Interview with Odette Hallowes GC OBE

237721925
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945850385
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.
1002387813
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.
132177710
Order this sound recording under fair dealing

All Rights Reserved except for Fair Dealing exceptions otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised.

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Description

Object description

SOE agent during Second World War; active service in France (1942 - 1943), arrest and imprisonment in Ravensbrueck camp (1943 - 1945).

Content description

REEL 1: Discussion of nature of ‘bravery’, the influence of her father’s First World War death during her formative years, her move from France to Somerset in the UK, recruitment into Special Operations Executive (SOE), her expectations of covert service in occupied France, her children’s ignorance over her wartime service, her survival of Meningitis and Polio as a child and the lifelong effects on her health, childhood support from her grandfather, her receipt of full disability pension after her wartime captivity and slow rehabilitation, her current life (1981) and love of gardening, the pressures of post-war fame and living up to public expectations, interest in her life from younger generations, appeals for help from the public, discussion of nature of modesty and undeserved fame. REEL 2: Lack of nightmares after returning from war, her general sense of optimism, attitude to post-war world, clothing issued to her for service in occupied France, her mission initially in Cannes, attitude to perceived treachery, her own avoidance of threats and blackmail, post-war attempts to contact her by former agent of the German Abwehr Hugo Bleicher (‘Sergeant Henri’) who arrested Odette in April 1943, visits from Bleicher during her imprisonment, Gestapo interrogation techniques, lasting physical pain from her torture, the importance of her Christianity. REEL 3: Discussion about the nature of fear, how she was able to muster strength, survivor guilt, endorsement of the biography and film of her life, discussion about recent television documentaries on SOE, recollections about the Royal Command Performance of the film ‘Odette’ (6 June 1950) and its French showing at the Paris Opera, the wartime service of her husband Captain Geoffrey Hallowes (also present during the interview) and how she met him, her first marriage to Roy Sansom and move to Britain. REEL 4: How her failed marriage had inspired her recruitment by SOE, the French heritage of her daughters, her second marriage to Peter Churchill but differences of opinion after the war, her continued affection for France, the then-current economic problems in Britain (1981), dangers of loose talk amongst French resistance, sensitivity to needs of workers, immediate distrust of the French agent who eventually betrayed her, visiting her mother in occupied Paris, lack of expectations for the post-war world, faith in next generation.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1945-1989 (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: Hallowes, Odette Marie Céline (Interviewee/Speaker)
Huntley, Walter (Recorder)
Production date: 1981
Catalogue number: 37171

Object associations

Associated people and organisations

Hallowes, Odette Marie Céline

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