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The Lost Women Spies S01E05 (2025) [Full Movie] [Full Episodes]Full EP - Full
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00:08World War II is over.
00:14The Allies have occupied Germany.
00:19But British women agents remain lost across Europe.
00:24Fire!
00:30Spymaster Vera Atkins now has a permanent position with the British Air Force
00:35to find her lost women spies.
00:39And she enlists the help of a crack team of SAS Nazi hunters,
00:44led by Major Bill Barkworth.
00:50Barkworth reports about a hidden concentration camp in eastern France,
00:55designed to make secret agents disappear without a trace.
01:02And the possibility that some of Vera's lost women spies may have died there.
01:11As Vera gathers evidence for the trials of leading Nazis,
01:15the horrors she is uncovering are too much for the authorities back in London.
01:22Vera receives a clear order.
01:24I need you to keep this disgusting business out of the newspapers.
01:29The true stories of all her lost women spies must be kept covered up.
01:35At all costs.
01:46The 11th of March, 1946.
01:51Nearly nine months since the end of the war in Europe.
01:59Vera is based at the British War Crimes Office in Germany,
02:04where her promotion allows her to travel the country to hunt for her lost women spies.
02:14Two names stand out.
02:30Vera is sent by Major Barkworth an interrogation report of prison crematorium worker France Berg.
02:45Berg claims Noor was killed along with three other women spies at the Natsweiler camp in July 1944.
02:55But a warder at Karlsruhe prison, Fräulein Becker,
03:00says she remembers Noor being in Karlsruhe many months later.
03:04Vera already has an eyewitness testimony from Natsweiler saying that Noor is dead.
03:12And now she has another eyewitness testimony saying,
03:14no, that is not true.
03:18Noor could still be alive.
03:23The other name is Violette Sabo.
03:28Violette left her one-year-old child behind to take up arms,
03:33a child whose father had already given his life in the war effort.
03:39Nazis won't know what hit them.
03:41Very good.
03:44Violette Sabo's situation is particularly sad because she lost her husband,
03:50who never actually met their daughter, gave birth to a child.
03:54And she left her child back with her family in the UK and parachuted into France.
04:01So determined was she to keep fighting against the Nazis.
04:06Violette was last heard of at the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück,
04:12a camp from where Vera's agents Odette Sansom and Yvonne Bazden have both returned.
04:21So is Violette also alive?
04:27Vera never gives up hope.
04:29There's always this little sliver of hope that some of them would be alive.
04:33They may be in a terrible condition, but they are alive.
04:36Or they would have escaped and they will show up.
04:41So she keeps this hope in her when she goes, but she is prepared for the worst.
04:46And as she is uncovering these stories, Vera is getting hardened.
04:51The torture she's hearing about, it is hardening her.
04:57We have arrested an SS lieutenants from a camp north of Berlin.
05:03Which camp?
05:05Ravensbrück.
05:15Ravensbrück is Violette Sabo's camp.
05:20Is this the stroke of luck that Vera badly needs?
05:39SS lieutenant Johann Schwarzhuber was second in command at Ravensbrück.
05:49Schwarzhuber is a very important person for Vera to be able to interview
05:54because he holds absolutely crucial information
05:57about three of the women that she is looking for
06:01that she has since found out were taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp.
