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The Lost Women Spies S01E06 (2025) [Full Movie] [Long Version]Full EP - Full
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00:03World War II is over, but British women agents remain missing throughout Europe.
00:14The other English women, how many were there?
00:18Answer me!
00:20Nazi radio mastermind Josef Goertz gives spymaster Vera Atkins an explosive testimony.
00:28Yes, I believe that's him.
00:31Implicating Henri Derricourt as the double agent who betrays the British SOE to the Gestapo.
00:42Derricourt is arrested in Paris, but has Vera really got the man who betrayed her women agents?
00:52Whitehall has closed down the special operations executive.
00:58But Vera has evidence from a French resistance fighter that her agent, Noor Inayat Khan, could still be alive.
01:07Vera will not give up.
01:10One agent who does make it back alive is Odette Sansom.
01:14She is driven out of Ravensbrück concentration camp by its commandant, Fritz Søren.
01:20This man is a walker.
01:22Søren is now on the run.
01:25But his deputy, Johann Schwarzhuber...
01:28What happened to her?
01:29They were shot.
01:31...is in custody, awaiting the Ravensbrück trial.
01:46It's the 5th of December, 1946.
01:50In Hamburg, in the British zone of occupied Germany,
01:55The Ravensbrück trial begins.
02:00The defendants are concentration camp personnel from all divisions of the camp.
02:07SS officers.
02:09Camp doctors.
02:11Female guards.
02:13It is a Nazi camp like no other.
02:18Ravensbrück was a concentration camp, and unlike every other concentration camp,
02:23it was a concentration camp for women.
02:28It was particularly horrifying.
02:30For the sensibilities of people in the 1940s as well,
02:34where women are meant to be kept out of combat, out of war,
02:36and treated with some level of humanity,
02:39Ravensbrück was a particular horrific site to end up in.
02:47The Ravensbrück trial is important, and it's unique,
02:50because of the treatment of prisoners within the camp.
02:54In particular, the medical experiments that had been carried out
02:57for sterilisations, for example.
03:04Vera's role in the trial is to manage the extensive evidence
03:08she has brought together, passing it on to the prosecutors.
03:16But she must not reveal her role to the international press.
03:35The trial features one of the camp's most notorious SS officers.
03:44Johann Schwarzhuber.
03:47He is about to face one of his accusers.
03:52Barrister, could you please say who this man in front of us is?
03:56Johann Schwarzhuber.
04:00And who is your next witness?
04:04Adette Sansom.
04:09Odette Sansom is a star witness for the prosecution,
04:13giving damning testimony about what happened at the camp,
04:17at the hands of Schwarzhuber and others.
04:22The court hears from Odette and other witnesses
04:27about the treatment of female agent Violette Sabo,
04:31who is described talking about
04:34my baby, my baby,
04:37her young child left behind in Britain.
04:46and how Violette and two other agents,
04:51Lillian Rolfe
04:52and Denise Block,
04:55are brought from the punishment block,
04:58emaciated, dirty, and weak.
05:06They are then taken behind the crematorium building
05:11and shot.
05:14The trial would have been difficult for Vera
05:17as the witnesses took the stands,
05:19although she'd probably already interviewed
05:20some of them previously,
05:22she may have compartmentalised it in some way.
05:26But having seen and spoken to
05:29and befriended the agents
05:30that she had sent into the field,
05:32the realisation of what these women had sacrificed
05:36and what the overarching impact
05:38on their families were going to be,
05:40it must have been harrowing for her.
05:45At the end of the trial,
05:47Schwarzhuber is sentenced to death
05:51and executed on the 3rd of May, 1947.
05:56Five of the female guards
05:58are also executed.
06:01Fritz Suren, the commandant,
06:03remains a fugitive from justice.
06:07But before the closing statements are finished,
06:11Vera is already on her way to try
06:14and track down the last of her lost women spies,
06:17Nor Inayat Khan.
