Book Review - A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins & the Missing Agents of WWII by Sarah Helm

Synopsis: As the head of the French section of the British Special Operations Executive, Vera Atkins recruited, trained, and mentored special operatives who job was to organize & arm the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. After the war, Atkins courageously committed herself to a dangerous search for twelve of her most cherished women spies who had gone missing in action. Drawing on previously unavailable sources, Sarah Helm chronicles Atkins' extraordinary life and her singular journey through the chaos of postwar Europe.

First Line: "I met Vera Atkins just once."

Random Quote: "I found a pink woman's stocking garter near the oven."

Review: I got this book through a Member Giveaway on LibraryThing & I'm so glad I did - I wouldn't have found it otherwise.

This history of Vera Atkins & her search for her missing agents after D-Day was absolutely riveting - not a word I use often. Well-written, cogent, unblinking - this is worth the

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read.

Vera Atkins was the head of the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war. This group recruited, trained, & dropped volunteers behind enemy lines during the war. These volunteers, many of whom were young women, parachuted behind enemy lines & established & operated "circuits" of agents who worked against the Germans in various ways.

After the war a number of these people simply didn't show up again & Ms. Atkins appears to have been one of the only people who felt it was her duty to find out what happened to them. Higher ups in the British government at the time did not want, for instance, to release the names of these people to the International Red Cross & other relief agencies working with war refugees as it was felt that to do so would be a) to admit they were spying, & b) that they sent women behind enemy lines.

The story of Ms. Atkins' pursuit of the fates of these people combines with the story of the author's pursuit of the story of Vera Atkins as the focus of the book. There is a lot of information here that is pretty horrifying. Ms. Atkins was finally given permission to research the fate of these people only after survivor stories told of four of the women being put into the crematorium alive.

Equally horrific is the knowledge that the fate of these people was practically guaranteed by the stupidity and short-sightedness of many of the leaders at the SOE who ignored strong evidence that their circuits had been compromised & continued to parachute people into France - often directly into the hands of the Gestapo who were waiting for them.

I was reminded of the play (& excellent movie with Meryl Streep) - Plenty by David Hare - inasmuch as it tells the story of a woman whose time spent behind enemy lines in France were the highlight of her life. Hare captures the ambiguity of the status of these women whose very service during war was considered scandalous by many when discovered. This book illuminates that status quite successfully.

Ms. Atkins is throughout an enigmatic and mysterious figure who certainly had plenty of reasons to sell the heroism of her group & their agents. The story of these people is, however, full of simple moments of heroism and the years that Ms. Atkins spent discovering their fate were well-spent.