* A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WW II*

 by Sarah Helm

I was at first intrigued by this book. Then I was bored, very bored...and lost in lists of names, dates and unfamiliar locations....but somewhere along the line I again became very interested in the topic. I'm glad I kept reading.

This book centers around Vera Atkins who "selected and ran the four hundred (British) agents - thirty-nine of them women - who were smuggled into occupied France in World War II." Vera began as secretary at the newly formed SOE (Special Operations Executive) and then became the second in command. The fuddled bureaucracy portrayed in this book was amazing. I'd love to think this has improved over the years; but I fear not. At the time of the formation of SOE women were NOT to be sent to combat locations and yet at least 39 female SOE F agents were sent to France during the Nazi occupation. Since they were not military, they were not afforded the "rights" of prisoners of war when captured. Many died horrific deaths in concentration camps. After the war the female agents tended to fall through the cracks of bureaucracy once again...they had to fight for military benefits etc. Vera was at the center of most of this. Fighting for the rights of the women, fighting to cover the tragic and mistakes of the SOE, fighting for recognition for the SOE (disbanded after the war).....

Vera fought and won the right to track her agents who were missing immediately after the war. She served on war criminal boards.

Vera herself was an "enemy alien" during her time of service in the SOE. She was a Romanian born Jewess. Rosenberg is her family name. Questions still swirl around the memory of Vera...was she a double spy? Was she a Russian spy? A CIA plant? A German spy? Was she cold and heartless or riddled with remorse and having sent so many in the waiting arms of the Nazis?

I plan to read more on this subject....there are biographies out on various SOE F agents, a few movies...not sure where I'll start.