Victor Gerson

Last updated

Haim Victor Gerson DSO, LdH (1st of August 1896, Southport, Royaume-Uni - 14 of April 1983, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), code name Rene, was a Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War. He organised the Vic escape line in France. Escape lines helped allied soldiers and airmen, SOE agents, and other people in danger to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe, usually by crossing the Pyrenees mountains into neutral Spain.

Contents

Early years

Haim Victor Gerson was born in August 1896 in Southport Lancashire as Haim Gershon Cohen, the son of a fabric merchant. [1] He was educated in England, then in Constantinople (Istanbul) and attended Manchester University

World War I

He joined the British army at the declaration of war and was sent to the Western Front In France and took part in the Battle of the Somme . [1] in the King's Liverpool regiment, promoted to Corporal, but was recalled to England for eventually joining in the secret services because of his knowledge in languages, however when it was discovered that his father still had Turkish nationality, therefore an enemy alien, he spent the rest of the war in a labour battalion in Northern France and demoted to private. His original battalion, within the King's Liverpool regiment was decimated.

After the war, he went to Paris where he was a dealer in fine rugs and carpets. He married Marcelle Nahoum the daughter of the chief rabbi of Egypt, Haim Nahoum Effendi, and had a son, then they divorced. He then married Giliana Balmaceda, a Chilean-born actress. [1]

World War II

On 18 June 1940 four days before the signing of the armistice between Germany and a defeated France, the couple escaped to England where both joined the Special Operations Executive. [2] In May 1941 Balmaceda was the first female SOE agent to be sent to France. [1] She went to Vichy France, the southern, unoccupied part of France, and collected information and administrative documents used in France, such as ration cards, which could be reproduced in England for use by agents on clandestine missions in France. [1] [3]

First mission

On the night of the 6/7 September 1941 Gerson was parachuted from a Whitley bomber, along with five other agents and landed near the Le Cerisier farm of Auguste Chantraine, Mayor of Tendu. He travelled to Lyon and Marseille, where he assessed the possibility of organising subversive networks in cities. [1] In October, he avoided arrest in Marseille as he was wary of the voice that gave him an appointment by phone, did not go there. He quickly left France and returned to London thanks to the help of Josep Rovira i Canals [4] [5] and his Service d'Evasion. When he arrived in London, he reported on his conclusions on the French willingness to resist the German occupation. [1]

Second mission

He was sent back in the field to set up a safe escape route through France into Spain using the personal connection to Josep Rovira.

Monument commemorating the landing of Capt. Peter Churchill from HMS Unbroken at Cap d'Antibes on 21 April 1942 Monument in memory of HMS Unbroken (plaque).jpg
Monument commemorating the landing of Capt. Peter Churchill from HMS Unbroken at Cap d'Antibes on 21 April 1942

In Operation DELAY II Peter Churchill’s mission was to land four SOE agents on the French Riviera by submarine. [6] On 26 February 1942 Churchill flew from Bristol to Gibraltar with two radio operators, Isidore Newman «Julien» for the URCHIN network and Edward Zeff «Matthieu» for the SPRUCE network, where they were joined by Marcel Clech «Bastien», radio operator for the AUTOGIRO network, and Victor Gerson «René», an SOE agent on a special mission to organise the VIC Escape Line. [6] [7] They travelled in HM Submarine P 42 “Unbroken” to Antibes where on the night of 21 April 1942 Churchill took Newman and Zeff and their radios to the shore by canoe, and led them to their contact Dr Élie Lévy. Churchill then returned to the submarine and dropped off Clech and Gerson by canoe at Pointe d’Agay near Fréjus [6]

Gerson and Clech went to Lyon where they met with SOE agent and American Virginia Hall. Gerson gradually built up an escape network to Spain with Lazare Rachline (Lucien Rachet) and Georges Levin, with Thérèse Mitrani in Lyon, René Feraggi in Marseille, and Jacques Mitterrand in Paris. He also installed groups in Perpignan, under Rovira and reponsble for the border crossings and Montpellier. Gerson entrusted Rachline to exfiltrate the eleven SOE agents after they escaped from Mauzac prison on 16 July 1942 and made their way through Spain to England. The escaping agents included Michael Trotobas and Georges Bégué.

On 19/20 August 1943 Gerson returned by plane to England, [8] and on 14 September returned to France in a Hudson bomber which landed in France and was met by Henri Déricourt.

Operating rules

Gerson imposed strict rules on his members within the VIC escape line: [1]

  • Members are known and designated only by pseudonyms.
  • The homes of regular members of the network are kept secret.
  • New members of the organisation give up all their former clandestine activities.
  • Any regular member breaks contact with his family and leaves the house where he lived before entering the network.
  • It is forbidden to carry papers or notes that give the names or addresses of contacts.
  • The verbal messages between the informant and the organiser through the mail are in hackneyed language, which the couriers cannot understand.
  • When a message cannot be in hazy language or the courier cannot remember it, it is written on fine tissue paper, inserted in a cigarette or carried so that it can be easily eaten or thrown away.
  • Passwords had to be given, word perfect, otherwise they would not be accepted.
  • Members in safe houses are not allowed to go out under any circumstances before it is time to depart.
  • Members should never visit a safe home without first checking the security of the house by phone.

