October 20, 2022 • 33 mins
The story of one of the most consequential spies in American history. Her name was Virginia Hall, and she was known to the Nazis as "The Limping Lady." The Nazis called her “the most dangerous of all Allied spies.” From spy to resistance leader, her story is a thrilling tale of a woman whose efforts in the face of fascism, racism, sexism, and ableism saved thousands of lives.
There’s maybe no figure of espionage in all of history like Virginia Hall. She embodies a lot of what’s amazing about fictional spies like James Bond or Ethan Hunt or Sydney Bristow (from the TV show Alias). But unlike all those spies, Virginia Hall was very real. And she changed the course of history.
Coming up on Good Assassins Season 2: a devious and double-crossing Nazi priest, elaborate dental work and disguises, and a dangerous trek across a mountain range to escape the most terrifying villains in world history.
We’ll bring you daring sabotage plots, thrilling espionage, and brutal war stories as we follow Virginia Hall’s ascent from clerk to international spy to guerilla war leader. You’ve never heard a story like this.
Episode 1, "The Greatest Spy of WWII" contains clips from interviews with Lore Oppenheimer and Hermann Ziering from the Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection. Created by Claude Lanzmann during the filming of "Shoah," used by permission of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem. © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, State of Israel. For more information visit USHMM
Learn more at diversionaudio.com/good-assassins
“Good Assassins” is a production of Diversion Audio, in association with iHeartPodcasts. Featuring the voices of Matthew Amendt, Orlagh Cassidy, Raphael Corkhill, Manoel Felciano, Sean Gormley, Mikaela Izquierdo, Lenne Klingaman, Andrew Polk, John Pirkis, Steve Routman.
This season is hosted by Stephan Talty and written by C.D. Carpenter. Produced and directed by Kevin Thomsen for Real Jetpacks Productions. Story Editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman. Additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by Tyler Cash. Sound Design, Mixing, and Mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound Editing by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive Producers: Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
and torture that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please
take care in listening. This series is based on historical
characters and real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for
(00:28):
dramatic purposes when no primary source material is available. The
woman in the jail cell was proving to be a problem.
It was no and she arrived in San Juan de
(00:51):
las Avede Sauce the day before. She was discovered at
the train station with three strange men. When the Spanish
officer demanded to see their passports, none of them could
produce one. The woman was separated from the group and
thrown into a cold, isolated cell. The notes in her
(01:14):
arrest file only deep in the mystery of her identity.
Her Spanish was formal, her accent sounded French to their ears,
and her request singular, I want to speak to the
American consul in Barcelona. The response was also singular. Among
(01:34):
other notes in the woman's arrest report were her dirty
clothes and a general appearance that made it seem like
she hadn't slept or eaten well in days, and notably,
she couldn't move without displaying a bad limp. Whoever this
woman was, she certainly didn't belong in San Juan de
las Abadsas, a small mountain town in the far northeast
(01:57):
of Spain just over the border with France. With her
formal Spanish and slight French accent, the woman was obviously
not a Spanish citizen, so she was transferred to Miranda
del Abro prison, some forty miles away outside the town
of Pagaris, where her only comfort was a blanket as
(02:17):
dingy and tattered as her dress. Though they didn't know
it at the time, the Spanish Guard had managed to
achieve with the Nazis head not despite years of intensive searching,
they had captured Virginia Hall, a woman who would go
down in the annals of history as the greatest spy
of World War two. Virginia is unlike just about anybody
(02:46):
you've ever heard of good greed. She was really unstoppable.
Every step of the way she was blocked, but every
step of the way she persevered. She had a dry
of inside of her that took her places that you
and I would not choose to go. I think she
(03:08):
understood that as a woman she could do things that
her male colleagues could not do. Yeah, she could fly
under the radar, and she knew that the Germans wanted
to hunt down the Limping Lady. Each time she went
back she was facing certain deaths. Being killed would be
the easy part, being tortured would be the hard part.
(03:29):
But for Virginia it was just such important work that
there was no way she was not going to do it.
As Virginia Hall sat in the corner of the small
Spanish prison cell, a thousand questions raced through her mind.
One question fought its way to the top. Would these
men turn her over to the Gestapo, the secret police
(03:50):
of Nazi Germany that had invaded and massacred so many thousands.
The Nazis were paying obscene prices for escaped French citizens
they considered the enemy, and they paid even more for spies.
There was one face she couldn't dispel from her thoughts,
that of Robert Alesh, the priest, with his leering glare
(04:12):
and cold smile, as he informed his superiors he had
done the impossible. He had finally apprehended the Limping Lady.
Although her desire to fight back at Robert Alesh burned
Virginia's thoughts soon bled into the horror stories she encountered
in Nazi occupied France in the weeks prior. She didn't
(04:34):
know if she'd be whisked away to one of the
concentration camps where she would suffer miserably alongside thousands of
other prisoners, or what a firing squad just execute her
at the prison wall and throw her body into the river,
as they done to so many of her compatriots. She'd
never been one to coward, but she had also never
(04:56):
been arrested. It was actually a great irony. Usually when
British or French spies found themselves in the custody of
the Gestapo, it had been Virginia who was tasked with
breaking them free. But now she realized, being the best
by the service had to offer had his drawbacks, there
(05:16):
was no one else to break you out. Don't get comfortable, Signora,
I doubt you will be here alone. And as Virginia
Hall considered what she believed to be the end of
her journey as a spy, she thought back to the beginning.
