Szabo, Violette (1921-1945), was an English-born French resistance fighter in World War II (1939-1945). She was born on June 26, 1921. She was an agent for the French Section of the Special Operations Executive and parachuted into France in April 1944 to join the resistance network. However, the group she had intended to join had already been broken up by the German occupiers, and she returned to England. On June 6 of that year, Szabo again parachuted into France, near Limoges, accompanied by an agent known as “Anastasia,” who was a local leader of the Maquis, a group of French resistance fighters. Within days, the German army found the two. Szabo allowed Anastasia to escape, sacrificing herself. Szabo held off the German army for several hours. But she ran out of ammunition, was captured, and taken first to Limoges, then to Paris, and finally to Germany. All the Germans’ attempts to interrogate her were unsuccessful. Szabo was executed in Ravensbruck, Germany, on Jan. 26, 1945. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the United Kingdom’s highest award for civilian bravery. Her life story was told in a film, Carve Her Name with Pride, directed by Lewis Gilbert in 1957.
