Dachau Avenged: Romance & Tragedy: A Couple's Remarkable SOE War in Occupied Europe

They were lovers, training to be agents at secret 'war schools' in the Oxfordshire countryside. Wed in London in 1943 their honeymoon was a 72 hour leave pass, the extent of their married life. They parted and flew into Occupied Europe to join the Resistance. Jaap Beekman returned from Holland a decorated hero. Yolande Beekman died at the hands of the Gestapo in Dachau. Her fate remained a mystery for almost two years as her husband and her mother badgered Special Operations Executive (SOE) to tell them the awful truth. Many of Jaap's Dutch colleagues were caught because German spy catcher Hermann Giskes ran a deadly counter espionage operation, tricking SOE personnel into thinking messages he composed came from their agents. After being captured Giskes astounded his interrogators, describing how after the Germans occupied France in 1940 he uncovered a ring of Allied helpers, both British and French, among Parisian high society.