Vera Atkins
by Lee Moore
January 2023

Vera May Atkins was a British intelligence officer during the Second World War who worked in the French Section of the Special Operations Executive, also known as the SOE, from 1941 to 1945. She was born in Romania in 1908 to a wealthy German Jewish father and a British Jewish mother. Her education included finishing school, briefly attending the Sorbonne and training at a secretarial school in London. While living on her father’s estate she met many dignitaries and diplomats who were members of British Intelligence due to her family’s strong pro-British views. She also met anti-Nazi German ambassador, Friederich Vonder Schulenburg who was later executed in 1944 for plotting to kill Hitler. She emigrated to Britain in 1937 in part because of the threatening situation in Europe and took the surname Atkins from her mother’s maiden name, Etkins. She preferred to anglicize her name to avoid reference to her obvious Jewish heritage. She was briefly engaged to marry but her fiancé died in the Battle of Crete in 1941. She never married.

Vera’s family had trafficked in information between the two world wars. This fact brought her to the attention of the British Secret Service headed by William Stephenson. Vera spoke German, English, French and Romanian and was known to have an impressive mind. Before the war started, Stephenson sent her on fact finding missions across Europe to supply Churchill with information. On one of these trips, she paid a bribe to an Abwehr officer to obtain a passport for her Jewish cousin to escape Romania. Vera kept this bribe a secret her entire life. It was revealed in her papers after her death. While she was in Europe the Germans invaded France and she was stranded until late 1940, hiding and escaping after assistance from a resistance group.

In the early stages of the war Vera was recruited as a secretary for the French section of the Special Operations Executive. She was soon made assistant to section head Col. Maurice Buckmaster and became in effect an intelligence officer. The war office of Churchill’s government resented the secrecy surrounding the SOE and feared its agents’ violent actions against the enemy were incompatible with “democratic traditions”. Churchill responded by instructing the SOE staff “to develop a reign of terror to make the lives of German occupiers an eternal torment.” Atkins was naturalized as a British subject and appointed F Section’s intelligence officer in charge of recruitment and deployment of British agents to occupied France. Thirty-seven of the recruits were female who worked as couriers and wireless operators for various spy rings established by SOE. She helped design their cover (look, clothing, identity and training, which included sabotage and explosives) before they were airdropped into France. The recruitment process occurred in a hotel room with a single light bulb. All recruits were quizzed to determine fluency in French and sent away to “think” after being told their chances of survival were 50-50. Many of the prospective recruits had one French parent.

A large part of operations planning in the French section was left to Atkins. She attended all meetings headed by Col. Buckmaster and often stayed up all night to wait for transmissions sent by agents from the field. She always tried to be at the air field to send them off. The capture rate for these agents was high because a French pilot flying some of the agents into France talked and bragged about his missions. The problem was compounded when Buckmaster discounted mounting evidence the operation was compromised. The SOE sent 400 agents into France and at the end of the war 118 were missing when France was liberated in 1944. There was multi-bureaucratic resistance by the British hierarchy to list the names of the missing SOE agents, male or female. There was also a reluctance to admit women had been sent in as agents. When the war ended, Germany, under international law, had a duty to notify the Red Cross if any names on missing lists were found in their hands. But SOE refused to print a list of its missing, designating it top secret. By 1945 Vera was making an urgent appeal to publish the list of missing agents. “This is not an unreasonable request given the special hardships they have undergone and the special risks they have taken in preparing for an Allied landing.” Vera worked tirelessly and finally in April of 1945 the head of SOE directed that the names of missing agents be published. Of the 37 female agents sent into France, 25 had survived and 12 were executed by the Germans. There was a large amount of evidence that the capture of agents was due to incompetence and tragic mistakes.

After the 1944 liberation of France Vera applied for and was given responsibility for interrogating defeated German soldiers and guards to determine the fates of 51 still unaccounted for French Section agents. Of the 118 who had disappeared she was able to confirm that 117 had died in German captivity. She received little support for her work and some opposition but as the horrors of Nazi atrocities were revealed and the demand for war trials grew, it was decided to give official support for her determined quest to find out what happened to each one and to bring those responsible to justice. At the end of 1945 the SOE was terminated but in early 1946 Atkins was funded by the new Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. She was attached to the war crimes unit of the Judge Advocate-General’s department of the British army and went to Germany and searched diligently for the missing agents. She interrogated Nazi war crime suspects and testified as a prosecution witness in several subsequent trials. Her commission was extended to allow her to testify in the Ravensbruck trial in 1947. Captive Germans said she was the most skillful interrogator they faced. She was assigned to interrogate Auschwitz camp commander Rudolph Hess. When asked by Atkins if it was true he was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 milllion Jews he proudly corrected her with 2,345,000.

