How Audrey Hepburn Became a Secret Spy During World War II

As an adolescent rising up within the Netherlands, the Oscar-winning actress courageously carried messages for the Dutch resistance in the course of the Nazi occupation.

On the BBC Radio 4 podcast The youngest heroes in historyNicola Coughlan shines a light-weight on extraordinary tales of youth rebel, risk-taking and radical energy, telling the tales of younger individuals who have modified the world all through historical past.

The newest episode targeted on Audrey Hepburn, who grew to become an icon of cinema and style within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties. She was nominated for 5 Oscars and received Best Actress in 1953 for her efficiency in Roman Holiday. However, as an adolescent in the course of the Second World War, he performed a really completely different position: staging secret ballet performances to lift funds for the Dutch resistance to Nazi occupation.

Hepburn was born in Brussels in 1929 to a Dutch baroness, Ella van Heemstra, and a British-Austrian businessman, Joseph Hepburn-Ruston. In London, his dad and mom have been interested in Oswald Mosley, chief of the violent and anti-Semitic British Union of Fascists (BUF). Van Heemstra wrote an article for the BUF journal about what he noticed because the glories of Nazi Germany. Hepburn-Ruston deserted the household when Hepburn was six. He would later be arrested as an “affiliate of international fascists” and spend the conflict in British prisons.

“Since she was a toddler, we all know, she was extroverted, she laughed, performed, acted. My grandfather referred to as her ‘puzzle monkey'”, says Luca Dotti, the actress’s youngest son, to Robert Matzen, creator of Dutch Girl, who tells Hepburn’s life. life throughout World War II, in an interview for History’s Youngest Heroes.

“Audrey’s mom determined that England generally and Kent specifically weren’t the appropriate place for Audrey due to the sudden, looming risk that the Germans would storm France and launch an invasion of England,” says Matzen.

Van Heemstra withdrew his daughter from British boarding college. They moved to a household property within the Netherlands and Audrey enrolled in a dance college, with a extra Dutch-sounding title, Adriaantje van Heemstra (she would later change her surname to Hepburn when she started appearing). His mom nonetheless admired Adolf. Hitler and believed that he would by no means invade “his” nation.

“Moving to Holland did not imply shifting house. She could not converse Dutch. She needed to go to a Dutch college with out understanding a single phrase with the brand new children teasing her,” Dotti says of her mom’s expertise within the Netherlands.

Hitler invaded and occupied the Netherlands in May 1940. “The Eastern Front was a furnace into which assets couldn’t be poured quick sufficient. The Germans wanted meals for the troops, they wanted garments for the troops, and all the pieces was being taken over by the Dutch and different occupied nations,” Matzen says of the scenario.

Hepburn’s uncle, Count Otto van Limburg Stirum, took a principled stand in opposition to the Nazis. In 1942, a resistance group tried to explode a German practice close to Rotterdam. Although van Limburg Stirum was not concerned, he was arrested as a result of he was a number one anti-Nazi determine. Nazi brokers took him and 4 others into the forest, shot them and dumped their our bodies in unmarked graves. Hepburn beloved her uncle like a surrogate father and was devastated by his homicide. “It grew to become a nationwide incident, some extent of incitement for the Dutch individuals,” Matzen says.

Although his household was privileged, the Nazis diverted meals and assets from the Netherlands and the Van Heemstra household went hungry. When Hepburn turned 15, she was ordered to hitch the Nazis Chamber of Culturethe artists’ union, or quit performing in public. He selected to surrender performing.

“Through dance she might dream, she might fly, she might overlook. It was how she escaped actuality,” Dotti says of her mom’s ardour. Hepburn danced in a secure home with the shutters closed and solely a candle for gentle, in order to not be found. A piano performed very softly as he carried out, however there might be no applause. At the top of the present cash was raised for the resistance.

In the spring of 1944, Hepburn volunteered as an assistant to a health care provider, Hendrik Visser ‘t Hooft, who was a member of the resistance. Although Hepburn’s mom was broadly thought of a Nazi collaborator, Visser ‘t Hooft was in determined want of assist to assist hundreds of people that have been hiding from the Nazis. He trusted her sufficient to convey her right here.

On September 17, 1944, Hepburn was in church when the hymn was interrupted by the hum of engines. Operation Market Garden, a plan by Allied forces to grab 9 bridges over the Rhine River, had begun, and when he ran outdoors and seemed up, hundreds of Allied troops have been descending by parachute.

Unfortunately, two closely armored Nazi divisions have been massing within the space. Nazi tanks rolled previous the Van Heemstra home. Hepburn and her household hid within the cellar whereas the battle raged for 9 days. When they emerged, it was information that the Nazis had received. He heard screams coming from a constructing the place the Nazis have been finishing up reprisals: torturing and killing members of the Dutch resistance.

When Allied airmen heading to Germany needed to make an emergency touchdown within the Netherlands, Visser ‘t Hooft despatched Hepburn into the forest to satisfy a British paratrooper with code phrases and a secret message hidden in his sock. He made the assembly, however when he got here out of the forest he noticed the Dutch police approaching. She bent down to select wildflowers, then flirtatiously introduced them to the police. They have been fascinated and didn’t query her additional. Subsequently, he typically carried messages for the resistance.

“He strongly believed that there was a battle between good and evil and that you need to take sides,” Dotti says.

“The Germans did not take youngsters severely. ‘Get out of the way in which, boy.’ You know, this type of factor the Dutch have been sensible sufficient to grasp that the kids, as a result of they weren’t suspected of something, might be those who unfold the messages, who did these important issues for the resistance, and the kids beloved it. It was thrilling, harmful and so they grew to become heroes of the resistance,” provides Matzen.

In February 1945, it was reported that 500 Dutch have been dying of hunger each week. Like so many others, Hepburn and her household have been desperately wanting meals. He grew to become severely unwell with anemia, jaundice and edema.

As fierce preventing raged on their doorstep once more, Hepburn and her household hid within the cellar for 3 weeks. Finally, on April 16, 1945, all the pieces calmed down. He might scent tobacco, which was unimaginable to seek out within the Netherlands in the course of the conflict. He climbed the steps from the cellar and opened the door to see 5 Canadian troopers smoking cigarettes and pointing machine weapons at them. He instantly started chatting with them in English. One shouted: “Not solely have we liberated a metropolis, we have liberated an English woman!”

Hepburn later instructed her son that she had by no means forgiven her mom’s fascist sympathies. When the conflict ended, he received a scholarship to the Ballet Rambert in London. Although she was proficient, her structure was completely broken by malnutrition and she or he lacked the stamina to develop into a dancer. Instead, she turned to appearing, with small roles in West End theater and in movies akin to The Lavender Hill Mob.

In 1953 he acquired his first main position in Roman Holiday. It was an enormous important and business success, and along with the Oscar for that movie, Hepburn would win Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards. Throughout her profession, she has continued to do charitable work, most notably as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef. He died in 1993.

“Audrey’s instincts have been honed to the max by the conflict and all the pieces she went by, and she or he had a lot expertise to attract on that she was capable of put herself into the completely different characters,” says Matzen.

* This article is customized from a screenplay by Alex von Tunzelmann.

** In The youngest heroes in historyactress Nicola Coughlan tells 12 true tales of rebel and the unconventional energy of younger individuals. Past episodes have highlighted Nelson Mandela, Lady Jane Gray and Terry Fox. The collection showcases the inspiring tales of forgotten and well-known younger heroes who demonstrated how younger individuals can change historical past.