(05:41):
I'm Stephen Talty, an author and a journalist. I've written
a number of books about history, including Agent Garbo about
an eccentric World War Two double agent and the Good Assassin,
about the undercovers by mission to hunt down the Nazi
war criminal Herbert Zukers, the Butcher of Latvia. That was
(06:02):
the basis for season one of this podcast. You don't
need to have listened to season one to understand and
enjoy season two, but I would recommend listening. It's good so,
as you might guess, I'm a lover of all things espionage.
When I graduated from college, I even considered applying to
(06:22):
the CIA, but I became a newspaper journalist and then
an author, and instead I ended up writing about spies.
The world of spies intrigues me, the secret lives, the
dangerous missions, the thrilling exploits the idea of one man
or woman playing this invisible role in history. And that's
(06:45):
why I'm excited to bring you this season of Good Assassins.
This season, I want to tell you a story worry
about one of the most consequential spies in American history.
Her name was Virginia Hall, and for reasons we'll soon
(07:09):
get to, she was known to the Nazis as the
Limping Lady. Now it's difficult to express just how influential
Virginia was, the Nazis called her the most dangerous of
all Allied spies, from international spy to guerilla warfare leader.
Her story is a thrilling tale of a woman whose
(07:31):
efforts in the face of fascism, racism, sexism, and able
is um save thousands of lives. There's maybe no figure
of espionage in all of history like Virginia Hall. She
embodies a lot of what's amazing about fictional spies like
James Bond, or Ethan Hunt or Sydney Bristow if you
(07:52):
remember the TV show Alias. But unlike all those spies,
Virginia Hall is very real and she changed the course
of history. From diversion this is Good Assassin's Season two,
(08:17):
episode one, the greatest spy of World War Two. You know,
if you're lucky, you might catch a tortoise at that pace.
I think you could be a little less enthusiastic about
shooting harmless animals, Virginia. You could be less enthusiastic about
starving to death. Not long after she was born to
(08:38):
a well to do family in Baltimore, Maryland, in nineteen
o six, Virginia Hall fell in love with the idea
of travel. Her high school yearbook from her all girls
prep school, Roland Park Country School calls Virginia quote cantankerous
and capricious and the most original of her class. Do
(09:01):
you see it? Let's see it. I see that. It's
about five miles away. You really think you can hit that?
Not if I had your attitude. Virginia's favorite studies consisted
mostly of learning other languages, and in her early twenties,
she flew to Europe, where she began working with the
(09:22):
American Embassy in Poland as a consular service clerk. Now
you have to remember this is the nineteen twenties and
an extpatriot woman traveling alone would have raised some eyebrows,
but Virginia never gave much thought as to how she
would be perceived by others. By three, at age seven,
(09:44):
Virginia still had a reputation for being a tomboy and
for her wit when she transferred to the consular office
in Smyrna, Turkey, where a December hunting trip with friends
would change her life forever. Well done, But you chased
it behind the fence, not to someone's promity. Well where
(10:06):
are you going? Maybe I got a wing Virginia. At
this point in her life, Virginia had more confidence with
a gun than skill, and she was more interested in
impressing her friends than the actual sport of hunting. But
as she climbed a wire fence in search of snipe
(10:27):
the small birds they were hunting, she tucked her shotgun
under her arm, slinging her right leg over the top.
Her left leg slipped, knee jutting upwards, burying it into
the Virginia fell back to the ground, now with what
her friends referred to as a quote mangled mess where
(10:50):
her leg once was together. They quickly picked up Virginia
and brought her to the nearest hospital as she blacked
out from the pain. We didn't think. After hearing about
Virginia's injury, Dr Lauren Shepherd rushed to Smyrna from the
(11:10):
Istanbul American Hospital to help a fellow Yankee. Once there,
he inspected the infected and mangled limb. Well. Of course,
the nineties was before most antibiotics, and so if the
wound got infected to begin with, it was it was
really hard to fight off that infection, and so wound
infections were a huge problem. That's Dr Justin Barr, chief
(11:32):
Resident in General Surgery at Duke University and the historian
of Medical military history. In the nineteen thirties, doctors could
try to stave off an infection with surgical debreedments or antiseptics,
but if those failed, there was only one course of action, amputation,
(11:54):
and as Dr Barr pointed out, depending on a close range,
high velocity hunting rifle, well, it's possible that it's issue
damage was just so severe that it was not salvageable,
regardless of whether got infected or not. And so when
Virginia awoke in her hospital bed, she was greeted by
the somber expression of Dr. Shepherd. Before Virginia could speak,
(12:18):
the doctor notified her of a grim reality. An amputation
had been performed while she'd been unconscious, and they'd removed
everything below her left knee. Virginia learns to live with
a new leg after the break m It's not a
(12:57):
particularly comftical procedure, as you might imagine patients around something
that's Dr Justin Barrow again, presumably there in the hospital
for weeks, but it takes a while that stump to heal,
and then there's a lot of phantom limb pain, and
so it will be challenging the next few days. So
(13:18):
Virginia floating in and out of a nauseated and highly
medicated fog. Eventually, the doctors released her and she returned
to her family in Maryland to recuperate. There, she was
outfitted with a prosthetic leg. Now the entire thing is
made of wood, miss Hall, so keep it sanded, keep
(13:41):
it away from extreme heat, because well I can imagine.
Now this model doesn't have a joint, so you won't
have the flexibility you're used to. And you'll wear this.