Despite the circuit being penetrated three times by the Gestapo in June and October 1943 and January 1944, in which some members were arrested, the group was able to continue its activities. [1]

Gerson was arrested once while travelling on a train between Paris and Lyons, however his cover story was so convincing he was soon released. [1]

During the war he was infiltrated into France six times.

Post war

After the second world war he returned to Paris divorced his second wife, then remarried Yvonne Morin, his son Edward was killed in a motorcycle accident in May 1948 and Victor resumed his activity in fine rugs and carpets.

Recognition

Distinctions

Monument


Related Research Articles

Peter Morland Churchill, Croix de Guerre was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer in France during the Second World War. His wartime operations, which resulted in his capture and imprisonment in German concentration camps and his subsequent marriage to fellow SOE officer Odette Sansom, received considerable attention after the war, including a 1950 film.

Hugo Bleicher was a sergeant in Nazi Germany's Abwehr assigned to the Geheime Feldpolizei in German-occupied France during World War II. Described as a "super spy-catcher," Bleicher infiltrated resistance networks in France and was responsible for the arrest of more than one hundred French resistors and British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents. Most of the SOE agents he captured were later executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise Bloch</span> French espionage agent

Denise Madeleine Bloch was a French citizen who worked as an agent with the clandestine British Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in the Second World War. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fresnes Prison</span> Second largest prison in France

Fresnes Prison is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison of about 1200 cells, a smaller one for women and a penitentiary hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Agazarian</span> English espionage agent

Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian, code name Marcel, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Agazarian was a wireless operator with the Prosper network based in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Leigh</span> British SOE agent (1903–1944)

Vera Leigh was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive during World War II.

The SOE F Section timeline lists the significant events in the history of Section F of the Special Operations Executive. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a clandestine organization of the United Kingdom during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Section F was responsible for many of SOE's activities in France which was occupied by Nazi Germany.

The Carte network or Carte circuit or Carte organization was an early and illusory attempt at organizing French resistance to the occupation of France by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The creator of Carte, André Girard, claimed to have "plans in hand for preparing first sabotage teams, then larger guerilla groups, and finally a private army some 300,000 strong" to liberate France. Girard's army existed mainly on paper and in the minds of a community of artists, musicians, and students living on the French Riviera. Girard persuaded the United Kingdom's clandestine organization, the Special Operations Executive, (SOE) that his plan merited British help. Carte was eventually suppressed by the Germans and many of its members ended up in concentration camps or were executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Bégué</span> English/French espionage agent (1911–1993)

Georges Pierre André Bégué, code named Bombproof, was a French engineer and agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine organization, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of SOE in France, occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Anthony Morris Brooks, code name Alphonse, was a British espionage agent with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Brooks received the Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, Croix de guerre, and Légion d'honneur for his work as a leader of SOE's Pimento network sabotaging German reinforcements prior to and during the Normandy invasion. He later worked for the Foreign Office, and MI5 and MI6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isidore Newman</span> British espionage agent

Isidore Newman MBE CdeG MdeR was a British secret agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Basin</span> French secret agent

Francis Basin LdH CdeG MBE (1903–1975), code named Olive, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive in France during the Second World War. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Clech</span> French WW2 SOE espionage agent (1905-1944)

Marcel Clech was a French agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He was sent to France on three missions and worked as a wireless operator in three different networks before his arrest, and was executed at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.

Edward Zeff MBE Croix de Guerre (1904–1974) was a British agent of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Roger Bardet was a member of the French resistance organisation known as CARTE, based in Cannes, organised by André Girard. He was betrayed by a fellow agent and became a double agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Élie Lévy</span> French Resistance member during WWII

Élie Lévy LdH, MM, CdG with palm, CdG, (1895-1945) was a French medical doctor who was a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giliana Balmaceda</span> Special Operations Executive agent

Giliana Balmaceda became Giliana Gerson was a Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War. She was the first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France.

Georges Duboudin (1907–1945) was a French Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escape and evasion lines (World War II)</span> WW II network helping downed airmen to evade capture

Escape and evasion lines in World War II helped people escape European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. The focus of most escape lines in Western Europe was assisting British and American airmen shot down over occupied Europe to evade capture and escape to neutral Spain or Sweden from where they could return to the United Kingdom. A distinction is sometimes made between "escapers" and "evaders". Most of those helped by escape lines were evaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Trotobas</span> British espionage agent

Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas, code named Sylvestre and known in France as Capitaine Michel, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II in France. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Spartacus Educational Publishers - Victor Gerson
  2. ↑ The National Archives : HS 9/575/4 - Haim Victor GERSON
  3. ↑ F Section SOE: The Story of the Buckmaster Network. Marcel Ruby, Pen and Sword, 26 Sep 1988
  4. ↑ https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/194594/1/694416.pdf
  5. ↑ Coll, Josep; Una vida al servei de Catalunya i del socialisme, 1978
  6. 1 2 3 Duel of Wits , Peter Churchill, Hodder and Stoughton, 1953
  7. ↑ Nigel Perrin
  8. ↑ Hugh Verity, We landed by Moonlight, 2004. ISBN   2-913-66310-9
  9. ↑ The National Archives, WO 373/93/165: Recommendation for Award for Gerson, Haim Victor

External sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.