19 Facts About Sonia Olschanezky

Sonia Olschanezky was a member of the French Resistance and the Special Operations Executive during World War II.

Sonia Olschanezky's father, Eli Olschanezky, was born in Odessa and came to Germany to study chemical engineering.

Sonia Olschanezky met Olschanezky's mother, Helene, at a dance given by the Jewish community in Leipzig.

In September 1916 Sonia Olschanezky's parents were married and set up house in Chemnitz where their three children were born.

In 1926 the family left Germany for Bucharest, where Eli Sonia Olschanezky had been invited to oversee the construction of, and then run, a factory producing silk stockings.

Eli Sonia Olschanezky tried to re-establish himself in business but found himself cheated of his money, which left him sick and demoralised, and the family moved to cheaper accommodation.

In Paris, Sonia Olschanezky became a dance student, and when the manager of a children's theatre saw her in class one day she was asked to join the theatre company.

Sonia Olschanezky's parents said no at first, but she eventually won them over, and at the age of 10 she began performing with Le Theatre du Petit Monde on Thursday afternoons, the school holiday.

Sonia Olschanezky's mother contacted friends in Germany who managed to produce false papers that stated that Olschanezky had "economically valuable skills" needed for the war effort.

Sonia Olschanezky was locally recruited by Jacques Weil to a small Jewish Juggler sub-circuit of SOE's Physician circuit operating near Paris.

Sonia Olschanezky was stationed in Chalons-sur-Marne and spent much of her time as a courier between Chalons and their headquarters in the rue Cambon, near the Place de la Concorde, using the codename "Tania" and "Suzanne Ouvrard".

One action in which Sonia Olschanezky took part succeeded in blowing up a munitions train at Melun, on the Seine south of Paris.

Unknown to London, Sonia Olschanezky had refused to follow Weill who fled to Bern in July 1943 after the arrest of the leader of Robin following the collapse of Prosper the previous month, leaving her in charge of what was left of Robin and taking immense risks by running messages between different SOE groups that were likely compromised by this collapse.

Sonia Olschanezky remained free until her capture on 21 January 1944.

Sonia Olschanezky exchanged a few words with another one of the women, who said she was English before she disappeared into the cellblock building.

In spite of the efforts of Vera Atkins, Sonia Olschanezky is not commemorated on the Valencay SOE Memorial in the Loire Valley, unveiled in 1991, which is dedicated to the 91 men and 13 women of F Section who were killed in action.

Atkins was told by the memorial committee that Sonia Olschanezky was not eligible to be noted on the memorial as she was a locally recruited agent, not commissioned in the British armed forces.

Sonia Olschanezky is specifically commemorated with a plaque, along with the names of Noor Inayat Khan and Lilian Rolfe, on the Vera Atkins Memorial Seat in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Sonia Olschanezky's name is on a stone plaque, along with the names of Diana Rowden, Andree Borrel, and Vera Leigh, in the furnace room of the Natzweiler-Struthof crematorium.