On September 13, 1944, a princess from India died at Dachau concentration camp. She had been tortured by the Nazis and then shot in the head. Her name was Noor Inayat Khan.
The Germans knew her only as Nora Baker, a British spy who went into occupied France with the code name Madeline. She carried a transmitter from one safe house to another, always on the run from the Gestapo, while helping her Resistance group communicate.
Wireless operators in France usually had a life expectancy of six weeks. Noor kept transmitting for over three times that long.
While she was in France, all the other wireless operators in her group were captured, and Noor became the last link between London and Paris. She held the most dangerous and important job in France.
Noor was offered a chance to return to Britain but refused.
She once sent a message saying she was enjoying her work and thanked London for giving her the chance to do it.
Eventually, she was captured by the Gestapo, but she never gave up. She tried to escape three times. Once, she asked for a bath, locked the door for privacy, and then climbed onto the roof of the Gestapo headquarters in Paris.
Her last word before being shot was “Liberté!” which means “Freedom!”
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