by Peter Finn
“two of our planes destroyed”: GL, War Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
big craters in the woods: Beattie, Diary of a Kriegie, 115.
“All traffic had stopped”: Ibid., 169.
The ability to walk outside: Foy, For You the War Is Over, 95.
“awash with rumors about the mass killing”: Stargardt, German War, 376.
“In Wetzlar, Braunschweig, Solingen, Frankfurt am Main”: Ibid.
Zieschang developed “sincere affection”: Major Durand (SCI T-Force) to Chief, X-2, Paris, April 28, 1945, RG226-e92-f30126.
“Awful,” she declared, but smoked them: GL, POW Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
CHAPTER 14
“Everywhere there was busy life”: OSS scrapbook, LP.
“Be practical, give a coffin”: Beevor, Berlin, 1.
“about the only consolation that I can give you”: SL to GL, Dec. 25, 1944, LP.
“It smacks of Miss Evans”: SL to GL, Jan. 6, 1945, LP.
“even to save her life”: Report on interrogation of Ursula Zieschang, April 25, 1945, SCI, T-Force, RG226-e92-f30126.
a facility for people with mental disabilities: D’Albert-Lake, American Heroine in the French Resistance, 234.
“was all-powerful in gaining anything”: GL, POW Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
they should be killed like “mad dogs”: Foy, For You the War Is Over, 24.
“If I make it clear”: Ibid., 34.
“as well below zero”: Stargardt, German War, 349.
“could still see the burning city”: Sebald, On the Nature of Destruction, 22.
CHAPTER 15
“Special prisoners were prisoners”: Koop, In Hitlers Hand, 8.
“Mrs. Legendre was not treated as a prisoner of war”: Report on interrogation of Ursula Zieschang, April 25, 1945, SCI, T-Force, RG226-e92-f30126.
Winzerstube—the “winemaker’s lounge”: Report on interrogation of Werner Mueller, April 25, 1945, SCI, T-Force, RG226-e92-f30126.
“She was a smart and friendly woman”: Cailliau de Gaulle, Souvenirs personnels, 87.
“I was sad to leave France”: Ibid., 83.
The banks of the river: Reynolds, Summits, 56.
“afternoon coffee” for the VIP detainees: Koop, In Hitlers Hand, 45.
knew nothing of her whereabouts: Handwritten notes, OSS memo, London to Washington, April 2, 1945, RG226-e210-wd13271-box330-f13; SL to Red Cross, March 8, 1945, OSS scrapbook, LP.
“Isn’t this a grand, cheerful letter!”: Marian Hall to SL, Dec. 30, 1944, OSS scrapbook, LP.
“Were the lice in your hair”: SL to GL, Jan. 22, 1945, LP.
“The war seems to be moving”: SL to GL, Jan. 29, 1945, LP.
“Maybe this restrained life of inactivity”: GL to SL, Jan. 29, 1945, OSS scrapbook, LP.
“Every morning sharp at nine”: GL, POW Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
“turned him over to the Germans”: GL statement in Bern, RG226-e190-f772.
“expressions like ‘Abriegelung des Angriffs’ ”: Beattie, Diary of a Kriegie, 94.
CHAPTER 16
“the most totally destroyed city”: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 544.
these fliers as “Terror Flieger”: Foy, For You the War Is Over, 23.
“But such killings were merely”: Kershaw, End, 328.
“Sherman gunners systematically burned out”: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 546.
CHAPTER 17
a former executive with IG Farben: H. H. Grieme file, folder ZA-VI-3472A-01 and 05, Bundesarchiv, Berlin. After the war, when IG Farben was broken up, he got a position with its photographic arm, Agfa, which became an independent company. Grieme never mentioned IG Farben to Gertie, but described himself as a machine tool factory owner.
“The inner door to Germany”: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 551.
“another brick and stone wilderness”: Ibid., 568.
“They are punch drunk”: GL, Memo, German Ideas on Propaganda, RG226-e190-f772.
there were signs warning residents: Ibid.
