Memories of My Sister

by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Near the gate of Fazal Manzil, Hazrat Inayat Khan's home in Suresnes, France, stands a memorial plaque:

Here lived Noor Inayat Khan 1914-1944
Called Madeleine in the Resistance
Shot at Dachau
Radio operator for the Buckmaster network
Awarded the French Croix de Guerre 1939-1945, and the English George Cross

She stood out among her schoolmates for her shyness. Her mysterious and luminous glance and slightly tanned face could not fail to attract notice. Undoubtedly she was intimidated by the teasing directed against any unfamiliar child, yet she answered with an understanding and winning smile. One could hardly believe that her mother was a blonde American with blue eyes, if it were not for certain hardly discernible features. Her father had come from India and settled in Suresnes. This Eastern sage drew people from all corners of the world to Suresnes.

She so greatly gained the affection of her school pals that they elected her for the prize of "good comradeship." When she was twelve years old, after the Master's death, she became a little mother to her brothers and sisters, as her mother was committed to bed for years, suffering from the physical symptoms of a broken heart. All those who knew her had a deep respect for her and were moved by some endearing feature of her being. Was it because she so deeply cared for all those she came across-even her jailers?

During the Second World War, this gentle girl distinguished herself by her courage as one of the heroes of the French Resistance. And yet, in the middle of her greatest acts of courage she was afraid, which makes her extreme courage the more remarkable. This should embolden those who are afraid of being cowards when tested.

On the eve of the war, Noor and I conferred deeply and at length on the pros and cons of our participation in the war. The problem was the same question asked today by conscientious objectors. We had been formed at the school of our father, an Eastern sage and teacher. Behind him lay the entire tradition of Eastern spirituality. The then budding Gandhian non-violent campaign had proven its effectiveness as a means of confronting violence but was barely explored in the West. And was this not the message of Christ? Was there not a contradiction in killing in order to stop manslaughter? But suppose a Nazi should hold hostages at gunpoint and starve them to death; it would be complicity in their murder if, having the means to kill the Nazi and unable to otherwise prevent him from carrying out his deed, we abstained from doing it in the name of non-violence. As we had that conversation, could we have ever imagined that one day Noor would find herself in the plight of the people she wanted to save?

In the face of the extermination of Jews, how could one preach spiritual morality without actively participating in preventive action? The secret behind Noor's courage was the spiritual power inspired by our father, Hazrat Inayat Khan: spiritual idealism in action, not just in words.

After our exodus from Paris, the convoys of cars were mowed down by the machine guns of the Nazi pilots zooming at ground level during the embarkation at Bordeaux. We volunteered, Noor in the secret service network linking up with the French underground, the Maquis, I as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force. The secret service discovered in Noor the ideal agent: she was bilingual and knew the French territory and French customs and so gentle that nobody could have suspected her daring.

During the intensive training at the limits of human endurance, Noor distinguished herself by her perseverance. So much depended upon the leverage applied by the French Underground from inside. At the critical moment before the D-Day landing in Normandy she remained the last radio operator on the Continent, ensuring the last link between the Allied Headquarters and the French Underground. The life and death of millions and the fate of generations after the war was to depend upon one spirited by the vocation of a hero who accepted the risk of the supreme sacrifice: torture.

She was denounced by a "friend," a sister of a colleague in the network who sold information about her whereabouts to the Gestapo for a fee of approximately one thousand francs. The annals of her interrogation are silent about the torture, but one gleans echoes that are filled with terror. Her attempts to escape resulted in her being chained in a cold prison in Pforzheim with one bowl of soup daily, made out of potato peel. Her ordeal lasted until the very moment when, as the Allies advanced into West German territory, they discovered the horrors of the concentration camp. She was immolated at the extermination camp of Dachau a few days before the Allies rescued those few who could still be saved from the carnage. A witness affirms having seen the gauleiter try to coerce her into saying, "Heil Hitler." She refused, saying, "The day will come when you will see the truth," wherefore she was whipped to death.

From The Crystal Chalice by Taj Inayat