Yolande Beekman

Yolande Beekman (1911-1944) was, during the Second world war, a French agent of the British secret service Special Operations Executive. Sent in France as radio operator operator of network MUSICIAN of Gustave (known as “Guy”) Biéler with for name of war “ Mariette ”, it was stopped by the Germans, was tortured, off-set and finally carried out in Dachau.

Genealogy

His/her mother: Berthe Lydie Unternahrer, Mill Hill, Middlesex.

His/her husband: Jaap Beekman, sergeant in the army Dutchwoman

Biography

Youth

1911 . - (October 28th or November 7th?) Birth in Paris of Yolande Elsa Maria Unternahrer in a middle-class family.

Child, Beekman goes to London.

It grows in the familiarity of the languages English, German and French.

War

1941 . - It joined the Women' S Auxiliary Air Force (2004266 ACW), where it east follows the training of radio operator operator.

Because of its linguistic talents and its radio expertise, it is recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to be sent in occupied France.

1943 .

* February 15th. It joined the SOE.

*Août. She marries the Sergeant Jaap Beekman of the army Dutchwoman.

*Mais little time afterwards, it says goodbye to his/her husband, because it is sent in France behind the enemy lines.

In France, Yolande Beekman is the radio operator operator of the Canadian “Guy” Biéler, the chief of network MUSICIAN to Saint-Quentin, Aisne. With the name of war “ Mariette ” and the identity of cover Yvonne Marie Yolande Chauvigny, it becomes an agent effective and estimated which, in addition to the radio messages of very high importance which it transmits to London, deals with the distribution of the materials parachuted by the allied planes.

1944

* January 13rd. - It and Gustave (known as “Guy”) Biéler are stopped with the Coffee Mill Flaring. At the general headquarter of Gestapo of Saint-Quentin, he are tortured in a repeated way, but do not yield. Separated from Biéler, which will be carried out later, Yolande is transferred to the prison from Fresnes in the south from Paris, where it continues to be questioned and tortured regularly.

*Mai. - With several other captured agents SOE, it is sent in Germany in the civil prison for women of Karlsruhe. It is confined there under appalling conditions.

* September 11th. It is abruptly transferred to the concentration camp from Dachau with agents friends, Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan and Eliane Plewman.

* September 13rd. - They are carried out at dawn.

Recognition

Distinctions

At the end of the war, the heroic actions of Yolande Beekman are recognized by the French government, which decrees to him the Military Cross on a purely posthumous basis.

Monuments

It is recorded with the Memorial of Runnymede, Surrey, England, panel 243
It is honoured with the Memorial with Valençay, Indre, France, as being one of the 104 agents of the Section F of the SOE died for France.

Military situation

Unit: SOE section F, section officer

Rank: section officer (9902).

Previously: WAAF.

Sources

Article wikipédia of English language

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