Here you over your stump before sliding the prosthetic on,
(14:02):
and then you'll hook the bottom of the leg to
this block here. Say, meet your new foot. See there's
a rubber soul, so won't wear out your shoes. You
twist like this, wa. It'll take you some getting used to.
I'd practice taking the entire thing on and off a
(14:22):
few times before you try walking. But you'll get the
hang of it. Don't look so glum, miss Hall. Everyone
gets used to it. Eventually. It took months before Virginia's
(14:43):
confidence returned. Slowly, she found her way back into public circles,
making friendly conversation with old friends, but they only wanted
to talk about her now missing limb and it's fascinating
a mechanical replacement, leaving Virginia hungry for more adventure. Virginia
trained on her new leg daily, doing her best to
(15:05):
hide the limp that came with her injury. After she
felt like she could move almost as well as her
past self, she wrote to the State Department, requesting posts
in either Spain, Estonia, or Peru. Instead, Virginia was offered
a position at the U. S Consulate in Venice, Italy,
and by December of n she was back at work.
(15:27):
Stationed in Venice, she was twenty nine and quickly became
consumed with the clerical tasks that filled her days. She
was at the start considered a glorified secretary, or what
many would refer to now as an intern, but her
pension for detail eventually caught the eye of Consul General
(15:48):
Martin Stewart. Steward began to assign Virginia jobs that were
usually given to foreign service officers, and Virginia's knowledge of
the European geopolitical lands cape grew along with her duties.
The year's nineteen thirty three and nineteen thirty four, when
(16:10):
Virginia was first working in Turkey and then Italy were
pivotal in the rise of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party.
Hitler had risen through the German government's ranks over the
previous decade. He leveraged a bunch of cultural and economic
factors affecting nineteen twenties and thirties Germany. As his appetite
for power steadily grew, he emboldened his followers with cenophobic
(16:35):
hate speech and violent nationalism, targeting a number of races
and religions, but most specifically Jews. In nineteen thirty three,
Hitler was appointed Chancellor, and when the following year the
(16:56):
German president died, Hitler abolished the presidency altogether and became
the absolute dictator of Germany, declaring himself purer definitely. In
(17:26):
these years, France, Great Britain, and the United States claimed
that Hitler was nothing more than a nuisance, turning a
blind eye to his vicious treatment of Jewish people as
long as their nations were unaffected. Virginia Hall didn't see
the severity in Hitler's hate speech and new laws and
how they could slowly poison the continent at first, she
(17:49):
did her best to ignore the uprising, the shifts in
culture and politics, and the business of Panic statesman making
hurried compromises, but eventually even her own mother beget to
write Virginia from America with concerns, Dear Virginia, there has
(18:12):
been much talk on the radio here that bounds of
immigrants are vacating Europe for the States. Some are socialists
and others simply feel they've offended the Nazis and might
simply be prosecuted for it in the not too distant future.
(18:36):
They don't feel safe remaining on the continent. What a
grave injustice it is to force someone from their homes
merely because of their beliefs. And despite news items like this,
many Americans still view Hitler as a man with a
(18:58):
comical mustache who really doesn't hold a position of political power.
Now stationed in Venice, Virginia had become suspicious of Italy's
stake in the war. Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini,
had set his sites and invading and occupying the East
(19:18):
African nation of Ethiopia, with hopes that conquering it would
bring a boon to Italy's failing economy. And to national pride.
By six Mussolini had accomplished these goals, and Virginia began
to speak out against fascism at the consulate in Venice.
(19:39):
As you might expect, this attracted attention. Hoping to stop
Virginia from making waves in a politically tumultuous country, one
of her superiors wrote up a report on her progress.
Virginia Hall is a clerk of unbounded ambition, lack of
appreciation of her own limitations, and the most praiseworthy determination.
(20:05):
She also lacks common sense and good judgment. She overcomes
her physical disability and keeps up her spirits admirably. However,
she is not good material for a career service because
she lacks judgment, background, good sense, and discriminatory powers. She
(20:27):
also talks too much and frankly out of turn. Her
clerking is satisfactory at best. You have to wonder whether
this guy would have had the same criticism for a
male subordinate with the same quote ambition. When the time
came from Virginia to test for the Foreign Service, she
(20:49):
worried the negative report would be used against her. The
examinations were twofold, one written in one oral. If she passed,
Virginia would be granted more influence and latitude to operate internationally.
She would be a part of major decisions regarding expats
and government officials, and she would finally have more influence
(21:11):
than her previous position as a glorified lackey. Virginia had
taken the exams twice before in her early twenties, and
twice before she failed, but now she was a woman
with more experience, more knowledge, more savvaty, which made the
letter that appeared on her desk in all the more heartbreaking.
(21:36):
Regulation governing physical examinations to the Foreign Services prescribed that
amputation of any portion of a limb, except fingers and toes,
is a cause for rejection, and it would not be
possible for Miss Hall to qualify for entry into the
(21:57):
service under these regulations. Virginia suspected that her disability was
not the major factor in her rejection, noting that of
the nearly fift career Foreign Service officers, they claimed only
six female operatives. She stayed in Venice for another year,
(22:19):
making several appeals, all rejected. Finally, in nine she resigned
from consul work and moved to Paris, France, which she
planned to mend her wounded pride. But the Paris that
Virginia now called home wasn't the romantic city of legend.
(22:39):
It had become a powder keg of anti Semitism, spurred
on by the sudden appearance of Jewish refugees from Germany,
Austria and Czechoslovakia who escaped their home countries after the
horrific Crystal Knocked in November. Crystal Knocked or the Night
of Broken Glass, was a radical turning point for Europe.
