♪♪ Narrator: The war in Europe has ended.

The survivors begin to rebuild their lives and look to the future.

Miller: Europe is in chaos at the end of the war.

These countries have been liberated, but you have lack of resources, refugees, bombed-out cities.

Narrator: But for one woman, the war is far from over.

She's the leader of an elite British task force called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and she's in France, on a mission to track down missing agents.

Her name is Vera Atkins.

If you had to design a spy from AI, I think you would end up creating someone like Vera.

She committed herself entirely to the SOE mission.

She believed in it.

Narrator: Her agents faced constant danger.

Deep in enemy territory, they had to rely on their wits and training to avoid capture.

Out of 470 agents sent to France, 118 disappeared, including 13 women.

Vera Atkins is determined to find out what happens to the women.

She's the one who sent them in the field.

She had personally said goodbye to each one.

Narrator: Vera's search will be a painful one.

But it reveals a tale of bravery and determination.

Vera Atkins and her SOE recruits weren't the only women to fight behind enemy lines in World War II.

Across Europe and America, thousands lived a double life, often facing certain death.

These are their extraordinary, unknown stories.

These young women were so dedicated to the cause.

They wanted to do whatever it took.

Van de Perre: I was scared, of course, but I just did the job because it had to be done.

These women risked everything to go undercover.

They risked their safety, they risked their families, and they risked their freedom.

All of these women made a contribution that changed the course of the war.

♪♪ ♪♪ Narrator: September 1939 -- Hitler invades Poland.

Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany.

But once Poland is crushed, an uneasy calm descends.

Some people think that it was just straight into bombs and bullets and tanks and fighting.

In fact, for several months not a lot really happens.

Yeah, we're technically at war, but it's kind of a fake war.

It's a phoney war.

Nothing's really going on.

Narrator: While the British and French governments imposed wartime restrictions, for many life carried on as normal.

In Paris, the nightlife was as vibrant as ever.

Its star was an African-American singer and dancer named Josephine Baker.

Chresfield: Josephine Baker was an international superstar, one of our first real examples of modern celebrity.

She becomes one of the most highly paid artists in history and really makes a name for herself as a figure who is larger than life.

Narrator: Born and brought up in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker started out as a dancer in New York, but a move to Paris in 1925 cemented her stardom.

Professor Hanna Diamond is currently researching Josephine's life and has come to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, where Josephine's Paris career began.

Diamond: Let's just imagine Josephine Baker coming here, her first real proper performance in Paris.

The scene that really got the attention and got the audience on their feet, as it were, was the scene when she's carried in on the back of a dancer.

And he deposits her, and she goes into this extraordinary movement.

♪♪ Parisians had never seen anything like it before.

Narrator: In 1930's Paris, African culture was the height of fashion.

By performing this so-called "Savage Dance," Josephine conformed to French stereotypes about Africa.

Her performances conjured up notions of the continent of Africa.

Some people felt that she had come from the continent of Africa directly with her tribal dance.

Narrator: Josephine's popularity and freedom in Paris was in stark contrast to her life in segregated America.

Paris for Josephine represented freedom.

This was the space in which she could pursue her dream.

She was called the "Nefertiti of Now," the "Black Venus."

She's able to really capitalise on this interest for the furtherance of her career.

Narrator: But by the time of the Phoney War in late 1939, not everything was as it seemed.

Josephine's vibrant persona hid a mysterious double life.

Diamond: Photos of her performing at the Casino De Paris really show what a wonderful performer she was.

Little would we have known that she actually had a whole other secret life.

Narrator: After Hitler invaded Poland, French Military Intelligence approached Josephine and recruited her as a secret agent.

♪♪ ♪♪ French Intelligence urgently needed information on Italy and Japan, who they feared would enter the war on the side of Nazi Germany.

And while the French typically recruited male agents, Josephine Baker offered something special.

When we think of spies, we often think of people who are flying under the radar, who are not trying to be noticed.

And the thing about Josephine Baker is she is on the radar, very much the centre of attention, and she uses this star power to her advantage.

And people don't suspect anything because she's Josephine Baker.

Narrator: For Josephine, helping defeat the Nazis was personal.

She had encountered the brutality of fascism while touring Austria and Germany in the early 1930s.

When Josephine was approached by Intelligence Officer Jacques Abtey, she readily accepted his offer to spy for France.

She says to him very movingly, "France made me what I am.

I am prepared to give her my life."

And I think he was convinced thereafter that at least it was worth trying her out and seeing whether she could perform in the way he needed her to.

Narrator: Josephine soon proved her worth.

Her star status bought her invitations an ordinary spy could only dream of.

Attending events at embassies and consulates, she mixed with high-profile diplomats and military officials.

Diamond: She was able to pick up information about whether Italy would enter the war, what the war ambitions were of the Japanese.

She talks about rushing off to the ladies and writing things down on her arm and covering it up so that she's got all this information to report back to Jacques Abtey, who's actually pretty impressed with the stuff she comes up with.

Chresfield: For a black woman to be invested with this kind of trust, this kind of responsibility, it is unprecedented for the time.

And so, she's doing very important work and changing expectations.

And that is really, really significant.

Narrator: But in June 1940, everything changed.

Hitler invaded France.

