Este sitio utiliza cookies para ofrecer nuestros servicios, mejorar el rendimiento, análisis y (si no estás registrado) publicidad. Al usar LibraryThing reconoces que has leído y comprendido nuestros términos de servicio y política de privacidad. El uso del sitio y de los servicios está sujeto a estas políticas y términos.
EN 1942 LA GESTAPO ENVIÓ UNA TRANSMISIÓN URGENTE: «ELLA ES LA MÁS PELIGROSA DE TODAS LAS ESPÍAS ALIADAS. DEBEMOS ENCONTRARLA Y DESTRUIRLA». Virginia Hall, una joven estadounidense rechazada por el Servicio de su país por ser mujer y por haber perdido la pierna izquierda, fue la primera espía en ingresar a una misión secreta en Francia durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Sus proezas son muestra del valor y la astucia que la caracterizaron como agente. Se infiltró como periodista en Vichy y en Lyon, peligrosamente cerca de los nazis; organizó una red de agentes bajo el territorio enemigo; liberó a prisioneros de situaciones que parecían irremediables; y hasta dinamitó puentes para sabotear las operaciones alemanas. Su fama la consagró como la Dama Coja: la espía más buscada por la Gestapo. Con todo y Cuthbert, su pierna prostética, cruzó los Pirineos a pie para huir de los nazis y, después de la guerra, se convirtió en una de las primeras agentes de la CIA. Virginia fue una de las espías más grandes de la historia; sin embargo, su vida permanecía sin contarse... hasta ahora. Una mujer sin importancia revela el cautivador relato de una heroína poderosa, influyente y sorprendentemente ignorada. Gracias a su capacidad para sobrepasar sus limitaciones físicas y la discriminación de género, Virginia Hall logró cambiar el curso de la historia.La historia inédita de la espía que burló a la Gestapo.… (más)
Virginia Hall was one of the most amazing women who most of us have never heard of. Purnell gives a good history of this brave and intelligent woman who, although she was American, worked with the British to organize groups of the French Resistance to sabotage and attack the Germans leading up to the after the D-Day landings. And it wasn't just the great work she accomplished; all the way along she had to combat male chauvinism and hide her disability to be able to do what she did.
is yet another book that shows how grossly incompetent the SOE was. If they achieved anything, and they did achieve a lot, it was because of the excellent men and women who went into the field and not because of those who directed from behind their desks in London. Many of those in London, and particularly Maurice Buckmaster, the head of the French section, should have been court-martialed or put on trial after the war. Instead they bestowed honors upon him. ( )
Virginia Hall was a woman of great importance. Her undercover work in the Second World War marks her as one of the greatest spies in American history. The dangers she faced, the risks she took, and the hardships she endured all for the sake of helping the French Resistance are unparalleled. That being said, this book was a slog to get through. Poorly organized, with numerous characters and many code names, it was difficult to keep track of the characters and their actions. Though evidently well researched, I never really got to know the people in this book, including the main character, so little was actually said about the people. This should have been a gripping account of a fascinating woman. Instead, because of its dry narrative and over abundance of facts that overwhelmed the reader without grasping the heart of Virginia Hall, it was not. ( )
Profiles the life of Virginia Hall, a socialite, who became the first Allied woman in WWII to be sent behind enemy lines. Despite her prosthetic leg, she helped establish spy networks throughout France, and even when her cover was blown, she refused orders to evacuate. Though she finally escaped France, she went back, saying that she had more lives to save.
This was an astounding story of Virginia Hall and the many amazing things she did during the war. She endured cold, lack of food and pain from her prosthetic leg but never stopped working to sabotage the Germans. She was extremely loyal to the other people who were working with her and risking their lives too. She planned a number of prison breaks for those people who had been captured and succeeded. I also learned a lot about France’s situation during the war which filled gaps in my knowledge. An excellent and fascinating true story. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The Resistance was a way of life. ... We see ourselves there utterly free ... as unknown and unknowable version of ourselves, the kind of people no one can ever find again, who existed only in relation to unique and terrible conditions ... to ghosts, or to the dead ... [Yet] I would call that moment of my life "Happiness." —Jean Cassou, Toulouse Resistance leader and poet
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convicted Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist. —Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls. —Robert F. Kennedy
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For Sue 1951-2017. Courage comes in many forms.
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
[Prologue] France was falling.
Mrs. Barbara Hall had it all worked out.
[Epilogue] Virginia did not receive the recognition she deserved during her CIA career, but toward the end of her life there were signs that her legacy was becoming better understood.
Citas
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
[Prologue] Even that, though, was not enough for her.
When they talked with awe and affection of her incredible exploits, they smiled and looked up at the wide, open skies with "les etoiles dans les yeux."
EN 1942 LA GESTAPO ENVIÓ UNA TRANSMISIÓN URGENTE: «ELLA ES LA MÁS PELIGROSA DE TODAS LAS ESPÍAS ALIADAS. DEBEMOS ENCONTRARLA Y DESTRUIRLA». Virginia Hall, una joven estadounidense rechazada por el Servicio de su país por ser mujer y por haber perdido la pierna izquierda, fue la primera espía en ingresar a una misión secreta en Francia durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Sus proezas son muestra del valor y la astucia que la caracterizaron como agente. Se infiltró como periodista en Vichy y en Lyon, peligrosamente cerca de los nazis; organizó una red de agentes bajo el territorio enemigo; liberó a prisioneros de situaciones que parecían irremediables; y hasta dinamitó puentes para sabotear las operaciones alemanas. Su fama la consagró como la Dama Coja: la espía más buscada por la Gestapo. Con todo y Cuthbert, su pierna prostética, cruzó los Pirineos a pie para huir de los nazis y, después de la guerra, se convirtió en una de las primeras agentes de la CIA. Virginia fue una de las espías más grandes de la historia; sin embargo, su vida permanecía sin contarse... hasta ahora. Una mujer sin importancia revela el cautivador relato de una heroína poderosa, influyente y sorprendentemente ignorada. Gracias a su capacidad para sobrepasar sus limitaciones físicas y la discriminación de género, Virginia Hall logró cambiar el curso de la historia.La historia inédita de la espía que burló a la Gestapo.
)
)
)
Google Books — Cargando...
2
is yet another book that shows how grossly incompetent the SOE was. If they achieved anything, and they did achieve a lot, it was because of the excellent men and women who went into the field and not because of those who directed from behind their desks in London. Many of those in London, and particularly Maurice Buckmaster, the head of the French section, should have been court-martialed or put on trial after the war. Instead they bestowed honors upon him. (