(23:01):
Two days after seventeen year old Herschel grin Spawn, a
German born Jew, assassinated German diplomat Ernst bron Rod in Paris.
The Nazis used this as an excuse to launch a
full fledged assault on Jewish citizens across Germany. They left
the sea of blood and bodies in their wake. Here's
(23:22):
Herman's Erring and Lora Oppenheimer, former co presidents of the
Society of the Survivors of the Riga Ghetto, reflecting on
their experiences of that horrific night. At the time there
we were in our house. We had a curfew. We
were not allowed to go out after certain times, after
(23:43):
nine o'clock, I believe and then the s a storm
toopers that they booke all the Jewish stores, lovely glass.
They took everything out they could. They start making fires
in the synagogues. Not only were the stores all destroyed,
(24:03):
in the apartments of paintings and pictures, they just demolished everything, everything, everything,
the pictures were cut, I mean everything. They just whatever
Jew owned was just. Business was closed. After that, nobody
was allowed to do any more business. More on Crystal
Knocks and how it led to the Holocaust. When we
(24:26):
come back from the break, the doctor unt again. Over
the next two horrible days in late Jews were the
(24:49):
targets of an unprecedented attack throughout Germany, the program known
as Crystal Knock or the Night of Broken Glass. So
nearly a hundred Jewish bodies mutilate in the streets, and
thousands of Jewish homes and approximately businesses, hospitals, and places
of worship vandalized and destroyed. More than thirty thousand men,
(25:13):
women and children were rounded up and shipped off to
concentration camps. Nas Team Approud brought to Britain two hundred
Jewish children refugees from Germany. Many of these children all
others have parisfit and concentration camps in Germany. The parts
of the German cities that once housed vibrant and healthy
(25:36):
Jewish communities were rendered ghost towns. As any survivors quickly
made their way into France. So at last the one
rust find rest in Lens, which cherished freedom. But after arriving,
the immigrating Jews weren't met with a welcoming party. The French,
(25:56):
who were Germany's enemies in World War One two decades earlier,
refused to see a distinction between the German Jews and Nazis.
To them, they were all Germans, and Germans were enemies.
Several months after Crystal Knock, Virginia sent a postcard home,
(26:17):
and so the catastrophe has come. I can't begin to
express the horror I feel at this useless slaughter being
embarked upon, caused by the usual enemies of the civilized world.
Everything here is quiet. I am staying love to all Virginia.
(26:38):
That's Brad Katling, Virginia's great nephew. Brad is currently working
on a photo book about his great aunt's life and work,
and in the course of his research, he came across
the postcard to Brad this note stands out. I think
that it was really Virginia's first commitment to obviously staying
(26:59):
in your during the course for the war, and by
recognizing how violent the usual enemies of the civilized world were,
She's really committing herself, you know, her life, to participating somehow.
She doesn't know how yet. These are today's main events.
(27:25):
Germany has invaded Poland and has bummed many times general mobilization.
The following year, on September one, Hitler would launch World
War two with an attack on Poland. France and Great Britain,
which had mostly ignored Hitler's conquests up to that point
of Austria and Czecho Slovakia had effectively entered the war
(27:48):
with a promised to defend Poland from invasion. With that,
Virginia Hall found herself without Steady employed him in a
hostile country, an American woman with European sentiments who pitied
the Jews and was forced to navigate French hostility. But
(28:09):
Virginia wasn't alone. She met other like minded progressives, including
her best friend and neighbor Claire de Latour, who spurned
the war due to letters from her brother Jean Paul,
a soldier fighting on the imagine No line. The Imagineo
was a line of defense against the advancing German forces
created by the French and the Belgian and Swiss borders,
(28:32):
and it was considered France's impenetrable defense system. Virginia spoke
fluent French, but we've asked our actor to speak English
with a French accent to imply the language they conversed
in says a German's fights backwards, and we have nothing
(28:54):
to be afraid of, Claire. They have been winning, or
they have not been winning, Virginia. They been attacking countries
with no defenses, no armies. That is not winning, That
is bullying. They are gaining territory. I'm not general, but
I'm smart enough to know that's how you win was
(29:14):
That's how you killed the morale of your enemy. So
these victories are something we should think seriously. Don't you think?
I do think it seriously. You don't need to preach
to me. Of you Americans will be the last foot
in the water. What do you plan to do, Virginia
with all your concern are you going to just talk
in circles and worry or are you going to step up.
(29:40):
She didn't know it at the time, but her friend
Claire had successfully lit a fire in Virginia's belly. Virginia
had every intention of stepping up and getting her hands dirty.
Coming up on this season of good Assassins, a devious
and double crossing Nazi priest, elaborate dental work and disguises,
(30:02):
and a dangerous trek across a mountain range to escape
the most terrifying villains in world history. We'll bring you
daring sabotage plots that change the entire course of World
War Two, all led by a woman the Nazis were
determined to track down and exterminate. It's a season a
thrilling espionage and brutal war stories as we follow Virginia
(30:26):
Hall's ascent from clerk to international spy to guerrilla war leader.