06:05The
06:06the
06:06of
06:07the
06:18the
06:20the
06:20of
06:34the
06:42this one
06:46she had the name Violet
06:53and
06:55what happened to her
06:59all three
07:00were taken to the crematorium building of the camp
07:05and one by one
07:07they were shot
07:15how do you know
07:21I watched
07:35Vera now has testimony
07:37that along with Violet
07:39Lillian Rolfe
07:40and Denise Block
07:41were executed
07:43at the Ravensbrück concentration camp
07:45north of Berlin
07:49Vera must have been absolutely shocked
07:51to hear this information
07:53she would have clung on to any last thread of hope
07:56that the women had survived the camp
07:58as she heard of these women
07:59who she'd been so affectionate for
08:01who she had really travelled across Europe
08:04and in dreadful conditions
08:06trying to find out what had happened to them
08:08and finally
08:09she has the evidence
08:10that these three women were murdered
08:21Vera personally writes letters
08:23for the bereaved families
08:25each one detailing her search for these spies
08:28missing
08:29presumed dead
08:32Vera would have felt shocked and upset
08:35but to some extent
08:36I think she might have also felt relief
08:38she had closure on this story
08:42and although it wasn't the end
08:43she would have wanted or hoped for
08:45she was finally able to tell the families
08:48of these three women
08:49what had happened to them
08:50and they were able to finally understand
08:53what their daughters, wives, children
08:55had gone through
08:56and what they had sacrificed for their country
09:06Each letter has to be assessed by her superiors
09:10to make sure Vera doesn't give away
09:12any incriminating evidence
09:16Vera is in a very difficult position
09:19because the fact that there were women agents
09:22is not yet common knowledge
09:23they want to keep it out of the public eye
09:25because it's a very difficult thing
09:27to try and explain to families
09:29and acquaintances and loved ones
09:31that actually your daughter was sent
09:33into harm's way
09:35without protection
09:36without the protection of the Geneva Convention
09:38or the Hague Convention
09:39without the protection of the British government effectively
09:42they were meant to be completely deniable
09:44if they were captured or caught
09:46or indeed killed
09:52But there remain other spies
09:54who are unaccounted for
09:56like Noor Inayat Khan
09:59who, with two other agents
10:01was last seen at the Natzweiler camp
10:03in the mountains of eastern France
10:08In a few months
10:09the Natzweiler war crimes trial
10:11will start
10:12and Vera has been instructed
10:14to gather as much evidence
10:16as she can
10:17but she can't do it alone
10:24In the spring of 1946
10:26Vera travels to Garganau
10:29a small town near Karlsruhe
10:43It's here she visits
10:44Major Bill Barkworth
10:46at a property his SAS unit
10:48have commandeered
10:49called the Villa Daigler
10:52Vera Atkins
10:54Good to finally meet you
10:56And you, sir
10:57Yes
11:01Barkworth has offered Vera the chance
11:03to get a witness statement
11:05from a former Natzweiler prisoner
11:08A man who worked
11:10as a crematorium stoker
11:12and is currently held captive
11:14in the cellars of the villa
11:15along with other prisoners
11:17rounded up
11:17by Barkworth's Nazi hunter unit
11:20His name
11:21is Franz Berg
11:24Berg's testimony
11:25is key
11:26to whether Vera
11:27can get a conviction
11:28against those
11:30who ran the camp
11:30and may have murdered
11:32her women agents
11:40The next women
11:41to be killed
11:41by injection
11:48Rather than gassing
11:49were
11:50two English
11:51and two French women
12:04They were brought
12:06to the cells
12:06in the crematorium building
12:07one afternoon
12:09in July 1944
12:25We
12:26Me
12:27and the other prisoners
12:30could see through
12:31the fan light
12:32without standing up
12:38We heard
12:39low voices
12:42We heard
12:43noises
12:44of
12:44every breathing
12:46and low groaning
12:49Next
12:50two women
12:51We heard
12:52the same noises
12:53and
12:54regular groans
12:56but the fourth
12:58She resisted
13:00in the corridor
13:03I heard her say
13:05Why?
13:12the other
13:15the
13:16I don't know.
13:49I don't know.
14:29I don't know.
14:44I don't know.
14:57I don't know.
15:18So Vera tries to find documents that show which of her agents were murdered at Natzweiler.
15:26Four of her agents were sent there from Karlsruhe prison.
15:31Surely, Fräulein Becker, at Karlsruhe, would have kept records.
15:39I need to see your records.
15:41Now, please.
15:42We don't have any.
15:44I can't imagine that.
15:47The French.
15:49When they came, they destroyed everything.
15:51Smashed it all up.
15:56All gone.
15:59Fräulein Becker tells Vera that all the prison documents were destroyed by the French.
16:05Now, that reeks of a lie.
16:07Vera must have known she was lying.
16:08Because why would the French go to a German prison and just randomly destroy all the records?
16:16But she's nowhere for finding out unless Fräulein Becker tells her the truth.
16:20And how is she going to get her to do that?
16:25Vera chooses to visit Becker again.
16:29This time, with the S.A.S.
