Delmarva Today: 6-26-20

Who was Noor Inayat Kahn? Most Americans have never heard of her or of the quiet but pivotal role she played as a British spy in Nazi occupied Paris. In his new book Code Name Madeleine, Arthur Magida says:

 There was something elfin about her; it was as though the vibrations of her personality were so graduated as to pass almost uninhibited through those around her.                                                     

Arthur Magida is my guest.  We’re discussing his Pulitzer Prize nominated book in the biography/memoir category Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in Nazi Occupied Paris.

Given her delicate and introspective disposition, it would seem incongruous that Noor Inayat Kahn, imbued with the spiritual wisdom of her famous father, would join the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and serve as an espionage agent in Nazi occupied Paris. But serve she did. And at one time was the only wireless operator in half of France sending critical information to London. Code Name Madeleine is her story. It’s a story of courage, and of sacred honor.

Most wireless operators didn’t last more than six weeks in Europe. Noor carried her 30 pound radio wherever she went and broadcast from whatever location in or near Paris she could find for more than four months. In that time the value of her transmissions was incalculable, and this includes for the landing at Normandy.

The Germans wanted desperately to capture her and they did as a result of her betrayal.

Arthur Magida has captured the spirit of this slight elfin woman, and the sinister and dangerous city in which she operated.

SORRY, LINK NOT AVAILABLE.