“Men who take themselves from the front”: Kershaw, End, 218–20.
food was scarce and the family: GL, Memo on Food and Clothing, RG226-e190-f772.
“intelligent, worldly, open-minded”: GL, Memo, List of German Names, RG226-e190-f772.
“No one is a Nazi”: Reporting World War II, 671.
transfer of all German POWs: GL, Memo, German Ideas on Propaganda.
“sprang from the devouring fear”: Beattie, Diary of a Kriegie, 200.
“Prior to exchange she was”: Report on interrogation of Werner Mueller, April 25, 1945, SCI, T-Force, RG226-e92-f30126; OSS memo, April 27, 1945, RG226-e190-f772.
She wrote a series of memos: See GL, German Ideas on Propaganda.
“So good!” she exclaimed: GL, POW Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
“slavery, castration, the end of Germany”: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 380.
hoping it would speed her release: GL statement in Bern, RG226-e190-f772.
CHAPTER 18
about a hundred yards up the line: GL statement in Bern, RG226-e190-f772. Gertie offered various lengths in how far she had to run, but this statement was given shortly after her escape and seems the most reliable estimate.
she was startled by Gay: Gertie offers two accounts about who crept up on her on the railroad tracks and told her to run. In her statement to Dulles, made shortly after her escape, she said it was Gay. See GL statement in Bern, RG226-e190-f772. In her memoir The Sands Ceased to Run, 231, she said it was the unnamed German who had joined her and Gay on the platform. In her Bern statement, she also said she left Hans Grieme’s home with Gay and an SS officer; in the book, it was Gay and a chauffeur. The memoir would suggest the person who suddenly appeared on the Constance platform was a third person, not the driver or the officer she had left Kronberg with.
Her entry time was recorded as 9:30 p.m.: E5791-1000-949-230, sub-file 2-4812, Legendre-Sanford, Gertrude, 1902, Swiss Federal Archive.
CHAPTER 19
A Reuters report out of Zurich: New York Times, March 25, 1945, 8.
warned not to discuss the matter: OSS cables on escape, RG226-e90-box 3-f40, RG226-e190-f772.
“I told the man it was in the papers”: SL to GL, March 27, 1945, LP.
“In the old days”: SL to GL, April 15, 1945, LP.
“Everyone was staring at me”: GL manuscript, June 1945, RG226-e190-f771.
“The fact that this woman”: E5791-1000-949-230, sub-file 2-4812, Legendre-Sanford, Gertrude, 1902, Swiss Federal Archive.
Raggenbass told Gertie he knew: GL manuscript, June 1945, RG226-e190-f771.
Raggenbass maintained close relations: See “Die Nammen der Strasse,” Südkurier (Constance), Sept. 25, 2010.
he acted as an intermediary: See Raggenbass, Trotz Stacheldraht.
charges that he was an anti-Semite: See “Nazi-Biografien aus der Region,” Südkurier (Constance), Feb. 13, 2016.
“This important from CE [counterespionage] standpoint”: OSS memo, April 2, 1945, RG226-e210-wn13271-box330-f13.
“I think Gertrude was rather contrite”: Memorandum, 110 (Dulles) to 109 (Donovan), March 29, 1945, RG226-e190-f772.
“For the information of Mrs. Legendre”: A photograph of the message is included in GL, Sands Ceased to Run.
flowers and a bottle of champagne: GL, POW Diary, transcript, RG226-e190-f772.
celebrated her forty-third birthday: OSS Oral History, Legendre interview, 29, RG263-e84, NA.
“We have seen Gertrude”: OSS memo, March 30, 1945, RG226-e90-box3-f40.
Gertie also suggested that rather than return
: GL, June 1945 manuscript, RG226-e190-f771.
“This is a very serious matter”: Donovan memo, March 30, 1945, RG226-e90-box3-f40.
“One of those awful flights”: OSS oral history, Legendre interview, 37.
“Hated to leave Paris”: GL to SL, April 6, 1945, LP.
“One afternoon, long red fingernails”: Bokara Legendre, Not What I Expected, 40.