16:41At Karlsruhe prison, Barkworth and Vera confront Fräulein Becker.
16:47Where are they?
16:50Where are what?
16:51The records!
16:52I don't know.
16:54I know you know.
16:55Where are they?
16:56I don't know!
16:59Search of it!
17:00All of it!
17:04You said the French destroyed everything.
17:06They did.
17:06Why would they do that?
17:07I don't know!
17:09Because you lie!
17:12Mom!
17:15What do we have here, huh?
17:16I don't know.
17:21The records.
17:22You lie.
17:26You lie.
17:26Liar!
17:27Liar!
17:28You lie.
17:32No!
17:44Vera and Barkworth go through the prison records.
17:49Every entry and exit from the prison is marked.
17:55Vera finds entries that on the 6th of July 1944, four women agents are transferred from
18:02the prison at Karlsruhe to the concentration camp at Natsweiler.
18:10This corroborates what Berg told Vera about four agents who were killed at Natsweiler.
18:23Vera now has clear evidence that four women agents were murdered.
18:29The names are Andre Borrell, Vera Lee, Diana Roden, and Sonja Olszunewski.
18:42The fourth name, Sonja Olszunewski, is unknown to Vera.
18:49Vera expected to see Noor's name or alias.
18:55Witnesses had identified Noor as travelling with this group to Natsweiler.
19:01Noor was born in Moscow, so a Russian-sounding alias could make sense.
19:09For Vera, Sonja Olszunewski's entry, taken with other evidence, is actually for Noor in Ayat Khan.
19:19Vera has written evidence that four SOE women, including Noor in Ayat Khan, are transported
19:26from Karlsruhe to Natsweiler, and most likely killed there.
19:32She can now take the evidence to trial.
19:40The 29th of May 1946.
19:44The Natsweiler war crimes trial begins in Vorpital, in the west of Germany.
19:51The Natsweiler trial would have been so important to Vera, and it was her other chance to get
19:56information about the women so she could provide that to the families and their close ones,
20:01but also to bring these men to justice.
20:06This was the most brutal execution, murder, in fact, of these women.
20:12It didn't need to be done in such a horrific manner, if at all.
20:17This will be a British-led trial, with Nazis tried on German soil, but under international law.
20:25A trial about one of the Nazis' specially hidden concentration camps in the mountains of France.
20:34Natsweiler isn't particularly well known, but it was in microcosm, the system of the concentration
20:40camps set up in Germany, and in this case in France. It was a camp of 22,000 deaths, around
20:4755,000 people
20:48went through Natsweiler, so relatively small compared to some of the other concentration camps in the
20:53Reich. But nevertheless, a system of tremendous brutality, slave labor, medical experimentation,
21:00oppression, violence, the capo system, a terrible, terrible place.
21:08But before the trial starts, Vera receives a blunt instruction from her new boss, Norman Mott.
21:18Vera, everything, and I mean everything, has been done in London to keep this disgusting business
21:26out of the newspapers. I need you to ensure that the press's interest is discouraged.
21:33And to our reputations, any good?
21:37I understand.
21:42I suggest you start by getting the names of the dead, withheld from the trial.
21:51Their families won't like it, Norman. They want to know what happened.
22:00Too bad. It's a disgusting business, which is best buried.
22:09Have you got a match?
22:13No.
22:15Yeah. Jim.
22:24The Natsweiler trial would have been a troubling time for Vera, not only because of hearing the
22:30dreadful incidences and details of what had happened, but also that SOE was still a secretive organization.
22:36People were not aware that women had been sent into the fields in violation of the Geneva Convention.
22:46And she probably worried not only if their names got out into the press what had happened to them,
22:51but there was questions to be start to raise about who had sent them, why had they sent them,
22:56why had this been allowed to happen.
23:01After four days of hearings, the verdicts are delivered to the accused.
23:15Peter Straub had been to be detained.
23:16Peter Straub, the medical officer who injected the women, is given a death sentence.
23:28Peter Straub, SS officer in charge of the executions, is given 13 years in prison.
23:36Later that year, he is given a death sentence.
