How Audrey Hepburn became a secret spy during World War Two

As a teenage Oscar-winning actress who grew up in the Netherlands, she bravely shared a message for the Dutch resistance movement during the Nazi occupation.

on BBC Radio 4 podcast The youngest heroes of all timeNicola Coughlan tells the stories of young people throughout history who changed the world, highlighting extraordinary stories of rebellion, risk and the radical power of youth.

The latest episode focused on Audrey Hepburn, who became a film and fashion icon in the 1950s and ’60s. She was nominated for an Oscar five times, winning Best Actress in 1953 for her performance in Roman Holiday. But as a teenager during World War II, she took on a completely different role, staging secret ballet performances to raise money for the Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation.

Hepburn was born in Brussels in 1929 to Dutch baroness Ella van Heemstra and British-Austrian businessman Joseph Hepburn-Ruston. In London, her parents were attracted to Oswald Mosley, the leader of the violently anti-Semitic British Union of Fascists (BUF). Van Heemstra wrote an article for BUF magazine about what he considered the glory of Nazi Germany. Hepburn-Ruston left her family when Hepburn was six years old. He was later arrested as an “associate of foreign fascists” and spent the remainder of the war in a British prison.

“You know, from an early age she was outgoing, laughing, playing, acting. My grandfather called her ‘Monkey Puzzle,'” said the actress’s youngest son, Luca. Dottie speaks to Robert Matzen, author of Dutch Girl, a chronicle of Hepburn’s life. In an interview with “The Youngest Hero in History,” he talked about his life during World War II.

“Audrey’s mother decided that England in general, and Kent in particular, was not the place for Audrey because of the imminent threat of German forces suddenly sweeping across France and invading England,” Matzen said. .

Van Heemstra withdrew her daughter from boarding school in England. They moved to a mansion in the Netherlands, where Audrey enrolled in a dance school and took the more Dutch-sounding name Adrianche van Heemstra (she later changed her last name to Hepburn when she began acting). ). Her mother still respected Adolf. Hitler believed that he would never invade “her” country.

“Moving to the Netherlands was not like going home. She couldn’t speak Dutch. She was teased by the new kids and went to school in the Netherlands without understanding a word. I had to go there,” Dottie says of her mother’s experience in the Netherlands.

Hitler invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940. “The Eastern Front was a furnace from which resources could not be scraped together fast enough. The Germans needed food and clothing for their troops, and all that was taken from the Dutch.” other occupied countries,” Matzen says of the situation.

Hepburn’s uncle, Count Otto van Limburg Stirm, took a principled stand against the Nazis. In 1942, a resistance group attempted to blow up a German train near Rotterdam. Van Limburg Stirm was not involved, but was arrested because he was a prominent anti-Nazi figure. Nazi agents chased him and four others into the forest, shot them to death, and dumped their bodies in an unmarked grave. Hepburn loved her uncle as a father figure, but was devastated by his uncle’s murder. “It became a national incident and an incitement to the Dutch people,” Matzen said.

Her family was well off, but the Nazis diverted food and resources from the Netherlands, and Van Heemstra’s family starved. When Hepburn turned 15, she was ordered to join the Nazis. Kulturkammerjoin an artists’ union, or give up dancing in public. She chose to give up performing.

“Through dance, she could dream, she could fly, she could forget. It was her way of escaping reality,” Dottie says of her mother’s passion. Hepburn danced inside the safety of her home, with the blinds closed and the only light lit by candles, to avoid being spotted. The piano was playing very quietly while she was playing, but there was no applause. At the end of the show, money was raised for the Resistance.

In the spring of 1944, Hepburn volunteered as an assistant to Hendrik Visser’t Hooft, a doctor who was a member of the Resistance. Hepburn’s mother was widely seen as a Nazi collaborator, and Wisserthoft desperately needed help assisting the thousands of people who were hiding from the Nazis. He trusted her enough to take her.

On September 17, 1944, Hepburn was in church when the hymn was interrupted by the roar of an engine. Operation Market Garden, an Allied plan to capture nine bridges across the Rhine, began. She ran outside and looked up to see thousands of Allied soldiers parachuting.

Unfortunately, two heavy Nazi armored divisions were regrouping in the area. A Nazi tank rolls into Van Heemstra’s house. Hepburn and her family hid in the basement while the fighting lasted for nine days. When they emerged, news broke that the Nazis had won. She heard screams coming from the building where the Nazis were retaliating, torturing and killing members of the Dutch Resistance.

When Allied airmen heading to Germany had to make an emergency landing in the Netherlands, Wisserthoeft sent Hepburn into the woods to meet British paratroopers with a code word and a secret message hidden in a sock. I sent it. She attended a meeting, but on her way out of the forest she saw Dutch police approaching. She bent down to pick a wildflower and flippantly offered it to the police. They were fascinated and did not question her further. Afterwards, she often carried messages to the Resistance.

“She believed strongly that there was a struggle between good and evil and that you had to take sides,” Dottie says.

“The Germans didn’t take the children seriously. ‘You’re out of the way, kid.’ It was real enough to do important work and realize that children could be loved. It was exciting, it was dangerous, but they became heroes of the resistance.” Matzen added.

[ByFebruary1945itwasreportedthat500DutchpeoplewerestarvingtodeatheveryweekLikemanyothersHepburnandherfamilyweredesperatelyshortoffoodShedevelopedseveresymptomswithanemiajaundiceandedema[1945年2月までに、毎週500人のオランダ人が餓死していると報告されました。他の多くの人々と同様、ヘプバーンとその家族も食料が絶望的に​​不足していました。彼女は貧血、黄疸、浮腫を伴う重篤な症状に陥った。

Another fierce battle broke out outside the front door, and Hepburn and her family hid in the basement for three weeks. On April 16, 1945, it was finally quiet. She smelled cigarettes, which was impossible to smell in wartime Holland. She climbed the stairs from the basement and opened the door to see five Canadian soldiers smoking cigarettes and pointing machine guns at her. Soon she started speaking to them in English. One exclaimed, “We didn’t just liberate a town. We liberated an English girl!”

Hepburn later told her son that she never forgave her mother for being sympathetic to fascists. When the war ended, she won a scholarship to the Rambert Ballet in London. Although she had talent, her constitution was permanently damaged by malnutrition and she did not have the strength to become a ballerina. Instead, she turned to acting, appearing in small roles in West End theater and films such as Lavender Hill Mob.

In 1953, she won her first lead role in Roman Holiday. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Hepburn went on to win an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award in addition to her Oscar for the film. She continued her philanthropic work throughout her career, particularly as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She passed away in 1993.

“Audrey’s instincts have been honed to such fine detail by the war and everything she’s been through, and she’s drawn on so much experience to be able to put herself in these different characters.” says Matzen.

*This article was adapted from a script by Alex von Tanselmann.

** in The youngest heroes of all timeactress Nicola Coughlan tells 12 true stories of rebellion and the radical power of youth. Past episodes have spotlighted Nelson Mandela, Lady Jane Grey, and Terry Fox. This series presents inspiring stories of forgotten and celebrated heroes who demonstrate that young people can change history.