jewish war heroes working for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), writes Yann Tear.

That was the shadowy organisation dealing with espionage and behind-enemy-lines operations.

If you happen to visit Nell Gwynn House in Sloane Avenue, Kensington, you will find a plaque dedicated to a wartime hero – Vera May Atkins Rosenberg – who lived in a block of flats there during the Second World War.

Born in June 1908 to a distinguished Jewish family in Romania, forced to leave due to the intense ant-Semitism, she came to the UK, where secretarial abilities and multilingual skills led to her becoming a spy for British Intelligence in the mid and late-1930s on the continent.

She became an obvious choice to be a key organiser of the (SOE) French or ‘F’ Section in the early war years.

Her role, among other things, was to help recruit and interview potential male and female agents to be inserted into France to work with the French Resistance.

She arranged for their training in the many secret houses and other locations around Britain, saw to their needs when on leave and maintained contact with their families.

She accompanied them to their ‘start points’ en route to France, whether from quiet aerodromes like Tempsford or from British ports if transport was to be via submarine or boat.

At the end of the war she was deeply concerned by ‘her agents’ whose fate was unknown and had not returned, but about whom nothing was being done, as the SOE was secretly shut down.

So, in British Women’s Army uniform, and using her many contacts, she went at first secretly and unofficially on her own initiative to Europe to find out.

Soon attached to the War Crimes Investigations Teams, she spent almost two years finding and interviewing former agents, Resistance fighters and especially Nazi war criminals in prisons awaiting trial or even execution.

She succeeded beyond expectation and so was able to bring full recognition to the victims, and some closure and comfort to the families of those who had died or been murdered.

Her work was recognised only many years later with a CBE from Britain and the Croix de Guerre and Legion d’Honneur from France.

Post-war, Vera worked for UNESCO and was an honoured member of the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge, and chairwoman for many years of its highly regarded and secretive Historical Sub Committee.

Her ‘character’ was portrayed in many films, TV dramas, Second World War documentaries and books, and she was even said to be the model for Miss Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s Bond novels and films.

The biography of her by Sarah Helm was published after she died in 2000, and was aptly called A Life in Secrets as Vera rarely gave interviews until much later in her retirement.

The plaque was financed the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.

Not a million miles away is another dedicated to a Jewish war hero who lived in London.

Leopold Samuel Marks, who died at the age of 81 in January 2001, was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer.

He lived in Park West, near Marble Arch.

During the Second World War, he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the SOE.

After the war, Mr Marks became a playwright and screenwriter, writing scripts that frequently drew on his war-time cryptographic experiences.

He wrote the script for Peeping Tom, the controversial film directed by Michael Powell, which the director Martin Scorsese dubbed a masterpiece.

In 1998, towards the end of his life, Mr Marks published a personal history of his experiences during the war, Between Silk and Cyanide, which was critical of the SOE leadership.