06:31Previously, Vera received a letter
06:34from a French resistance fighter,
06:36Yolande Lagrave,
06:39claiming she had contact with Nor
06:40in a prison in Pforzheim
06:42in the west of Germany.
06:49This directly contradicted Vera's evidence
06:52from crematorium stoker Franz Berg.
06:55He claimed that Nor was killed
06:57at the Natsviler concentration camp
07:00in France.
07:03Vera already has an eyewitness testimony
07:06from Natsviler saying that Nor is dead.
07:08And now she has another eyewitness testimony
07:10saying, no, that is not true,
07:12she is here.
07:12What eyewitness do you trust?
07:15How does Vera make this decision?
07:18She needs some sort of corroborating evidence
07:21to prove one way or the other.
07:26So what did happen to Nor?
07:30Vera needs another witness statement.
07:35So she decides to interrogate
07:38one particular Gestapo soldier
07:40for a second time.
07:44Max Vassmer transported SOE agents
07:48to Dachau concentration camp
07:50in September 1944.
07:56Vassmer claims that he transferred
07:59three women to the camp.
08:01Even though other witnesses say
08:03there was a fourth woman.
08:06A woman from Pforzheim prison.
08:17Three.
08:19You're sure it was three?
08:23Three women.
08:26Not men.
08:27Women.
08:32Because the other guards
08:34say you're wrong.
08:41The receipt
08:42said three women.
08:46That is not
08:47what I asked.
08:48did you take
08:50three women?
08:57Three.
08:58Four.
08:59What's the difference?
09:00It's all
09:01the difference.
09:09So it was four.
09:18three from Carl Sragoa.
09:22And
09:23another.
09:27From
09:30Pforzheim,
09:31I think.
09:36Please tell me
09:37what they looked like.
09:39All of them.
09:44She looked like
09:47she may have been
09:48Indian.
09:59Vassmer describes
10:01the fourth woman
10:04giving a description
10:06of a woman
10:07who Vera believes
10:10is
10:11Nor
10:11Inayat Khan.
10:30Vassmer reveals
10:32that Nor
10:33is taken
10:33outside the camp
10:34with the other women
10:36and made
10:37and made to kneel
10:37in front of a mound
10:38of earth.
10:42The only word
10:43Nor says
10:44before she is shot
10:46is the French word
10:47for freedom.
10:49Liberté.
10:55Thank you,
10:56Herr Vassmer.
11:00We're done.
11:03Vera can now put to rest
11:05her quest
11:06to find out Nor's story
11:08and her final resting place,
11:10the concentration camp
11:12at Dachau.
11:21Now,
11:22Vera must ask
11:23the hardest question
11:24of all.
11:26Who betrayed
11:27her women agents?
11:30Who is the person
11:32that betrayed Nor,
11:35Violette Sabo,
11:37and all of Vera's
11:39other women spies,
11:41so they ended up
11:42in the hands
11:43of the Nazis?
11:46Could it have been
11:48Henri Derricourt?
11:50There were allegations,
11:52but Vera
11:53still doesn't know
11:54for sure.
11:58The man who would know
12:01is Hans Kiefer,
12:05the man in charge
12:06of Nazi intelligence
12:08in Paris.
12:12To find him,
12:14Vera needs
12:15the SAS.
12:23SAS intelligence officer
12:25Major Bill Barkworth
12:26and his men
12:27stake out a small town
12:29in southern Germany.
12:34They've received
12:35a tip-off
12:36from Vera
12:36that Hans Kiefer
12:38has been spotted here.
12:40It is Kiefer's
12:41hometown.
12:42They're looking
12:43for the caretaker
12:44of a local hotel
12:46who signs
12:47the town hall register
12:48as Hans Kiefer.
12:50The name
12:51is suspiciously similar
12:53with only one F
12:54removed.
12:55what all
13:10do
13:11You
13:11and
13:20you
13:23and
13:25you
13:43Hans-Joseph Kiefer, Senior Counterintelligence Officer, 84 Avenue 4, Paris.
13:55Yeah.
14:00Get him out of here.
