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Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler

Title: Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler / Lynne Olson.
Author: Olson, Lynne
Publication: New York : Random House, [2019]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 19-5722	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

xxiv, 428 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

"The little-known story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II ... In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization--the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group's name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah's Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, 'even a lion would hesitate to bite.' No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence--including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day--as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape--once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell--and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her. Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself."--Dust jacket.
In 1941 Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization. Her group's name was Alliance, and used the names of animals as their aliases. Fourcade was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents. Captured twice by the Nazis, she escaped and continued to hold her network together. Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself. -- adapted from jacket

Alternative Title

Daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler

Subjects

Genre/Form

Biographies.
Biography.
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-405) and index.

Language (note)

Text in English.

Contents

1936-1942. Leaping into the unknown ; The chaos of defeat ; Fighting back ; Spying in Marseille ; The birth of alliance ; Danger in Paris ; Taking command ; A network in peril ; The mailbag ; The return of Léon Faye ; A game of wits ; "An undisputed leader" ; Sitting on a barrel of gunpowder ; The traitor ; A general escapes ; Captured ; Operation Attila ; "Down go the U-boats" -- 1943-1944. On the run ; The tinderbox of Lyon ; High anxiety ; "Here you are at last!" ; "The most remarkable girl of her generation" ; Pink heather ; Calamity ; Captives ; The map ; Going home -- 1944-1945. Caught in the net ; Liberation and beyond ; "Hail Mary, full of grace" ; The road to Gethsemane.

Call Number

JFE 19-5722

ISBN

9780812994766
0812994760

LCCN

2018049180

OCLC

1060184003

Author

Olson, Lynne, author.

Title

Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler / Lynne Olson.

Publisher

New York : Random House, [2019]

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-405) and index.

Language

Text in English.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

JFE 19-5722

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