23:41fritz hardenstein the commandant of nazweiler is imprisoned for life the verdict of the nazweiler
23:50trial was that the three men who were on trial for the murder of these soe women were all found
23:56guilty so in some respects that's a very positive outcome she had proved that this murder was
24:02unlawful this execution as they called it but then the sentences may have been a bittersweet moment
24:09did vera want an eye for an eye at this point did she want to see these men suffer and
24:13pay the
24:14ultimate price or was she just happy to have received the guilty verdict she was a very
24:19straightforward woman and i think she would have been just pleased to have seen these men go down
24:25for what they've done vera secures the agreement of the court that the names of the dead will be
24:33withheld from publication thanks to vera's work the trial fails to create motts much feared newspaper
24:42sensation vera's role in the affair remains out of the public eye for now
24:57vera turns her attention to her final three women spies from carlsruher who are unaccounted for
25:06yolande beekman elliane pluman and madeleine damermont
25:16vera comes across an interrogation statement taken by american investigators of gestapo soldiers
25:23stationed in the town of carlsruher
25:34one soldier max vasma recalls transporting women prisoners from carlsruher to dachau concentration camp
25:46the ranks of three of the women match those of vera's unaccounted agents
25:52and vasma's detailed description of one woman matches madeline damermont
26:03at dachau vasma reportedly tells his colleagues that he pronounced the death sentence on the women
26:12and that they were then killed
26:16but can vera be sure
26:20other gestapo soldiers claim there were four women not three like vasma says they also claim that one
26:28of the women came from a completely different prison called pforzheim not carlsruher as vasma states
26:36one of the problems that vera has and indeed all of the people involved in the war crimes trials have
26:42is the veracity of the witnesses because when she got testimony or drawings or um verification from
26:50her own side her own agents or people who were also in the camps and said they saw
26:55three women or four women who came into the camp she can believe them they may not remember everything
27:01but at least she knows that they're being honest but when you're relying on the testimony of an ss
27:07officer or a capo who's worked in the camp they're also self-interested they also want to exonerate
27:13themselves and so it's very difficult often to know if they're telling the truth and so even though
27:18she gets the vasma testimony and she thinks she's got some solid information about what's happened to
27:24her final three agents she can't really be sure particularly when then she gets contradictory evidence
27:29can vera trust vasma's testimony in the report vera has to find vasma and interrogate him herself
27:44august 1946
27:49after months of searching vera tracks vasma down to internment camp number 74 in ludwigsberg germany
28:01vera is the only one who knows all three soe agents she knows them intimately and max vasma says
28:09that he thinks he's identified them now this is a huge big deal because vera can actually
28:13get the man in front of her and determine whether these women were different women or were her
28:20agents and you know being there and able to speak to somebody about it where you know you know if
28:25you show somebody a photograph you know whether they go that's definitely the person or i think that's
28:29the person and it's all to do with intonation it's all to do with being in the same room as
28:33someone
28:33so for vera being in the same room as max vasma is really important so that she can interrogate him
28:41your name is max vasma correct yes
28:49and you transported women from carlsvira prison to dachau correct
29:11yes
29:15and then you watched as they were shot correct
29:21no
29:23i handed them over to the guards
29:26this report clearly states that witnesses saw you take the women to be shot
29:34well i was there yes
29:37i wasn't present at the end
29:42the guards took the women in not me
29:46we just we just did transport
29:52and how did others know that four women were killed
29:58three report says four women
30:02it was three
30:05how can you be so sure
30:07because they gave me a receipt
30:12a what
30:16the next day the guards gave me a receipt for three women spies shot dead
30:23we needed it for bookkeeping back at carl's ruler
30:32shall i describe them for you
30:39three women
30:41vasma provides descriptions of three women transferred from karlsruhe to dachau that match vera's records of three
30:49soe women vera has sufficient proof that her soe agents yolande beekman elian pluman
30:59and madeline d'armermoor are killed at dachau
31:05vera after interviewing max vasma now has everybody accounted for she knows exactly where all of her agents ended up
31:14and
31:14there must have been a sort of wonderful sense of completion but also this sort of tragic