14:04Barkworth and Vera have their man.
14:08Now it is their chance to find out who betrayed all of Vera's women agents.
14:18It is January 1947.
14:22Vera is face to face with her secret enemy, Hans Kiefer.
14:29Hans Kiefer is a lifelong Nazi, so he joined the Nazi party in the early 1920s, so very,
14:35very early on.
14:36And he rises to become, during the war, the head of the Gestapo and SS Operation Runner
14:42in Paris.
14:46So this was an operation specifically aimed at hunting down mostly special operations
14:53executive agents in the field, so agents of the SOE in France.
14:57But the thing about Hans Kiefer is he's a fascinating individual because he's not like you would
15:01imagine your archetypal SS bruiser.
15:05He's a subtle, wily, clever fox.
15:11Vera has waited almost two years for this moment.
15:15The chance to interrogate the man who could answer all her questions, the man who holds the
15:23key to her lost women spies, and what really happened to Knorr, codename Madeleine.
15:33Berlin considered the French section of SOE particularly dangerous.
15:40Both the Führer and Himmler had shown a personal interest.
16:07I remember Madeleine.
16:16She refused to cooperate, unlike the others.
16:25She tried to escape with a group of male agents.
16:31It would have ruined us if she made it back to SOE, ruined me.
16:38So I sent her away.
16:43She ended up in Fortsheim, I think.
16:51She was a brave one.
17:00Her name was Knorr Inayat Khan.
17:05She is most likely dead.
17:09Shot through the head at Dachau.
17:19Kiefer, if one of us is going to cry, it is going to be me.
17:23You will please stop this comedy.
17:30Who betrayed them, Kiefer?
17:34Who betrayed Knorr?
17:39You're asking me if there was a traitor in your ranks.
17:48Why are you asking me?
17:52You know yourself?
17:54You know yourself?
17:54There was one.
17:57You recalled him to London.
18:02Gilbert?
18:07Gilbert?
18:07And who is Gilbert?
18:11I think you're now.
18:15Of course you're now.
18:19Henri Derricor.
18:25Did you pay him?
18:28Yes.
18:31Everyone has their price, don't they?
18:40Here, at last, is Vera's definitive proof that Henri Derricor is the double agent.
18:48Don't worry Derricor, we'll clear this whole sorry business up.
18:53Thanks, sir.
18:54Despite Buckmaster and Boddington's investigation clearing him.
19:04There is no doubt in Vera's mind that with all the resistance evidence coming in, all of
19:09the information that Kiefer knows about Derricor, obviously now, for Vera, she knows Derricor
19:17is the mole.
19:18He is a double agent.
19:19He's the reason that all of her agents, or a lot of them, ended up in concentration camps.
19:25He's the reason that they were murdered.
19:28And the anger that must have pulsed through her at that point.
19:31This isn't a sinking feeling anymore.
19:33This is something that she needs justice for.
19:38Now, Vera has a star witness who can testify against, and hopefully convict, Henri Derricor.
19:55It is a very memorable scene.
19:56June, 1948.
20:02Henri Derricor is brought to trial in Paris.
