russianladieshistory-daily: Vera Obolensky (11 June 1911 – 4 August 1944) was a Russian heroin

russianladieshistory-daily: Vera Obolensky (11 June 1911 – 4 August 1944) was a Russian heroine of the French Resistance during World War II. She served as secretary of the OCM, an important resistance organization, until her arrest in December 1943. She was deported to Germany and executed there after the Liberation of France. Vera Makarova was born in 1911. Her father was a member of Russian high society. During the Russian Civil War the family emigrated to Paris in 1920.  After leaving school, Vera worked as a model for Russian fashion houses, then as secretary to Jacques Arthuys, an industrialist. Vera married Prince Nicholas Obolensky  in 1937 in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris. He was the son of the former governor of Saint Petersburg, and owned property in Nice. In the period just before World War II  the Obolensky’s lived well as wealthy members of the exiled Russian aristocracy. They frequented chic restaurants, held dances and took seaside holidays. After the Fall of France, Jacques Arthuys took command of the resistance organization,  which he ran from his home on the Avenue Victor Hugo, helped by Vera Obolensky as his secretary. In December 1940 Arthuys combined his group with that of Maxime Blocq-Mascart, which was involved in gathering intelligence and helping prisoners of war escape. Vera, called Vicky by friends, took control of the movement’s central secretariat. In the spring of 1941 it became the Organisation civile et militaire (OCM). Vera helped Marcel Berthelot gather information for the Centurie network and the Confrérie Notre-Dame (CND) network. She provided liaison between members of the group, collected their reports and maintained secret correspondence. She never had to write down an address, name or password, and became famous for her amazing memory.Vera Obolensky was arrested on 16 December 1943 and was taken by the team of Rudy de Mérode, which was working for the Gestapo. She was interrogated at great length, and invented many improbable stories to protect her fighting companions. She earned the nickname “Princess I-Know-Nothing-About-It”.  The German investigator asked her once how Russian anti-communist immigrants could resist Germany and urged her to help Nazi Germany to fight their common enemy in the East. To this, Vera stated: “The goal that you pursue in Russia is the destruction of the country and the destruction of the Slavic race. I am Russian, but I grew up in France and spent my whole life here. I will not betray either my homeland or the country that has sheltered me. ”Vera was tried on charges of treason in a military court in Arras in May 1944 and was found guilty. She was sentenced to death, but refused to sign a petition for mercy. She was finally deported to Germany, first to Berlin’s Moabit prison and then to the Barninstrasse prison. She was guillotined in Plötzensee Prison in Charlottenburg on 4 August 1944. Her body was delivered to the laboratory of Dr. Hermann Stieve, Chief of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Berlin, who was  studying the effect of stress and environmental factors on the reproductive system of women. Her body was never found. There is a stele that honours Vera Obolensky in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery. In 1958 Vera Obolensky was posthumously awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre during an official ceremony. She was also awarded the Resistance Medal. -- source link

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