CHAPTER 20
“We know no more about [the offensive]”: Beattie, Diary of a Kriegie, 191.
“the public is interpreting the news”: Ibid., 194.
“screaming, shoving, and crowding their way”: Ibid., 199.
“as white men to other white men”: Ibid., 218.
losses on the eastern front: Kershaw, End, 206.
“I’ve always said there can be no question”: Ibid., 246.
Operation Clarion targeted small-town Germany: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 535.
Among those prisoners was Doyle Dickson: Doyle E. Dickson military file, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives, St. Louis.
“YOU ARE NOW IN COLOGNE”: MBW, “Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly,” 12.
“Never let that woman out”: Sorel, Women Who Wrote the War, 331.
“Don’t show my jowls”: MBW, “Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly,” 22.
“in emulation of William the Conqueror”: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 558.
“We correspondents were hard-pressed”: MBW, Portrait of Myself, 258.
“It was a sense of return”: MBW, “Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly,” 38.
“We hope you arrived in Switzerland”: News clipping, April 7, 1945, OSS scrapbook, LP.
the dissecting room where gloves: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 603.
“Using the camera was almost”: MBW, “Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly,” 73.
his weight fell to 105 pounds: GL to SL, May 7, 1945, LP.
On the morning of March 27: Jennings Report on Time as POW, April 4, 1945, RG-226-e99-box14-f5.
“His actions exposed OSS to great criticism”: Memo, Donovan to London, April 5, 1945, RG226-e90-box3-f40.
Jennings was formally reprimanded: OSS memo, April 12, 1945, RG226-e90-box3-f40.
“I guess we both got away awfully lucky”: GL to SL, May 7, 1945, LP.
his mother was killed: William Gosewisch to GL, Aug. 29, 1946, OSS scrapbook, LP.
“free men unable to taste freedom”: Beattie, Diary of a Kriegie, 310.
“My hotel bed,” Beattie noted: Ibid., 312.
they looked like “vagabonds”: Cailliau de Gaulle, Souvenirs personnels, 94.
The wall above the castle’s entryway: Harding, Last Battle, 6.
part of a unit killing Jews: Ibid., 19.
“Traitor, collaborator!” Reynaud greeted Weygand: Ibid., 54.
“could not possibly have been more”: Ibid., 62.
“It was intoxicating to feel free”: Cailliau de Gaulle, Souvenirs personnels, 102.
“Ja. Ja,” the two general officers replied: Atkinson, Guns at Last Light, 626.
“in good spirit by his mother and father”: OSS memo, Oct. 27, 1944, RG226-e90-box 3-f40.
“I cannot understand why”: Doyle E. Dickson military file, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives, St. Louis. The effort to find and identify Dickson’s remains is described in a series of documents in his military file.
“Major Papurt was great company”: July 23, 1945, RG226-e160a-box 16-f273.
EPILOGUE
“To try and interest myself in Peter Rabbit”: GL to SL, April 10, 1945, LP.
“N.Y.C. is a terrible comedown”: GL to SL, April 6, 1945, LP.
“The food is all too astounding”: GL to SL, April 15, 1945, LP.
“It’s too late…now I am told”: GL to SL, May 20, 1945, LP.
“The whole thing as you may guess”: GL to SL, April 6, 1945, LP.
“I think it would make a great seller”: GL to SL, May 7, 1945, LP.
“You have made a real contribution”: Donovan to GL, June 18, 1945, RG226-e190-f772.
“the return of these documents”: OSS memo, April 13, 1945, RG226-e190-f772.
the adoption of Flers de l’Orne: Beach, Medway, 61.
“no rank and was not an officer”: Alien case file A8109455 William Gosewisch, Record Group 566, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Archives, Kansas City.
“We would revel in the luxuries”: SL to GL, April 7, 1945, LP.
“Our life apart is not something”: GL to SL, May 22, 1945, LP.
“How I loved being with you”: GL to SL, Aug. 8, 1945, LP.
“Give Me That Old Time Religion”: Bokara Legendre, Not What I Expected, 45.