20:10here is vera's chance for justice vera had spent the last few years building up her case against
20:19henry derrick i mean she had everything now she was a civilian obviously she wasn't leading the
20:24prosecution so she couldn't determine what evidence they were going to use in court against
20:29him but she had so much she had like affidavits from actual nazi war criminals who named him
20:35she had all of the evidence that she'd gathered from her own agents she had all the evidence
20:41from the french resistance henry derrick or was at the center of this web of lies and she could prove
20:48it it was all right there she must have felt so confident when they entered the courtroom
20:54but it is soon clear it may not be as easy as vera hopes
21:02it's now been over a year since vera interrogated hans kiefer she is told that in june 1947 kiefer was
21:12convicted of the murder of five sas men and executed before he can give evidence at the derrick or trial
21:24hans kiefer would have known more than anybody else about every single agent who was arrested when
21:29and how and the radio game and also what informers he was using so one might think that his evidence
21:37would have been or a statement at least would have been crucial to the eventual trial of henry derrick
21:43as a traitor i mean there's a potential conspiracy theory around the fact that he was deliberately
21:52executed so that he couldn't reveal the full extent of the soe failings and disastrous infiltrations
22:02next vera discovers the statement which she extracted from kiefer is not going to be put before the court
22:10finally no former soe officers will appear in court to give evidence
22:20but on the final day one former officer does make the trip to paris
22:28none other than nicholas boddington
22:37could boddington be the man to help get derrick or convicted
22:50boddington gives evidence but instead of giving evidence against derrick or
22:55boddington testifies that derrick or contact with the nazis was fully authorized for counter espionage
23:03purposes
23:09henry derrick or is found not to be a traitor instead partially thanks to boddington's testimony
23:17he is acquitted derrick or is a free man vera has to face the possibility that her women agents
23:28were compromised so that derrick or could supply intelligence to london about the nazis
23:34put yourself in vera's boots she's been trying to prosecute henry derrick or for years and here
23:40it's almost like a farcical trial and not only does the prosecution not really try and pin him down
23:46and brings virtually no witnesses but the defense they bring boddington like this is a man that vera's
23:53worked with and he knows what she's been doing he knows that she's desperately been trying to bring
23:59justice to all the women who some of them were tortured to death and she feels responsible for
24:06that because she's the person who sent them out there how could you nick vera how could you support
24:13that traitor testify for him after everything he did to my agents our agents vera you're a liar
24:22everything i said was true you're a liar vera derrick or's contact with the sd was authorized
24:30i sent my girls to war with no protection under the geneva convention if they were made as spies they
24:37faced certain death you sent them to their deaths you sent a widow with a young daughter to france
24:46that child is now an orphan you pulled nor out of training early because you needed a wireless
24:52operator you volunteered for this job begged buck master to play with the big boys
24:58don't forget that i don't know you nick you never did
25:07it appears that the men at the top of the british establishment
25:11want the true story of the women spies to be lost permanently
25:20but others are now interested in what happened to vera's spies
25:26in the early 1950s writer jean overton fuller begins researching a series of books about the soe
25:36jean wants to find out what happened to her friend nor inayat khan who disappeared during the war
25:43after telling jean she was going away
25:49despite being warned off by establishment figures fuller interviews former members of the soe and one man in
26:12her work results in three books about the soe with the last called double webs published in 1958
26:23the book makes the controversial claim that nor and other agents are sent by the soe into the hands
26:32of henry derikour with the full knowledge that derikour is a double agent working with the nazis
26:44the book makes headlines delivery for mrs ward several mps receive letters from the families of lost women's spies
26:53wanting to know the whole truth about their daughters
27:03one mp is conservative member for tyneside irene ward
27:11irene through the home office requests an interview with someone who knows what happened
27:17the home office sends vera
27:32overton fuller writes and i quote i have read the book mrs ward
27:43it's a shame really that accuracy appears to be secondary concern i find these things of such importance
