Episode description

Robert Alesh’s hunt for “The Limping Lady” brings him to the doorstep of Resistance operative Dr. Jean Rousset. Alesh tricks the doctor into believing he is a new courier for the French Resistance. In reality, he was a Nazi spy working directly for infamous SS officer Klaus Barbie.

Virginia Hall had successfully managed to save a British pilot from German clutches, but the rescue came with a cost. She’d exposed her alias to the Nazis and now she had to move. Virginia abandons her safe house and sets up another. Up to this point, Virginia could move about in France without much push-back. She could use her status as an American to fend off a stint in a German prison so long as she wasn’t actively stirring up trouble. It was still the middle of 1941, and the US hadn’t officially entered the War.

Between her rescue of the British pilot and Alesh’s visit to Dr. Rousset’s home, The Limping Lady had become a major thorn in the side of the SS. She had managed to gather intel of German missions and plots to target British strongholds in France that gave the Brits an edge. The Limping Lady was considered by the SS to be the leader of a new Resistance network named HECKLER, that supplied Resistance members with weaponry, housing, and escape routes out of the country. In reality, Virginia wasn’t just the leader of HECKLER, but the founder.

This episode contains interviews with:

• Christopher Dillon: a senior lecturer of modern German history at King's College London. In 2015, he published a book called Dachau and the SS: A Schooling in Violence

• Abe Malnik: A Holocaust survivor and former prisoner at the Dachau concentraition camp. Contains clips from interviews with Abe Malnik from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Eyewitness Project and Edith Fierst. © Holocaust Eyewitness Project. For more info visit USHMM

Learn more at diversionaudio.com/good-assassins

“Good Assassins” is a production of Diversion Audio, in association with iHeartPodcasts. Featuring the voices of Matthew Amendt, Orlagh Cassidy, Raphael Corkhill, Manoel Felciano, Sean Gormley, Mikaela Izquierdo, Lenne Klingaman, Andrew Polk, John Pirkis, Steve Routman.

This season is hosted by Stephan Talty and written by C.D. Carpenter. Produced and directed by Kevin Thomsen for Real Jetpacks Productions. Story Editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman. Additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by Tyler Cash. Sound Design, Mixing, and Mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound Editing by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive Producers: Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and Scott Waxman for Diversion Audio. 

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