By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
I was fortunate to be in a history class in Chicago on a quiet Friday afternoon.
It was at a time when a teacher could set aside a planned program and discuss a fascinating bit of history not found in our books.
And so we listened attentively to our History teacher. He told us of a courageous one–legged woman. She had lost her left leg in a hunting accident and had a wooden prosthesis.
On the Central Intelligence website: “Who is this brave woman? Some knew her as Marie, Monin, Germaine, Diane, Camille and even Nicolas, but we know her as Virginia Hall”
Virginia had studied French and Economics and was determined to join the United States Foreign Service.
Bitterly, our teacher said that women were not often hired by the Department of State. Virginia was eventually turned down as there was a rule that people with disabilities could not be hired as Diplomats!!
But Virginia found some leverage. She had a friend who had a friend who used his influence to get her an appointment with the brand new Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Her first posting was in France where she used the cover of a reporter for the New York Post.
During World War II, there was not a lot of sophisticated technology.
Her resourcefulness and creativity led her to find ways to transmit intelligence about troop movements and other information.
She might put a potted geranium in her window signaling a pickup. And the pickup could be a message behind a loose brick. Sometimes it might indicate that a bartender at a certain establishment would hand over a glass with something adhering to the bottom. Being a reporter for the New York Post enabled her to file news stories with embedded coded messages.
There were many escaped prisoners and others who were being hunted by the Gestapo. Where could they hide from the Nazis? The Limping Lady found a brothel and it became a safe house.
She established networks of agents and worked with the French resistance. The Nazis were especially keen to hunt her down. The Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie said that he would give anything to get his hands “on that limping bitch.” The Third Reich knew that Virginia was responsible for a great deal of sabotage and many jail breaks. My teacher commented that the Nazis had put her on their most wanted list, but only as The Limping Lady. Not only were they unable to apprehend her, but had been unable to learn her real name.
My teacher told us that Virginia went on to become one of the most feared Allied spies of World War II.
She was the only civilian woman to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in World War II. President Truman wanted a public ceremony. She refused as she was still operational at the time.
The French recognized her work with the Croix die Guerre and the British awarded her an MBE, Member of the Order of the British Empire
She eventually signed on with the United States Office of Strategic Service (OSS), which later became the CIA.
I learned that it is unusual for the CIA museum to give an individual operative their own section, Virginia Hall has one.
Wikipedia notes that the CIA acknowledged that fellow officers, “felt she had been sidelined—shunted into back water accounts because she had so much experience that she overshadowed her male colleagues who felt threatened by her.”
And she did it all with her wooden leg that she named “Cuthbert.”
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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