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Miss Conduct S02 E02: Noor Inayat Khan

IVM Staff

Noor Inayat Khan was a British- Indian spy who was born in Russia and grew up largely in France. When World War II hit the continent, Noor and her family moved to England to escape the violence. Noor was a pacifist her whole life… till the war happened. And then she decided to contribute in the best way she knew how. 

She was recruited into the army’s Special Operations Executive. She started off as a wireless operator, the first female one in all of England. She perfected her craft so much that she was sent into the enemy front in France, in the middle of the Nazi invasion. Here she helped countless field spies and intelligence officers of the Allied Powers escape capture by the Nazis. She did for several months, and was eventually captured by the Gestapo. She spent many months in a cold, wet jail, being interrogated and tortured by the Nazis, but she never spoke a word about her job or the work of the British intelligence agencies. 

In 1944, Noor Inayat Khan was sent to the Dachau concentration camp by the Gestapo, where she was tortured and executed. Today, she is honoured for her courage, and was awarded the George Cross by the British government in 1949.

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