One thing is for sure, you've never heard a story
like this. Listen to episode two right now. Sometimes they're
actively getting shot at by the Germans, and so you're
dodging artilleries shelves yourself. And within just a few days,
(30:49):
the Germans have actually pierced through a natural barrier the
forests of the Auden region, which no one was defending
you're going to London. Yes, I could use a breather
in a place where the airs and stiff. I have
encountered a most interesting prospect, a woman whom I believe
(31:16):
could make a valuable asset. If you have any questions
for us about Good Assassins, if you're curious about some
aspect of Virginia Hall story, or have any comments on
the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Please email
(31:39):
us at Good Assassins at diversion audio dot com. Make
sure you spell assassins correctly. Again, that's Good Assassins at
Diversion Audio dot com. We'll try to answer your questions
on a future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram at Diversion Pods. Good Assassins is a production of
Diversion Audio in association with iHeart Podcasts. This season is
(32:04):
hosted by Steven Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter,
Produced and directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions.
Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman,
additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by
Tyler Cash featuring the voices of michaela Is Caerdo, Raphael
(32:28):
cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman, John pier Case, Andrew polk or Lock,
Cassidy Manoel Falciano, Sean Gormley, Matthew Amant and Steve Raupman.
Sound design, mixing and mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing
by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and
(32:48):
Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio SI Diversion Audio
Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
and torture that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please
take care in listening. This series is based on historical
characters and real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for
(00:28):
dramatic purposes when no primary source material is available. The
woman in the jail cell was proving to be a problem.
It was no and she arrived in San Juan de
(00:51):
las Avede Sauce the day before. She was discovered at
the train station with three strange men. When the Spanish
officer demanded to see their passports, none of them could
produce one. The woman was separated from the group and
thrown into a cold, isolated cell. The notes in her
(01:14):
arrest file only deep in the mystery of her identity.
Her Spanish was formal, her accent sounded French to their ears,
and her request singular, I want to speak to the
American consul in Barcelona. The response was also singular. Among
(01:34):
other notes in the woman's arrest report were her dirty
clothes and a general appearance that made it seem like
she hadn't slept or eaten well in days, and notably,
she couldn't move without displaying a bad limp. Whoever this
woman was, she certainly didn't belong in San Juan de
las Abadsas, a small mountain town in the far northeast
(01:57):
of Spain just over the border with France. With her
formal Spanish and slight French accent, the woman was obviously
not a Spanish citizen, so she was transferred to Miranda
del Abro prison, some forty miles away outside the town
of Pagaris, where her only comfort was a blanket as
(02:17):
dingy and tattered as her dress. Though they didn't know
it at the time, the Spanish Guard had managed to
achieve with the Nazis head not despite years of intensive searching,
they had captured Virginia Hall, a woman who would go
down in the annals of history as the greatest spy
of World War two. Virginia is unlike just about anybody
(02:46):
you've ever heard of good greed. She was really unstoppable.
Every step of the way she was blocked, but every
step of the way she persevered. She had a dry
of inside of her that took her places that you
and I would not choose to go. I think she
(03:08):
understood that as a woman she could do things that
her male colleagues could not do. Yeah, she could fly
under the radar, and she knew that the Germans wanted
to hunt down the Limping Lady. Each time she went
back she was facing certain deaths. Being killed would be
the easy part, being tortured would be the hard part.
(03:29):
But for Virginia it was just such important work that
there was no way she was not going to do it.
As Virginia Hall sat in the corner of the small
Spanish prison cell, a thousand questions raced through her mind.
One question fought its way to the top. Would these
men turn her over to the Gestapo, the secret police
(03:50):
of Nazi Germany that had invaded and massacred so many thousands.
The Nazis were paying obscene prices for escaped French citizens
they considered the enemy, and they paid even more for spies.
There was one face she couldn't dispel from her thoughts,
that of Robert Alesh, the priest, with his leering glare
(04:12):
and cold smile, as he informed his superiors he had
done the impossible. He had finally apprehended the Limping Lady.
Although her desire to fight back at Robert Alesh burned
Virginia's thoughts soon bled into the horror stories she encountered
in Nazi occupied France in the weeks prior. She didn't
(04:34):
know if she'd be whisked away to one of the
concentration camps where she would suffer miserably alongside thousands of
other prisoners, or what a firing squad just execute her
at the prison wall and throw her body into the river,
as they done to so many of her compatriots. She'd
never been one to coward, but she had also never
(04:56):
been arrested. It was actually a great irony. Usually when
British or French spies found themselves in the custody of
the Gestapo, it had been Virginia who was tasked with
breaking them free. But now she realized, being the best
by the service had to offer had his drawbacks, there
(05:16):
was no one else to break you out. Don't get comfortable, Signora,
I doubt you will be here alone. And as Virginia
Hall considered what she believed to be the end of
her journey as a spy, she thought back to the beginning.
(05:41):
I'm Stephen Talty, an author and a journalist. I've written
a number of books about history, including Agent Garbo about
an eccentric World War Two double agent and the Good Assassin,
about the undercovers by mission to hunt down the Nazi
war criminal Herbert Zukers, the Butcher of Latvia. That was
(06:02):
the basis for season one of this podcast. You don't
need to have listened to season one to understand and
enjoy season two, but I would recommend listening. It's good so,
as you might guess, I'm a lover of all things espionage.
When I graduated from college, I even considered applying to
(06:22):
the CIA, but I became a newspaper journalist and then
an author, and instead I ended up writing about spies.
The world of spies intrigues me, the secret lives, the
dangerous missions, the thrilling exploits the idea of one man
or woman playing this invisible role in history. And that's
(06:45):
why I'm excited to bring you this season of Good Assassins.
This season, I want to tell you a story worry
about one of the most consequential spies in American history.
