British opera singer turned spy for Hitler
Smiling enigmatically, this is the British opera singer-turned-spy who captivated Adolf Hitler.
Margery Booth led a double life inside Nazi Germany, where she performed for Hitler and his henchmen while smuggling the Third Reich's secrets to British intelligence.
She helped British prisoners of war to send coded messages back to spy chiefs in London, and even performed for the Fuehrer with cyphers hidden inside her costume.
A British Army officer shoved the secret papers down her dress at the Berlin State Opera, just moments before she went onstage to sing for Hitler and his cohorts.
Discovery would have meant almost certain death for the mezzo-soprano, who endured regular questioning by the Gestapo.
But Hitler was so taken by her performances that he once visited her dressing room, and later sent her 200 red roses, wrapped in a sash with a swastika on it.
The Army officer who used the singer to send his coded messages, John Brown, was hailed as a hero after the war, when his evidence was used in the treason trial of William Joyce, the traitor Lord Haw Haw.
But Miss Booth's bravery has gone largely unrecognised, and calls for her to receive a posthumous honour have gone unheeded.
So little was known about her war-time efforts that this photograph of her has only just come to light, almost 60 years after her death....
Read entire article at Daily Mail (UK)
Margery Booth led a double life inside Nazi Germany, where she performed for Hitler and his henchmen while smuggling the Third Reich's secrets to British intelligence.
She helped British prisoners of war to send coded messages back to spy chiefs in London, and even performed for the Fuehrer with cyphers hidden inside her costume.
A British Army officer shoved the secret papers down her dress at the Berlin State Opera, just moments before she went onstage to sing for Hitler and his cohorts.
Discovery would have meant almost certain death for the mezzo-soprano, who endured regular questioning by the Gestapo.
But Hitler was so taken by her performances that he once visited her dressing room, and later sent her 200 red roses, wrapped in a sash with a swastika on it.
The Army officer who used the singer to send his coded messages, John Brown, was hailed as a hero after the war, when his evidence was used in the treason trial of William Joyce, the traitor Lord Haw Haw.
But Miss Booth's bravery has gone largely unrecognised, and calls for her to receive a posthumous honour have gone unheeded.
So little was known about her war-time efforts that this photograph of her has only just come to light, almost 60 years after her death....