From the beginning, Noor Inayat Khan longed to make a difference. At an early age, her father, Hazrat, a devout Sufi, instilled a deep sense of sacrifice, hope, and courage in her. In an effort to show Noor the responsibility he expected, he would often remind her that their family lineage could be traced all the way back to their ancestor, Tipu Sultan, who once reigned over the Kingdom of India. 

“You are royal,” he told Noor and her three siblings, “Nothing in this world can take that away. Do not be afraid to hold up your heads in any court in the world.”

So when World War II came knocking, Noor knew she had to help. After a successful round as a civil servant in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF,) she was recommended to the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) for work as a wireless radio operator in Paris in 1942.

It was the chance of a lifetime, but rife with danger from the start, as the average life expectancy for a wireless radio operator in Paris was just six weeks. The director of the SOE even pointed out later that it was the “principle and most dangerous post in France.” In the end, though, Noor would be lucky enough to evade capture for three months in Paris while she worked for the S.O.E. During that time, she not only enabled arms and explosives to be sent to the underground French resistance networks with her radio work, but also aided 30 Allied Airmen who’d been shot down in enemy territory. 

Long after the war, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, admitted that the S.O.E.’s work in France shortened the war in Europe by at least six months.

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BUILDING ROOTS

Born in Moscow just seven months prior to the start of World War I, Noor Inayat Khan was the first of four children born to Hazrat and Ora Ray Baker Khan on January 1st, 1914. Her parents had been newlyweds just a year before after meeting in the United States. 

Not long after her birth, the family packed their belongings and moved to England, where they soon settled in London’s Notting Hill district. In the frugal years of World War I that followed, all of Noor’s three younger siblings were born. In an effort to support his growing family, Hazrat Khan spent most of his time on the road as a touring musician, often gifting his audiences with wisdom from the Sufi teachings he crafted his life by. Even though money was tight, Ora would often make simple meals that consisted of rice and bread to stretch their budget while ensuring they had enough food to get by each week.

After World War I ended in 1918, Noor and her family left England for what they hoped would be a more peaceful life in France, and settled in the picturesque town of Suresnes, just outside of Paris. They moved into a spacious house that stretched out over 3,500 square feet, high, on top of a hill near Mount Valerian, surrounded by gardens and nature. It was perfect for the growing family. Shortly after moving in, Noor’s father christened it, “Fazal Manzil,” (The House of Blessings).

In 1927, tragedy struck after Noor’s father died suddenly of pneumonia while on a pilgrimage in his homeland of India. Completely distraught, her mother went into a deep stage of mourning that suddenly left Noor, as the eldest child, in charge of the rest of the family. But it was a role Noor would soon grow to love. She even started to give weekly concerts for her siblings as she played piano and harp alongside recitations of her poetry to keep them entertained.

Shortly after graduating from high school, she pursued her musical interests and enrolled in the Ecole de Musique in Paris, while taking psychology classes at Sorbonne University. Noor was also an excellent writer, and as her skills progressed she landed a job as a journalist at the local Le Figaro newspaper.

Meanwhile, outside of work, she also crafted an exquisite composition of children’s tales, called Twenty Jakata Tales – it was later published in a book alongside illustrations by H.W. Le Mair.

World War II begins

As one decade ended and another began, any sense of normalcy in Noor’s life simply vanished. She soon found herself caught in the crosshairs of an ever-growing European conflict between Hitler and his quest to exterminate the Jews and their allies. 

After his brazen invasion of Poland, the Nazi regime set out to conquer France in May of 1940. While the French, thought to have the greatest army in the world after World War I, did fight back, it didn’t do much good, as their military tactics weren’t as advanced as the Germans were. As a result, just a month after fighting had begun, the French army ceded to German Forces in June of 1940 after losing almost 100,000 soldiers in battle. Afterwards, France’s then presiding Premiere, Paul Reynaud, likened the fall of his country’s army to, “…walls of sand that a child puts up against waves on the seashore.”

As news of the German invasion spread across the country, terrified citizens, including Noor’s own family, packed up what little they could and fled. Between May 10th and June 22nd of 1940, nearly six to ten million French citizens joined a long brigade down the streets and alleyways across the country, desperate to leave before they, too, became victims of the war with the Germans. Sadly, amongst all the chaos, 90,000 children were separated from their parents during what would later be called by historians as, “The Mass Exodus.”

The French Resistance leader, Marie-Madeline Fourcade, later recalled it with horrific detail. In her memoirs she wrote:

“People loaded furniture and knick-knacks onto vehicles of all kinds, as houses were cleared of their contents and passengers, furniture and objects alike took shelter under pyramids of mattresses,” she wrote. “ Dog owners killed their pets so they would not have to feed them. In this sad frenzy of departure people rescued whatever possessions they could save…. Weeping women pushed old people who had been squashed into prams.”

While Noor and her family were fortunate enough to have a car when The Mass Exodus began, they were still in a race against time. After a series of frenzied road trips and train rides, they were finally able to escape France by securing passage to England aboard a freighter ship named The Kasongo.

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Life in England

After their ship docked in the county of Cornall, at Falmouth, on June 22nd, 1940, they headed to Oxford, where other war refugees had recently settled. Once they found suitable housing, Noor, along with her sister and mother, signed up for volunteer work in the local area to help aid the war effort. Her brother, Vilayat, headed to London, where he joined the ranks of The Royal Air Force (RAF).

Noor enlisted in the Women’s Auxillary Air Force (WAAF), in November of 1940, no doubt, in part, inspired by her brother, Vilayat. Since he had complications with his initial RAF application due to his ethnicity, he advised Noor to register at the WAAF as a member of The Church of England and adopt a more traditional, English-sounding first name for her application. So, in an ode to her mother, “Ora,” Noor chose the name, “Nora.”