27:59you're disputing that henry derikour was a double agent
28:03perhaps you could ask him yourself i'm sure miss overton fuller could direct you to him
28:13miss atkins
28:16what concerns me is that the soe that your superiors that you
28:23were sending women to fight in the full knowledge they had no chance to survive
28:28mrs ward what did you do during the war i served my constituents
28:44atkins
28:46your mother's name i believe
28:50your father's name rose
28:55rosenberg if i'm not mistaken
28:59and you're from romania originally
29:04how did a young romanian girl like yourself
29:07and i'm so sorry mrs ward but i have another meeting
29:15good day miss atkins
29:18see yourself out please
29:20good day
29:24after the meeting irene ward digs into vera's personal history
29:29who she is where she comes from and what she really did at soe
29:40irene ward's digging threatens to reveal the story of the lost women spies
29:46the security establishment goes into damage control
29:52an academic called mr d foot at the university of oxford
29:57is engaged to produce an official history
30:00of the soe
30:03mr d foot is excess as he also was captured in the war and you've put in a
30:10prisoner of war camp
30:11in france so he has all of this direct experience within the war but he's also
30:15a historian so he's got that authority as well he understands how to write
30:19about history and he understands that there are still some secrets that must
30:24stay secret
30:27his exhaustive work concludes that
30:29to the question of why people with so little training were sent to do such important work
30:36the only reply is the work had to be done and there was nobody else to send
30:51professor food before the book is published vera speaks to foot and persuades him to omit
30:59her romanian background from his history of soe
31:05so why does vera hide who she really is because vera is forced to cover up not just her public
31:14story
31:14and the lost women's spies but also the private story of her family's life
31:29so
31:32miss atkins i would like three copies of this please one for the war it was a closely guarded secret
31:38at soe that vera was born in romania rather than the uk
31:46but that wasn't vera's only secret
31:59vera was not born vera atkins
32:03but vera rosenberg
32:07vera is one of three children of max and hilda rosenberg who are both german jews
32:15just before the first world war max purchases an estate and wood mill in bucovina a region that
32:23will become part of romania
32:28but after vera's father dies in 1932 and with anti-semitism in europe on the rise vera and her
32:36two brothers move to the united kingdom
32:41the united kingdom where they take their english mother's surname of atkins
32:48vera leaves behind in romania an extended family
32:53as the nazis take hold of europe the family who stay are in mortal danger
33:01the terror that people live with cannot be underestimated even if they weren't actually
33:07at direct risk of being moved to concentration camps this isn't just my family this isn't just my
33:13aunt and my dad and my direct family this is everybody with jewish family who were living in
33:19the uk and england at the time were terrified about what was going to happen to their relatives and i
33:24think everybody wanted to do whatever they could to help
33:30according to a family story vera's family in the uk
33:34raise a large amount of money to help their european relatives
33:40my dad my uncle and vera were very keen to provide any help they could so
33:45they obviously found money and they found resources but it was very clear that by this
33:50point to get money to get resources to get a logistical plan you probably needed to go you
33:55needed to leave england you needed to get on a boat and you needed to go and practically help
34:02vera travels to antwerp belgium in 1940 just as the nazis are about to invade
34:17during the war people would often store their wealth in something that could be more easily hidden and
34:41for hundreds of years antwerp has been the center of the diamond trade in europe vera is believed to
34:52to have converted the money from the uk into diamonds for the family in romania
35:01but who are the relatives facing nazi persecution that vera wants to save
35:16fritz rosenberg is vera's cousin vera's relatives in the 1940s face disaster
35:30the region has been occupied by hungary an ally of nazi germany
35:40under new anti-jewish laws fritz and his wife karen lose their passports
35:47they may even be deported to concentration camps
35:53but without a passport they are unable to escape to another country
36:00this rise in anti-semitism in the law is reflected in the population they wouldn't be able to trust their
36:07neighbors they wouldn't be able to trust that at any point they might be snatched away in the middle of
36:12the night they could be put on a train and taken to god knows where i mean it must have
36:16been absolutely
36:16terrifying for them karen rosenberg contacts a german family friend