31:18pang of knowing that there's nobody left to be saved and just the horrific nature of their deaths it must
31:26have been absolutely awful
31:34vera now believes she has sufficient evidence to account for every one of her lost women spies
31:42alive or dead
31:46she writes up a report for london closing the case
31:52of the 39 women vera sent to war 27 returned alive many after sustained torture
32:0712 12 lose their lives at the hands of the nazis
32:17she encloses draft letters to be sent to the women's next of kin
32:22details of their names to be completed in london
32:28it is with the deepest regret that i have to inform you that your daughter was killed in the early
32:34hours of the 13th of september 1944 in the camp of dachau according to what is believed to be a
32:42reliable
32:43report she was shot through the back of the head and death was immediate
32:49the body was cremated in the camp crematorium
32:53vera does succeed in discovering the fate of the 12 missing women agents
32:59and in that sense there is closure for her she has succeeded in discovering what's happened to all of
33:07them but also it means that she can write to the families and personally tell them what's happened
33:14and she carries that for the rest of her life what you find later in life is some of the
33:21children
33:22of the agents who died in action actually seek her out they travel from across the world
33:27because she's the one tangible physical link with those agents and so she assumes a really important role
33:36not only immediately after investigations but for the rest of her life
33:43she's the one that carries their memory
33:49vera has finally uncovered the fate of her missing women and prepares to leave germany
34:00with this part of her mission over vera will return to england
34:13now she must answer the hardest question
34:19how did it all go so wrong
34:33vera must now uncover why so many of her agents were captured and how the nazi intelligence service
34:41seemed to infiltrate soe's agent networks so successfully when vera returns to england
34:49there's a niggling doubt in her mind that perhaps they have been betrayed she has been betrayed perhaps
34:57there was a spy within the soe perhaps there was somebody betraying them all all along
35:06and the most terrifying fear starts to take hold of her that somebody very close to her
35:11somebody who she has to have worked with at soe itself might have actually betrayed her and she
35:18she has to start thinking did i send these agents out to their deaths were they're being
35:24parachuted to or flown to the waiting arms of treachery
35:31the man who is key to this is the head of nazi security in france hans kiefer who is hiding
35:38somewhere in germany
35:42find kiefer and you find the traitor
35:58vera passes a tip to her friend sas major bill barkworth that kiefer might be hiding in his hometown of
36:05garmisch in bavaria with kiefer on the run vera turns to another leading nazi to try and uncover
36:18how the germans captured her women agents
36:24he is the man who masterminded the nazi radio operation in northern france
36:32dr joseph goertz
36:40goertz worked as one of kiefer's lead counter-intelligence officers
36:46dr goertz works in avenue foch in the sicherheitsdienst headquarters in paris and he's an underling of
36:54ss stroman for kiefer from the sicherheitsdienst and his job is effectively to engage in counter espionage
37:03to collect the evidence letters documents from enemy agents and keep them analyze them and then
37:10give that information forward back to kiefer and inform him about what the agents are up to
37:16there is one thing goertz is especially good at which is fooling the british with fake radio transmissions
37:28and that's what's going to happen to us and that's what's going to happen to us and that's what's going
37:28to happen
37:28london was oblivious that agents had been captured
37:33and that gertz was using information tortured out of them to trick soe into revealing intelligence
37:40about the agents circuits it's basically a game that they were playing with the british by sending them
37:48false messages through their own wireless transmitters so when you'd capture an agent it'd be
37:53taken back to avenue foch and they had been interrogated and their actual transmitter was
37:58kept so that that meant that when they gave them the right codes they could then give false messages
38:05back to london and get them to do all sorts of things that they wanted to make them think their
38:10agents were still okay and hadn't been detained or indeed give them false messages about what was
38:15happening in the war that would get passed up the chain to winston churchill and affect the war
38:21gertz is one of thousands of suspected war criminals arrested after the war but when it is discovered
38:29that he is the radio mastermind at avenue foch he is sent to england for further interrogation
38:39that's what we call it the radio game and london was very bad at it
38:48we would impersonate one of your agents ask questions and london would give us the answer
38:56with a little slap on the wrist please use your security code next time