Her name was Virginia Hall, and for reasons we'll soon
(07:09):
get to, she was known to the Nazis as the
Limping Lady. Now it's difficult to express just how influential
Virginia was, the Nazis called her the most dangerous of
all Allied spies, from international spy to guerilla warfare leader.
Her story is a thrilling tale of a woman whose
(07:31):
efforts in the face of fascism, racism, sexism, and able
is um save thousands of lives. There's maybe no figure
of espionage in all of history like Virginia Hall. She
embodies a lot of what's amazing about fictional spies like
James Bond, or Ethan Hunt or Sydney Bristow if you
(07:52):
remember the TV show Alias. But unlike all those spies,
Virginia Hall is very real and she changed the course
of history. From diversion this is Good Assassin's Season two,
(08:17):
episode one, the greatest spy of World War Two. You know,
if you're lucky, you might catch a tortoise at that pace.
I think you could be a little less enthusiastic about
shooting harmless animals, Virginia. You could be less enthusiastic about
starving to death. Not long after she was born to
(08:38):
a well to do family in Baltimore, Maryland, in nineteen
o six, Virginia Hall fell in love with the idea
of travel. Her high school yearbook from her all girls
prep school, Roland Park Country School calls Virginia quote cantankerous
and capricious and the most original of her class. Do
(09:01):
you see it? Let's see it. I see that. It's
about five miles away. You really think you can hit that?
Not if I had your attitude. Virginia's favorite studies consisted
mostly of learning other languages, and in her early twenties,
she flew to Europe, where she began working with the
(09:22):
American Embassy in Poland as a consular service clerk. Now
you have to remember this is the nineteen twenties and
an extpatriot woman traveling alone would have raised some eyebrows,
but Virginia never gave much thought as to how she
would be perceived by others. By three, at age seven,
(09:44):
Virginia still had a reputation for being a tomboy and
for her wit when she transferred to the consular office
in Smyrna, Turkey, where a December hunting trip with friends
would change her life forever. Well done, But you chased
it behind the fence, not to someone's promity. Well where
(10:06):
are you going? Maybe I got a wing Virginia. At
this point in her life, Virginia had more confidence with
a gun than skill, and she was more interested in
impressing her friends than the actual sport of hunting. But
as she climbed a wire fence in search of snipe
(10:27):
the small birds they were hunting, she tucked her shotgun
under her arm, slinging her right leg over the top.
Her left leg slipped, knee jutting upwards, burying it into
the Virginia fell back to the ground, now with what
her friends referred to as a quote mangled mess where
(10:50):
her leg once was together. They quickly picked up Virginia
and brought her to the nearest hospital as she blacked
out from the pain. We didn't think. After hearing about
Virginia's injury, Dr Lauren Shepherd rushed to Smyrna from the
(11:10):
Istanbul American Hospital to help a fellow Yankee. Once there,
he inspected the infected and mangled limb. Well. Of course,
the nineties was before most antibiotics, and so if the
wound got infected to begin with, it was it was
really hard to fight off that infection, and so wound
infections were a huge problem. That's Dr Justin Barr, chief
(11:32):
Resident in General Surgery at Duke University and the historian
of Medical military history. In the nineteen thirties, doctors could
try to stave off an infection with surgical debreedments or antiseptics,
but if those failed, there was only one course of action, amputation,
(11:54):
and as Dr Barr pointed out, depending on a close range,
high velocity hunting rifle, well, it's possible that it's issue
damage was just so severe that it was not salvageable,
regardless of whether got infected or not. And so when
Virginia awoke in her hospital bed, she was greeted by
the somber expression of Dr. Shepherd. Before Virginia could speak,
(12:18):
the doctor notified her of a grim reality. An amputation
had been performed while she'd been unconscious, and they'd removed
everything below her left knee. Virginia learns to live with
a new leg after the break m It's not a
(12:57):
particularly comftical procedure, as you might imagine patients around something
that's Dr Justin Barrow again, presumably there in the hospital
for weeks, but it takes a while that stump to heal,
and then there's a lot of phantom limb pain, and
so it will be challenging the next few days. So
(13:18):
Virginia floating in and out of a nauseated and highly
medicated fog. Eventually, the doctors released her and she returned
to her family in Maryland to recuperate. There, she was
outfitted with a prosthetic leg. Now the entire thing is
made of wood, miss Hall, so keep it sanded, keep
(13:41):
it away from extreme heat, because well I can imagine.
Now this model doesn't have a joint, so you won't
have the flexibility you're used to. And you'll wear this.
Here you over your stump before sliding the prosthetic on,
(14:02):
and then you'll hook the bottom of the leg to
this block here. Say, meet your new foot. See there's
a rubber soul, so won't wear out your shoes. You
twist like this, wa. It'll take you some getting used to.
I'd practice taking the entire thing on and off a
(14:22):
few times before you try walking. But you'll get the
hang of it. Don't look so glum, miss Hall. Everyone
gets used to it. Eventually. It took months before Virginia's
(14:43):
confidence returned. Slowly, she found her way back into public circles,
making friendly conversation with old friends, but they only wanted
to talk about her now missing limb and it's fascinating
a mechanical replacement, leaving Virginia hungry for more adventure. Virginia
trained on her new leg daily, doing her best to
(15:05):
hide the limp that came with her injury. After she
felt like she could move almost as well as her
past self, she wrote to the State Department, requesting posts
in either Spain, Estonia, or Peru. Instead, Virginia was offered
a position at the U. S Consulate in Venice, Italy,
and by December of n she was back at work.