36:25someone who has good contacts with the abwehr german military intelligence
36:36karen is able to obtain aryan passports issued by the nazi government for her and fritz
36:45the rosenbergs pay the abwehr a large sum about 150 000 pounds in today's money to get the prized passports
36:57money that could be the diamonds that vera sources in antwerp karen and fritz are able to leave romania
37:07they are free but it's a freedom that comes at a personal cost
37:20fritz and karen relocate to the safety of istanbul
37:26where vera's brother ralph rosenberg lives
37:32the reason they go to istanbul is because of a condition set by the abwehr
37:42is not only working for an oil company in istanbul but also supplying mi6 with local intelligence
37:56the abwehr want karen to give them valuable information about ralph and mi6
38:10the
38:11vera had almost certainly gone to antwerp to raise the money for fritz and karen's passports
38:18the very passports that allow the abwehr to get close to an mi6 agent
38:25vera has paid the bribe she's possibly met german intelligence officers face to face
38:32karen herself has had contact with german intelligence officer who's asked her to work for the germans
38:41it's beginning to look really suspicious anyone looking at this situation it's going to start
38:48throwing suspicion on vera and on the rosenbergs are they loyal what's going on here it's opening a pandora's box
38:59had it been known by the soe that vera had handed over money to get aryan passports from the abwehr
39:06it would have put vera under serious suspicion of being a double agent
39:15instead vera keeps her family story a closely guarded secret
39:21and when the british security services publish mrd foot's history of the soe vera has all mention of
39:30her romanian family roots erased
39:34but despite the security services best attempts to cover up the story of the lost women spies
39:42it's a story that just won't go away
39:49after creating controversy with her book double webs gene overton fuller starts researching a new book
39:57this time about henry derikor's relationship not with the nazis but with mi6 the book is called the
40:07checkered spy and it claims derikor wasn't just a double agent but that he was spying on the soe on
40:17the
40:17orders of mi6 derikor was mi6's mole at the heart of the soe monitoring everything
40:27they were doing as mi6 believed that the soe were incompetent
40:35the suggestion is that members of the british security services knew that the women vera trained
40:42like nor inayat khan
40:48like violette sabo
40:51like odette sansum were being sent into the hands of a known double agent
41:00but henry derikor never sees the day that the book is published
41:05the book is published
41:32so bad it is that
41:34Boddington?
41:36Yes?
41:38It's Buckmaster.
41:40Good grief.
41:43Been a while.
41:44How are you?
41:47Good.
41:48Thanks, Bucks. You?
41:51Seeing the news.
41:54Derek Hawes disappeared in the Far East.
41:57The plane he was flying carrying a cargo load of gold.
42:01I think the cause of the crash was fuel starvation.
42:07No. No, I haven't seen it.
42:10What does that mean?
42:15Any survivors?
42:17No.
42:18And they can't find Derek Hawes' body.
42:24Wasn't Vera close to that man from the SAS?
42:28The sort of thing they're good at.
42:30Giving people a helping hand into the grave.
42:35I, uh, I wouldn't know.
42:38Vera and I don't speak.
42:42I think she works for the UN now.
42:45Well, if you hear anything.
42:51All that Derek Hawes' business was very unfortunate for everyone.
43:03It's best that he's gone.
43:06Dead men don't talk.
43:14Vera Atkins retires to the south coast of Britain, moving to Winchelsea.
43:20She has a steady but discreet stream of visitors, including Tanya Szabo, the daughter of agent Violette Szabo.
43:42I received the George Cross for Mother.
43:50Odette Samson was the first ever woman to receive that.
43:58The French also gave Mother the quadriguer.
44:03That was good of them.
44:09And Noor received both medals too.
44:15There's a memorial now at Dachau.
44:24And now you received your CBE.
44:28Finally.
44:29They took their time, didn't they?
44:33Are you looking forward to the ceremony?
44:39We'll see, won't we?
44:47I'll leave this here.
44:56I always drove them down to the aerodromes.
45:00It always seemed to be a summer's day.
45:05I saw them off.
45:08When the war ended, and when they didn't come back, I went looking for them all.
45:16Missing, presumed dead.
45:21Is such a terrible epitaph for anyone.
45:29Can't believe my time has finally come.
45:32Been such a whirlwind.
45:36And yet the adventure's just about to start.
45:40Remember what they've taught you, Noor.
45:44Yes, Miss Atkins.
45:50There.
45:51You're clean.
45:56You're so smart, Miss Atkins.
45:59You always wear the nicest things.
46:04Here.
46:06It's yours.
46:10May it bring you luck.
46:18Thank you, Miss Atkins.
46:20Thank you, Miss Atkins.
46:21Are you ready?
46:25Yes, Miss Atkins.
46:27Very good.
46:45It feels very good.
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