39:11london was a joke
39:14when the agents we captured knew how much we knew already well they simply gave up
39:24what did you do once the agents were caught
39:31we interrogated them for more personal information
39:39more kiefer told your agents that we knew all their secrets already and if they wanted to live
39:49well they'd have to collaborate with him
39:56how did kiefer know so much personal information was never shared by radio
40:02no not by radio
40:08the only personal information was sent by mail
40:21gertz reveals that kiefer somehow gets access to personal letters that vera's agents send from france
40:29back home to england
40:37uncoded letters full of private information
40:44vera discovers that kiefer has actually had access to
40:48all of the mail from the agents so they didn't have a chance when the agents are dropped into france
40:55the germans know exactly who's coming and when and that realization that the germans were reading all the
41:02agents mail must have been such a shocking revelation to vera and then it leads to the next question
41:10who had betrayed them
41:17how did kiefer get to the mail
41:21kiefer told me that he got it from gilbert
41:39yes
41:39yes
41:40i believe that's him
42:01the man soe had trusted with the safety of their agents appears to be a traitor
42:09derekor had already been recalled to london by buckmaster and boddington
42:14after allegations of collaborating with the nazis
42:19derekor pleaded his innocence and after an investigation
42:24don't worry derekor we'll clear this whole sorry business up
42:28thanks sir
42:29he is cleared
42:32vera is put in a position where she either believes a nazi or a possible double agent
42:39henry derekor is in the heart of the soe he is one of their own this is a a man
42:45that she hands
42:46over her agents to how could she possibly believe that he could be a double agent he was cleared i
42:51mean
42:51surely everybody knows him but how did the nazis know so much how is it possible and here is gertz
43:00saying well you know this i'm telling you the truth and it must have been such a worm in her
43:07mind
43:07was derekor a spy a double agent so who is telling the truth derekor or gertz
43:19one of the problems with trying to tease out a spy is that you have to trust people that you
43:25don't
43:25trust and in this case she's talking to people like dr gertz from the sd and it's in his vested
43:32interest and has been for years to play cat and mouse games with the soe and with people like vera
43:39and so she has to decide well can i trust somebody like dr gertz so these doubts are also in
43:46her mind
43:47what does she really know
43:54the only way for vera to be sure is to find the mastermind for all nazi intelligence in northern
44:01france hans kieffer a man who is on the run hiding somewhere in germany
44:21the mastermind for all of vera's work comes into question when she receives a letter forwarded by her
44:27superior norman mott
44:31the letter is written by yolande lagrav a member of the french resistance
44:39La Grave writes that in June 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo and transferred to
44:47Pforzheim Prison.
44:53I was able to correspond with an English parachutist who was locked up there also.
44:59She was very unhappy.
45:02Her hands and feet were chained and she was never allowed out.
45:07I heard the blows which she received from the prison guards.
45:10She was taken away from Pforzheim in September 1944.
45:16Before she left, she had been able to send me not her name because it was too dangerous
45:21but her alias and she also wrote down her address for me.
45:24It was this, Nora Baker, Radio Centre Officers Service RAF, 4 Taveston Street, London.
45:34I kept the address on a piece of paper sewn into my hand.
45:39Noor Inayat Khan had been recruited as a wireless operator from the WAF, the women's division
45:46of the RAF.
45:484 Taveston Street, London had once been her family's home and Nora Baker had once been her
46:08alias.
46:10Vera believes the prisoner La Grave writes about is Noor.
46:15And if Noor had been held at Pforzheim until September 1944, then there is no way she could
46:23have been one of the four women killed at Natsweiler in July 1944.
46:29When Vera learns about Noor's fate and the fact that she's gone to Pforzheim, it's such
46:34a mix of emotions because here she thought, she's written to the family, that Noor has
46:39been killed in Natsweiler.
46:40She has internalised that now, dealt with that, thought there's been some closure and
46:45now this has opened up something else.
46:47Could Noor be alive?
46:49Did she manage to get out?
46:50What happened to her?
46:51So she is in a space where now she has to find out the final journey.
46:56She has to find out if she escaped, there is a sliver of hope, but also what could have
47:00happened to Noor.
47:02So what did happen to Noor?
47:06If she wasn't killed at Natsweiler, could Noor still be alive?
47:11Vera has to uncover the truth.
47:27We'll see you then.
47:38We could see...
47:54I want to find out if we can...
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