SPEAKER_00: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_07: Warning, the following message contains an app recommendation you won't be able to resist.
SPEAKER_01: Girl, how do you keep getting all these things for free? Coffee, makeup, and now lunch?
SPEAKER_02: You haven't heard of the Drop app? Drop is a free app that rewards you for shopping at places like Ulta, Adidas, and Sam's Club. I've already earned $100 this month.
SPEAKER_06: Download the Drop app and get $5. Use invite code GETDROP222.
SPEAKER_04: My name is Diana Hock and I'm an operations manager at Morgan & Morgan. At Morgan & Morgan, we've made it really easy. Anything that we need from you, you're able to do from the comfort of your home. You can just dial pound law and you talk to someone like me.
SPEAKER_05: If you or any one of your family has been injured, call Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. We've collected over $15 billion for our clients. It's easy. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you.
SPEAKER_03: Hi, it's Jenny. We're currently gearing up for season three of Encyclopedia Wamanica. In the meantime, we're mixing things up, bringing back some of our favorite episodes in many week-longish themes. Our current theme is Groundbreakers. Stay tuned for a brand new season coming in September. Thanks for listening. Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today's espionage expert was a no-nonsense, skillful interrogator and spymaster. She recruited and trained hundreds of British agents to descend into enemy territory to collect intel during World War II. Through her affinity for languages and her meticulous attention to detail, she foiled many critical German plans. This is the story of Vera Atkins. Vera Atkins was born Vera Mae Rosenberg on June 15th, 1908, in Galat, Romania. Her mother, Zefro Hilda, was of British Jewish descent, and her father, Max Rosenberg, was a German-born Jewish man who had made his fortune in the lumber industry. Not much is known about Vera's childhood, but due to her father's success, the family, including Vera and her four brothers, enjoyed life on an expansive country estate near the Ukraine-Romanian border. Vera's parents sent her to the University of Paris to perfect her English and French, and then to finishing school in Switzerland to refine her manners and social graces. Life abroad was a combination of work and play for Vera. She mastered her languages while also enjoying the Swiss mountains, attending hunting parties, and entertaining many suitors that she ultimately rejected. Marriage was never a priority for Vera. In 1933, Vera moved to London to attend a secretarial college. While there, she changed her last name to Atkins, which was her mother's English maiden name. Vera's father died that same year, and Vera returned to Romania to be with her mother. But in 1937, as the safety of Jews in Central Europe was under threat, Vera decided to move to London permanently. In the early 1940s, Vera caught the eye
SPEAKER_03: of the British Secret Service. Aside from her fluency, in German, English, French, and Romanian, she also had multiple family members who had passed confidential information across Europe in between World Wars I and II. She was the perfect candidate for covert operation responsibilities. Vera joined Britain's Special Operations Executive, or the SOE, in 1941 as a secretary. The SOE was set up by Prime Minister Winston Churchill with the intent of continuing to serve in the Royal Royal with the intent of conducting espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance throughout occupied Europe. Vera worked diligently to rise through the ranks. She moved from secretary to intelligence officer to principal assistant to the SOE's director, Colonel Maurice Buckmaster. She was assigned the majority of the operational planning for the France section of the SOE. Although never confirmed by author Ian Fleming, Colonel Buckmaster is M in the James Bond series, and Vera was an inspiration for the character of Miss Moneypenny. That said, Vera did not share Miss Moneypenny's romantic, love-struck nature. Vera's primary job was to recruit and deploy British agents into occupied France. Vera interviewed the candidates in a stark, dimly lit hotel room with just a desk, two chairs, and a light bulb. If they passed that stage, Vera put their French to the test to ensure they could pass as a native. And finally, Vera closed out the interview process by informing the candidate this role had a 50-50 chance of survival and giving the potential agent a few days to consider this fate. Vera did not sugarcoat the dangers of the job. Vera tasked herself with getting to know the intimate details of her agents. She created a camaraderie that presented itself in the form of fierce loyalty, strong cohesion, and intense focus. Vera played the role of an extremely strict and businesslike mother hen for her agents. Before they left for their missions, she checked their clothing and their papers to make sure they would fit in and not draw attention to themselves. She also briefed the agents on how to live in occupied France and to comply with the curfew and other regulations. There was no detail too small or insignificant for Vera to cover. She set her agents up for as much success as she could while sending them into a minefield. At the end of her 18-hour days, Vera sent off each agent with a quick shout of a French expletive. Vera's agents were quite successful in their efforts to sabotage Nazi operations, so much so that Hitler declared, when I get to London, I am not sure who I shall hang first, Churchill or that man Buckmaster. Little did he know Vera's role in derailing his plans. The gravity of Vera's duties was not lost on her. According to the writer of her obituary, Vera expressed that the burden of stress was probably on the person who was seeing them off. I think I must have been extraordinarily tough. I was extremely exhausted by it. Nevertheless, Vera recruited, trained, and sent off 400 agents between 1941 and 1944. Some of her most famous proteges include Odette Sampson, Noor Anayet Khan, and Violette Szabo. These women withstood Nazi interrogation and torture. In 1946, after the liberation of France, Vera was missing 118 agents. She made it her mission to open investigations of each of those cases and uncover the truth about their disappearances.
SPEAKER_03: With her new title of squadron officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Vera traveled to Germany to begin her search. Given her in-depth knowledge about each agent, Vera was the only one for the job. In the end, she tracked down 117, all of whom had been captured and killed by German forces. Unbeknownst to Vera, the 118th agent was an obsessive gambler who vanished near Monte Carlo with three million francs of Secret Service money. Vera brought justice to the agents by bringing their German captors to trial for war crimes. She was a talented and efficient interrogator who was able to break many of her captives. The confessions that she extracted from Nazis about their crimes were used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials. In 1947, Vera returned to Britain and left the Secret Service. A year later, she took a job as the office manager at UNESCO's Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges. She was promoted to director in 1952, a role she held until her retirement in 1961. Vera took advantage of her retirement by maintaining a low profile and traveling extensively around the world. She spent her remaining years in a seacoast cottage in the quiet town of Winchelsea. Vera's legacy was praised through her appointment as a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1995. And in 1997, during Queen Elizabeth's birthday honors, an event in which the Queen honors the most important British citizens, Vera was awarded the highest ranking order of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Vera died on June 24th, 2000 at the age of 92. All month, we're talking about spies. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Womanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopaedia Womanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday. Before you go, I wanna tell you about another show I think you might like. How to Talk to Mummy and Puppy About Anything is a weekly podcast for adult children of immigrants featuring real life scenarios and practical professional advice to help them with difficult but necessary conversations. How to Talk to Mummy and Puppy About Anything offers practical approaches to intergenerational tensions with a lot of wit and wisdom. Find it on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Head to talktomummypuppy.com to learn more.