(15:27):
Stationed in Venice, she was twenty nine and quickly became
consumed with the clerical tasks that filled her days. She
was at the start considered a glorified secretary, or what
many would refer to now as an intern, but her
pension for detail eventually caught the eye of Consul General
(15:48):
Martin Stewart. Steward began to assign Virginia jobs that were
usually given to foreign service officers, and Virginia's knowledge of
the European geopolitical lands cape grew along with her duties.
The year's nineteen thirty three and nineteen thirty four, when
(16:10):
Virginia was first working in Turkey and then Italy were
pivotal in the rise of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party.
Hitler had risen through the German government's ranks over the
previous decade. He leveraged a bunch of cultural and economic
factors affecting nineteen twenties and thirties Germany. As his appetite
for power steadily grew, he emboldened his followers with cenophobic
(16:35):
hate speech and violent nationalism, targeting a number of races
and religions, but most specifically Jews. In nineteen thirty three,
Hitler was appointed Chancellor, and when the following year the
(16:56):
German president died, Hitler abolished the presidency altogether and became
the absolute dictator of Germany, declaring himself purer definitely. In
(17:26):
these years, France, Great Britain, and the United States claimed
that Hitler was nothing more than a nuisance, turning a
blind eye to his vicious treatment of Jewish people as
long as their nations were unaffected. Virginia Hall didn't see
the severity in Hitler's hate speech and new laws and
how they could slowly poison the continent at first, she
(17:49):
did her best to ignore the uprising, the shifts in
culture and politics, and the business of Panic statesman making
hurried compromises, but eventually even her own mother beget to
write Virginia from America with concerns, Dear Virginia, there has
(18:12):
been much talk on the radio here that bounds of
immigrants are vacating Europe for the States. Some are socialists
and others simply feel they've offended the Nazis and might
simply be prosecuted for it in the not too distant future.
(18:36):
They don't feel safe remaining on the continent. What a
grave injustice it is to force someone from their homes
merely because of their beliefs. And despite news items like this,
many Americans still view Hitler as a man with a
(18:58):
comical mustache who really doesn't hold a position of political power.
Now stationed in Venice, Virginia had become suspicious of Italy's
stake in the war. Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini,
had set his sites and invading and occupying the East
(19:18):
African nation of Ethiopia, with hopes that conquering it would
bring a boon to Italy's failing economy. And to national pride.
By six Mussolini had accomplished these goals, and Virginia began
to speak out against fascism at the consulate in Venice.
(19:39):
As you might expect, this attracted attention. Hoping to stop
Virginia from making waves in a politically tumultuous country, one
of her superiors wrote up a report on her progress.
Virginia Hall is a clerk of unbounded ambition, lack of
appreciation of her own limitations, and the most praiseworthy determination.
(20:05):
She also lacks common sense and good judgment. She overcomes
her physical disability and keeps up her spirits admirably. However,
she is not good material for a career service because
she lacks judgment, background, good sense, and discriminatory powers. She
(20:27):
also talks too much and frankly out of turn. Her
clerking is satisfactory at best. You have to wonder whether
this guy would have had the same criticism for a
male subordinate with the same quote ambition. When the time
came from Virginia to test for the Foreign Service, she
(20:49):
worried the negative report would be used against her. The
examinations were twofold, one written in one oral. If she passed,
Virginia would be granted more influence and latitude to operate internationally.
She would be a part of major decisions regarding expats
and government officials, and she would finally have more influence
(21:11):
than her previous position as a glorified lackey. Virginia had
taken the exams twice before in her early twenties, and
twice before she failed, but now she was a woman
with more experience, more knowledge, more savvaty, which made the
letter that appeared on her desk in all the more heartbreaking.
(21:36):
Regulation governing physical examinations to the Foreign Services prescribed that
amputation of any portion of a limb, except fingers and toes,
is a cause for rejection, and it would not be
possible for Miss Hall to qualify for entry into the
(21:57):
service under these regulations. Virginia suspected that her disability was
not the major factor in her rejection, noting that of
the nearly fift career Foreign Service officers, they claimed only
six female operatives. She stayed in Venice for another year,
(22:19):
making several appeals, all rejected. Finally, in nine she resigned
from consul work and moved to Paris, France, which she
planned to mend her wounded pride. But the Paris that
Virginia now called home wasn't the romantic city of legend.
(22:39):
It had become a powder keg of anti Semitism, spurred
on by the sudden appearance of Jewish refugees from Germany,
Austria and Czechoslovakia who escaped their home countries after the
horrific Crystal Knocked in November. Crystal Knocked or the Night
of Broken Glass, was a radical turning point for Europe.
(23:01):
Two days after seventeen year old Herschel grin Spawn, a
German born Jew, assassinated German diplomat Ernst bron Rod in Paris.
The Nazis used this as an excuse to launch a
full fledged assault on Jewish citizens across Germany. They left
the sea of blood and bodies in their wake. Here's
(23:22):
Herman's Erring and Lora Oppenheimer, former co presidents of the
Society of the Survivors of the Riga Ghetto, reflecting on
their experiences of that horrific night. At the time there
we were in our house. We had a curfew. We
were not allowed to go out after certain times, after
(23:43):
nine o'clock, I believe and then the s a storm
toopers that they booke all the Jewish stores, lovely glass.