Noor becomes a spy

Once she finished the WAAF’s basic three week training program in Harrogate, England, she was assigned to a post in Edinburgh, Scotland where she learned the ins and outs of wireless radio operating.

For six months, Noor worked hard at mastering the art of transmitting Morse code. Eventually, her wireless radio operating skills gained so much traction that the WAAF selected her for a special post in Wiltshire where she learned how to transmit specific symbols and instructions.

By the time of her yearly review with the WAAF, Noor was eager to prove her aptitude so she could start earning a living wage for her work. She had no idea that they had already sent her credentials to a top secret intelligence agency that was looking for fresh recruits – The Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.).

The S.O.E. contacted Noor in November of 1942 for a private interview in London, at the Hotel Victoria, with Captain Selwyn Jepsen. During the interview, Noor immediately accepted Jepsen’s offer, and started training not long after. However, some of Noor’s instructors had doubts about her ability to succeed as a spy. In their reports, they noted that she was hesitant around using weapons, and often broke down in tears during practice interrogations.

But they were in such great need of wireless radio operators at the time that they eventually disregarded their reservations and began making preparations to send her into the field.

In 1943 she was assigned to the S.O.E.’s French division, aptly called the, “F Section.” She was chosen to help run their spy networks in Paris, as they were beginning to lose their wireless radio operators at an alarming speed. They were the lifeblood of secret networks the S.O.E. built with the underground resistance movement in France.

Before her departure, she was given two code names. The first, “Madeline,” was the name she used in all of her wireless radio correspondence. The second, “Jeanne-Marie Reneir,” would be the general identity Noor assumed while working undercover as a spy in Paris. 

At the time, the S.O.E. relied on Lysander planes to transport their agents, as they were able to land in more discrete areas, like grassy fields in the countryside, that were less patrolled by the Germans. The ones used by the S.O.E. often flew when there was a full moon, as it enabled the pilots to blend into the sky and see without ever having to use the plane’s lights.

When Noor’s plane landed in the French countryside on June 17th, in 1943, she was met by Henri Déricourt, a corresponding agent already working in the Parisian PROSPER network where Noor was assigned. Unbeknownst to his peers at the time, Déricourt was secretly working as a double agent with the Germans. It was his work, no doubt, that led to the Gestapo’s arrest of all the other PROSPER agents in the network within ten days of Noor’s arrival.

When the S.O.E. heard of these arrests, they immediately messaged Noor to abandon her mission and take the next flight out to England, but she refused. Insisting she could rebuild the network on her own, Noor assumed the role of six wireless radio operators. She proved to be successful by being quick on her feet, and constantly evaded capture by spending no more than twenty minutes in one spot to send out her messages. As Noor quickly rose to the top of the Nazi’s Most Wanted List, she threw them off her trail numerous times by simply switching up the apartments she stayed in each night, while also inventing new disguises to alter her appearance.

Noor was just days away from flying back home to England, in fact, when the Gestapo arrested her at her apartment in October of 1943. She had been betrayed by a woman in Noor’s social circle who was rumored to be jealous of a man she was dating, and given 100,000 francs as a reward. After her arrest she was sent for interrogation at Germany’s infamous Parisian headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch. 

Everyone knew what went on behind closed doors at 84 Avenue Foch during the war, so much so that the Parisians called it , “The Street of Horrors,” since the screams of its captives eerily echoed throughout the area. The sixth floor of the building, near the roof, was where most of them were held and interrogated, including Noor. 

She tried to escape her cell twice, but was captured each time. After the second escape attempt the Germans labeled her as a dangerous prisoner and a flight risk. For more secure arrangements, they transferred her to Germany’s Pforzheim prison, where her arms and legs were kept in metal shackles in a solitary cell for 24 hours a day.

The Gestapo tried to tempt her into giving them more information with promises of better food and holding conditions as a reward, but she refused to tell them anything. As punishment, they fed her meager rations of a bland, watery soup filled with bits of potato peelings. Needless to say, it was a grim existence.

Then, in September of 1944, she was transferred with two other S.O.E. agents to The Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany, where her treatment became even more brutal. She was assaulted, beaten, and raped by soldiers there numerous times.

Not long afterwards, Noor was ordered at dawn one morning to march with three other female prisoners to a nearby field in the woods, behind the prison’s crematorium. There, the commanding SS officers ordered each one to kneel and then systematically shot them all in the back of the head.   

The final word rumored to have left Noor’s lips just before the Germans pulled the trigger was a defiant, “Liberté!” 

She was only 30-years-old. 

 After the war ended in 1945, Noor became the first British Muslim war hero to be awarded the British George Cross. Later, she also received the French Croix de Guerre with a silver star. Both are regarded as the highest military awards in their respective countries. In 2012, a statue honoring her memory was placed in London’s Gordon Square Gardens.

REFERENCES:

Basu, Shrabani. Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan. The History Press, 2006.

“BBC Timewatch – The Princess Spy (World War II). YouTube, uploaded by History Files, 1 May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IObZOArCm6Y

Magida, Arthur J. Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in Nazi-Occupied Paris. W. W. Norton, 2020.

Mukherjee, Dipanjana. “Noor Inayat Khan: Britain’s First Muslim War Heroine.”STSTW Media. https://www.ststworld.com/noor-inayat-khan/

“Noor Inayat Khan: Why Was the British Spy Such an Unlikely War Hero?”, History Extra. 

https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/noor-inayat-khan-secret-agent-spy-life-death/

Tsang, Amie. “Overlooked No More: Noor Inayat Khan, Indian Princess and British Spy.”The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/obituaries/noor-inayat-khan-overlooked.html

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