Beekman, Yolande Elsa Maria, 1911-1944
Yolande Elsa Maria Beekman (7 January 1911 – 13 September 1944) was a British spy in World War II who served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and the Special Operations Executive.[1][2][3] She was a member of SOE's Musician circuit in occupied France during World War II where she operated as a wireless operator until arrested by the Gestapo.[4] She was subsequently executed at the Dachau concentration camp.[4]
Early life
Beekman was born Yolande Elsa Maria Unternährer to a Swiss father and an English mother in Paris.[3] As a child, she moved to London and grew up fluent in English, German, and French. Young Yolande had a gentle disposition and liked to draw, so her family expected that she would become a designer or illustrator.[5] After schooling in England she was sent to a Swiss finishing school.[3] When World War II broke out, Beekman joined the WAAF where she trained as a W/T operator. Because of her language skills and wireless expertise, Beekman was recruited by the SOE for work in occupied France, officially joining the SOE on 15 February 1943. She trained with Noor Inayat Khan and Yvonne Cormeau.[3]
In 1943, Beekman married Sergeant Jaap Beekman of the Netherlands Army, whom she had met on the W/T operator's course, but a short time after her marriage she said goodbye to her husband and was flown behind enemy lines in France. Beekman was landed in France on the night of 17/18 September 1943, having been flown in a Double Lysander aircraft in operation Millner.[3][6] In France, Beekman operated the wireless for Gustave Biéler, the Canadian in charge of the Musician circuit at Saint-Quentin in the département of Aisne, using the codenames "Mariette" and "Kilt" (wireless codename), and the alias "Yvonne".[3] She also transmitted messages for the adjacent Farmer network, headed by Michael Trotobas.[7] Beekman became an efficient and valued agent who, in addition to her all important radio transmissions to London, took charge of the distribution of materials dropped by Allied planes.[3]he next day Biéler arrived at the café to discuss where she should go next, but the Gestapo were now ready to make their haul. Two men walked in and drew revolvers, arresting all those inside.[3]
Prison Beekman was transported to Fresnes Prison several kilometres outside Paris. Again she was interrogated and brutalized repeatedly.[citation needed] In May 1944, Beekman was moved with several other captured SOE agents to the civilian prison for women at Karlsruhe in Germany, where she encountered a prisoner named Hedwig Müller (a nurse arrested by the Gestapo in 1944). Beekman was abruptly transferred to Dachau concentration camp with fellow agents Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan, and Eliane Plewman. At dawn on the following morning, 13 September, the four women were executed by Wilhelm Ruppert.[10]
A Gestapo man named Max Wassmer was in charge of prisoner transports at Karlsruhe and accompanied the women to Dachau.[11] Another Gestapo man named Christian Ott gave a statement to American investigators after the war as to the fate of Beekman and her three companions. Ott was stationed at Karlsruhe and volunteered to accompany the four women to Dachau as he wanted to visit his family in Stuttgart on the return journey.[13] Though not present at the execution, Ott told investigators what Wassmer had told him. Beekman's actions were recognized by the government of France with the posthumous awarding of the Croix de Guerre. In addition, she is recorded on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England and as one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, she is listed on the "Roll of Honour" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre département of France. A later memorial, the SOE Agents Memorial in Lambeth Palace Road (Westminster, London), is dedicated to all SOE agents.