Pansa was forced into hiding: Mario Spezi to Harlan Greene (librarian, College of Charleston), March 21, 2016.
“The power of dying, of waiting to die”: Bokara Legendre, Not What I Expected, 214–15.
“I consider I was fortunate”: GL, personal essay, March 1987, LP.
“gave up all development rights”: Beach, Medway, 110.
“I want Medway to be a place”: Ibid., 11.
“a sort of joke”: Bokara Legendre, Not What I Expected, 215.
“Every evening, I sit at one end”: GL, Time of My Life, 77.
Selected Bibliography
Atkinson, Rick. The Guns at Last Light. New York: Picador, 2013.
Baker, Richard Brown. The Year of the Buzz Bomb: A Journal of London, 1944. New York: Exposition Press, 1952.
Bard, Mitchell G. Forgotten Victims: The Abandonment of Americans in Hitler’s Camps. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994.
Beach, Virginia Christian. Medway. Charleston, S.C.: Wyrick, 1999.
Beattie, Edward W., Jr. Diary of a Kriegie. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1946.
Beevor, Antony. Berlin: The Downfall, 1945. New York: Viking, 2002.
Black, Peter. Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Reich. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Blumenson, Martin. Breakout and Pursuit. Atlanta: Whitman, 2012.
Bourke-White, Margaret. “Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly”: A Report on the Collapse of Hitler’s “Thousand Years.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946.
———. Portrait of Myself. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
———. Purple Heart Valley. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944.
Brinkley, David. Washington Goes to War. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988.
Brown, Anthony Cave. The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan. New York: Times Books, 1982.
Bull, Bartle. Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History. London: Pan Books, 2001.
Cailliau de Gaulle, Marie-Agnès. Souvenirs personnels. Paris: Parole et Silence, 2006.
Chalou, George C., ed. The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992.
Clark, Martin. Mussolini. New York: Routledge, 2014.
Cochran, Gifford A. “Mr. Lincoln’s Many-Faceted Minister and Entrepreneur Extraordinary Henry Shelton Sanford.” Unpublished manuscript, Legendre Papers, College of Charleston.
Cowden, Robert. “OSS Double-Agent Operations in World War II.” Studies in Intelligence 58, no. 2 (June 2014): 65–75.
D’Albert-Lake, Virginia. An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia D’Albert-Lake. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.
Deflem, Mathieu. “The Logic of Nazification: The Case of the International Criminal Police Commission.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 43, no. 1 (2002): 21–44.
Dickey, Christopher. “The Socialite Spy Who Played So Dumb She Outsmarted the Nazis.” Daily Beast, Sept. 25, 2016.
Ford, Corey. Donovan of OSS. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.
Foy, David A. For You the War Is Over: American Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany. New York: Stein and Day, 1984.
Fry, Joseph Andrew. “An American Abroad: The Diplomatic Career of Henry Shelton Sanford.” Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1974.
Gellately, Robert. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Goldberg, Vicki. Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.
Grose, Peter. Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
Harding, Stephen. The Last Battle. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2013.
Hastings, Max. Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945. New York: Knopf, 2004.
Herne, Brian. White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
Kershaw, Ian. The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.
———. Hitler: Hubris, 1889–1936. London: Penguin, 2001.
Koop, Volker. In Hitlers Hand: Die Sonder- und Ehrenhäftlinge der SS. Cologne: Böhlau, 2010.
Lankford, Nelson D. The Last American Aristocrat: The Biography of Ambassador David K. E. Bruce. New York: Little, Brown, 1996.
———, ed. OSS Against the Reich: The War Diaries of Colonel David K. E. Bruce. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991.
Legendre, Bokara. Not What I Expected. Bloomington, Ind.: Balbao Press, 2017.
Legendre, Gertrude. The Sands Ceased to Run. New York: William-Frederick Press, 1947.
———. The Time of My Life. Charleston, S.C.: Wyrick, 1987.
Legendre, Sidney J. Land of the White Parasol. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1936.
———. Okovango Desert River. Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities Press, 1939.