Sonya Olschanezky (1923-1944)

DOSSIER:Sonya Olschanezky, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Eli Olschanezky, was born on 25 Dec 1923 in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany. She was executed on 6 Jul 1944 in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

CODE NAME:
Tania

In May 1940, France was invaded by the German Army. It was not long before Sonya joined the French Resistance and was stationed in Châlons-sur-Marne. She spent her time carrying messages between Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents in the area.

After the French surrender, the new leader, Henri-Philippe Petain, cooperated in the persecution of the Jews in the country. In May 1942, orders were given for all Jewish men, women and children to wear a six-pointed yellow star on their clothing over the region of the heart. The following month, Sonya was arrested and sent to a camp at Drancy, where she awaited being sent to an extermination camp in Nazi Germany.

When her mother heard the news, she contacted friends in Germany who managed to produce false papers that stated that she had "economically valuable skills" needed for the war effort. On the production of the false papers and the payment of a sum of money to the appropriate German official, Sonya was freed. After her release, she returned to her resistance work and in 1943 was locally recruited by her fiance, Jacques Well, to the Juggler sub-circuit of the Physician Network that included Andrée Borrel, Francis Suttill and Gilbert Norman. 

In October 1943 Sonya learned of the capture of Noor Inayat Khan, a radio operator with Suttill's network. Through Weil and via Bern, she informed London of the arrest and that Noor's radio was probably in German hands. Unfortunately, Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, head of SOE F Section, ignored the message as unreliable because it came from a source he did not know. As a result, agents continued to be sent to, and captured in, France. 

The network was betrayed and most of its leading members were arrested. However, Sonya remained free until being captured in January 1944. After being interrogated by the Gestapo, she was imprisoned at Fresnes.

On 13 May 1944, the Germans transported Sonya and seven other SOE agents to Nazi Germany: Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plewman, Madeleine Damerment, Odette Sansom, Diana Rowden, Andrée Borrel and Vera Leigh.

On 6 Jul 1944 Sonya, Diana Rowden, Andrée Borrel and Vera Leigh were taken to the concentration camp at Natzweiler-Struthof. Later that day, they were injected with phenol and put in the crematorium furnace. One of the women attempted to resist her murder, and one (possibly the same woman) may have revived when placed in the oven and been able to scratch the face of her executioner, Peter Straub. 

When SOE intelligence office Vera Atkins began her search for missing agents after the war, she originally confused Sonya (who was unknown to her) with Noor Inayat Khan, believing it was Noor who was executed at Natzweiler with the other three women. However, once Atkins confirmed that Noor had been killed at Dachau concentration camp, it was established that Sonia, who resembled Noor with her dark coloring, had died at Natzweiler.