They took everything out they could. They start making fires
in the synagogues. Not only were the stores all destroyed,
(24:03):
in the apartments of paintings and pictures, they just demolished everything, everything, everything,
the pictures were cut, I mean everything. They just whatever
Jew owned was just. Business was closed. After that, nobody
was allowed to do any more business. More on Crystal
Knocks and how it led to the Holocaust. When we
(24:26):
come back from the break, the doctor unt again. Over
the next two horrible days in late Jews were the
(24:49):
targets of an unprecedented attack throughout Germany, the program known
as Crystal Knock or the Night of Broken Glass. So
nearly a hundred Jewish bodies mutilate in the streets, and
thousands of Jewish homes and approximately businesses, hospitals, and places
of worship vandalized and destroyed. More than thirty thousand men,
(25:13):
women and children were rounded up and shipped off to
concentration camps. Nas Team Approud brought to Britain two hundred
Jewish children refugees from Germany. Many of these children all
others have parisfit and concentration camps in Germany. The parts
of the German cities that once housed vibrant and healthy
(25:36):
Jewish communities were rendered ghost towns. As any survivors quickly
made their way into France. So at last the one
rust find rest in Lens, which cherished freedom. But after arriving,
the immigrating Jews weren't met with a welcoming party. The French,
(25:56):
who were Germany's enemies in World War One two decades earlier,
refused to see a distinction between the German Jews and Nazis.
To them, they were all Germans, and Germans were enemies.
Several months after Crystal Knock, Virginia sent a postcard home,
(26:17):
and so the catastrophe has come. I can't begin to
express the horror I feel at this useless slaughter being
embarked upon, caused by the usual enemies of the civilized world.
Everything here is quiet. I am staying love to all Virginia.
(26:38):
That's Brad Katling, Virginia's great nephew. Brad is currently working
on a photo book about his great aunt's life and work,
and in the course of his research, he came across
the postcard to Brad this note stands out. I think
that it was really Virginia's first commitment to obviously staying
(26:59):
in your during the course for the war, and by
recognizing how violent the usual enemies of the civilized world were,
She's really committing herself, you know, her life, to participating somehow.
She doesn't know how yet. These are today's main events.
(27:25):
Germany has invaded Poland and has bummed many times general mobilization.
The following year, on September one, Hitler would launch World
War two with an attack on Poland. France and Great Britain,
which had mostly ignored Hitler's conquests up to that point
of Austria and Czecho Slovakia had effectively entered the war
(27:48):
with a promised to defend Poland from invasion. With that,
Virginia Hall found herself without Steady employed him in a
hostile country, an American woman with European sentiments who pitied
the Jews and was forced to navigate French hostility. But
(28:09):
Virginia wasn't alone. She met other like minded progressives, including
her best friend and neighbor Claire de Latour, who spurned
the war due to letters from her brother Jean Paul,
a soldier fighting on the imagine No line. The Imagineo
was a line of defense against the advancing German forces
created by the French and the Belgian and Swiss borders,
(28:32):
and it was considered France's impenetrable defense system. Virginia spoke
fluent French, but we've asked our actor to speak English
with a French accent to imply the language they conversed
in says a German's fights backwards, and we have nothing
(28:54):
to be afraid of, Claire. They have been winning, or
they have not been winning, Virginia. They been attacking countries
with no defenses, no armies. That is not winning, That
is bullying. They are gaining territory. I'm not general, but
I'm smart enough to know that's how you win was
(29:14):
That's how you killed the morale of your enemy. So
these victories are something we should think seriously. Don't you think?
I do think it seriously. You don't need to preach
to me. Of you Americans will be the last foot
in the water. What do you plan to do, Virginia
with all your concern are you going to just talk
in circles and worry or are you going to step up.
(29:40):
She didn't know it at the time, but her friend
Claire had successfully lit a fire in Virginia's belly. Virginia
had every intention of stepping up and getting her hands dirty.
Coming up on this season of good Assassins, a devious
and double crossing Nazi priest, elaborate dental work and disguises,
(30:02):
and a dangerous trek across a mountain range to escape
the most terrifying villains in world history. We'll bring you
daring sabotage plots that change the entire course of World
War Two, all led by a woman the Nazis were
determined to track down and exterminate. It's a season a
thrilling espionage and brutal war stories as we follow Virginia
(30:26):
Hall's ascent from clerk to international spy to guerrilla war leader.
One thing is for sure, you've never heard a story
like this. Listen to episode two right now. Sometimes they're
actively getting shot at by the Germans, and so you're
dodging artilleries shelves yourself. And within just a few days,
(30:49):
the Germans have actually pierced through a natural barrier the
forests of the Auden region, which no one was defending
you're going to London. Yes, I could use a breather
in a place where the airs and stiff. I have
encountered a most interesting prospect, a woman whom I believe
(31:16):
could make a valuable asset. If you have any questions
for us about Good Assassins, if you're curious about some
aspect of Virginia Hall story, or have any comments on
the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Please email
(31:39):
us at Good Assassins at diversion audio dot com. Make
sure you spell assassins correctly. Again, that's Good Assassins at
Diversion Audio dot com. We'll try to answer your questions
on a future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram at Diversion Pods. Good Assassins is a production of
Diversion Audio in association with iHeart Podcasts. This season is
(32:04):
hosted by Steven Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter,
Produced and directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions.
Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman,
additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by
Tyler Cash featuring the voices of michaela Is Caerdo, Raphael
(32:28):
cork Kill, Lenna Klingeman, John pier Case, Andrew polk or Lock,
Cassidy Manoel Falciano, Sean Gormley, Matthew Amant and Steve Raupman.
Sound design, mixing and mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing
by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and
(32:48):
Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio SI Diversion Audio
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