As well as successfully tracing 117 of the 118 missing French agents, Atkins established the circumstances of the deaths of all 14 of the missing women, 12 of whom died brutally in concentration camps. Because of her efforts the war office was persuaded that though the 12 women were technically civilians they would be regarded not as “having died in prison” but “as killed in action”. This designation meant that each received official recognition by the British government. Vera was later quoted as saying, “I could not abandon their memory. I decided we must find out what happened to each one and where.” All but one of the 118 missing agents had died. Her determined investigations became one of the most remarkable feats of investigation in military history. Through accounts from survivors, she was able to document the heroism of agents who died often under extreme torture. When interviewed later in life Atkins finally admitted that during her war time service, she felt a huge burden of stress while realizing her agents were going on a very dangerous mission while she would remain safe at the other end. “I think I must have been extra-ordinarily tough. I was extremely exhausted by it all.” Atkins was not a popular figure but was known for her integrity, exceptional memory and organizational skills. She was thought to be “more cold blooded” than her boss Col. Buckmaster. She seemed to be able to bypass her conscience more easily and justify her actions as for a good cause and the greater good.

In 1948 Vera went to work as an office manager for UNESCO. Atkins never did interviews until she spoke with Sarah Helm in 1998. Even then she told Helm, “I have closed the book on many things in my life.” She was 90 years old and would die two years later. Most of what has been written about her is from interviews with relatives, associates, and extensive search of available documents.

If Vera Atkins had been a man no one would have questioned her motives or actions, but time and time again in later life questions arose about this mysterious woman and how she was motivated. There were rumors she was a Communist. Rather than defending herself she quietly refused to discuss her experiences. The fact of her Jewish ancestry was ignored as a possible motivating factor maybe because it was not well known. The French recognized her dedication during the war by presenting her with the Croix de Guerre in 1948 and the Legion of Honor in 1987. It wasn’t until 1997 that she was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Writing this paper, I was overwhelmed by the independence and strength of this interesting woman. I read accounts of the experiences of the women sent into France as spies. It is what nightmares are made of. It made me curious about the definition of bravery and courage during war time and also by those today who are actively working to prevent war. There are men and women serving in a war in Ukraine as Vera Atkins did and others who work behind the scenes every day. Forbes had an article on bravery which was defined as “expressing psychological and moral courage in the face of opposition from others.” Seven traits that correlate with a person’s access to courage were identified:

1. Intentionality - being able to set boundaries, know when to say No, and being mindful about working on what matters most.

2. Purpose – strong clarity of right and wrong.

3. Curiosity and Openness – willing to lean into the unknown for answers. (Seems very difficult)

4. Commitment – can stay focused and maintain momentum on a daily basis. (even over years)

5. Embrace the Risk – take intentional risks, face fear and being vulnerable.

6. Adaptability – ability to adapt to change, learn from feedback while experiencing new environments.

7. Acceptance – the sooner you embrace the reality of a situation the faster you navigate life with courage. (Seems to be most important)

Vera Atkins exhibited all of these traits and was not deterred under the extreme pressures of her job. Courage exists in all of us to varying degrees and in various situations, both long term and briefly or unexpected. We hear about it on the news every night. When I think of Vera Atkins, I wonder how she could have knowingly recruited and sent these men and women to likely death. It seems that all her life she was a very deliberate, private person who was able to suppress her emotions and feelings of guilt especially while in a position of influence during a critical time in world history. I will never forget researching this paper and thinking about this extremely interesting, brave woman and reading about all the men and women who volunteered to risk their lives. An interesting fact from my research was that after the war none of the surviving female agents or Vera Atkins ever held anything but a desk job or secretarial position until 1974 when an American recruit for SOE during the war, Virginia Hall, became the first female CIA agent. If this all sounds like the makings of a novel, the role of Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series was said to be based on Vera Atkins.