The fall of Paris is one of those world-changing moments.

This is a nightmare scenario for the French.

There is effectively a swastika on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Narrator: Like many Parisians, Josephine fled the capital, her world turned upside down.

She took refuge in a chateau in the Dordogne.

Then on 18th of June, 1940, the exiled leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, broadcast a message to inspire his homeland to fight.

de Gaulle: “Nous croyons que l'honneur des Français consiste à continuer la guerre au côté de leurs alliés.

Et nous sommes résolu à le faire.

Diamond: Josephine Baker allegedly hears this call to arms and is really caught up in the romance of this need to get to London to be at de Gaulle's side.

Narrator: In war-torn France, military Intelligence asked superstar spy Josephine Baker to smuggle information out of the country.

In the guise of a theatre tour, she and Jacques Abtey risked everything to take classified documents across the border into neutral Spain and Portugal, where they were then sent on to London.

Diamond: They've written on sheets of her music, in invisible ink, information about German troop movements that they hope to be able to pass on to London via this trip to Lisbon.

Narrator: While Josephine diverted attention, Jacques, posing as her secretary, was able to carry these papers past border control unnoticed.

Diamond: Nobody gives him a second look.

He just slips through in the background.

Works a treat.

Narrator: The mission was a success.

The papers -- with their hidden messages -- were safely delivered to the British Embassy in Lisbon and sent on to de Gaulle.

By 1941, France had become much too dangerous for Josephine.

So, French Intelligence gave her a new mission -- in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Casablanca is a real hotbed of spies and actually in real life, it is like the film "Casablanca."

There are a hell of a lot of shady types.

Why?

Actually, it's because it's a really strategically vital place.

Narrator: At the gateway to the Mediterranean, with a deep port suitable for warships, Casablanca was somewhere the Nazis wanted to control.

Josephine and Abtey set up a French spy base in the city to gather intelligence on German plans.

Josephine also carried out missions to Spain and Portugal, under the guise of more theatre tours.

This time, though, she bravely worked alone.

Abtey was denied a visa to join her, as he was suspected of being a spy.

A rare Portuguese newsreel from 1941 captures Josephine on the first of these solo trips to Lisbon.

Josephine Baker -- singer, dancer, spy.

It's quite extraordinary to see film like this, where she really has no one around her at all.

And her expression on her face does really suggest she's quite uneasy, apprehensive, perhaps even a little frightened.

We don't often see Josephine Baker looking like this.

I think it's quite unique.

Narrator: Gradually, Josephine began to spy with the confidence and skill she'd displayed in Paris.

Gathering information at official events, she would pin secret messages to her underwear.

She wrote later... Josephine provided vital intel that helped both the successful American invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca in November 1942.

Underestimated by the Nazis, Josephine evaded capture at every turn.

They only saw a woman half-naked with a banana skirt and couldn't see the political, intellectual activist who was working to undermine all of their philosophies and ideologies.

Narrator: Josephine spied for the rest of the war.

She remained a fierce advocate for tolerance.

On the 28th of August 1963, just before Dr. Martin Luther King addressed the March on Washington, Josephine gave a passionate speech on racial equality.

Josephine died in 1975.

Her body lies in the Pantheon in Paris.

One of just a handful of women, she is the only African-American to be revered alongside France's national heroes.

That's a space that's symbolic of French culture, of French contributions.

And she is there not only for her artistic work but really the work that she does in the war.

It is an unprecedented, significant, significant achievement.

Diamond: Women in the Resistance normally were unseen and unaccounted for.

And here's this big star who had this whole secret life.

She really was quite remarkable.

Narrator: Josephine chose to risk everything for the Resistance cause.

Across the Channel, another woman made a similar choice but with tragic results.

At an airfield in the South of England, a small group of female SOE agents are about to embark on a highly dangerous mission -- into occupied France.

The SOE stands for the Special Operation Executive, and it's set up in 1940, famously, in Churchill's words, "to set Europe ablaze."

The point was is that you're gonna have an organisation based in Britain that was going to assist, supply resistance groups in occupied Europe.

Narrator: Originally only men were recruited, but in 1942, the SOE realised female agents could be a huge asset.

Women were overlooked and underestimated.

They could move around without being suspect in the same way as men.

Narrator: Seeing the agents off is Vera Atkins, second in command of the SOE's French Section.

She gives each nervous recruit something of value to sell if they urgently need money.

Vera gives one of them her own brooch to bring her luck.

This agent is Noor Inayat Khan.

The daughter of an Indian father and an American mother, Noor was a pacifist.

Her father was a Sufi, which is a strand of Islam which believes in music and meditation.

She grew up tolerant of all religions, understanding all religions, and believing in harmony and peace.

Narrator: But the rise of Hitler changed Noor.

She believed it was her duty to fight evil.

The SOE gave her that chance.

♪♪ Noor was to be the first-ever female wireless operator sent to France, joining one of the largest networks of agents, known as Prosper.

The risks were high.

An SOE wireless operator only had a 6-week life expectancy.

I mean, that's almost as short as the batteries in their wireless sets.

The reason why is because what the Germans were very good at was triangulating where they were broadcasting from.

It is very risky being on air -- very, very risky.

Narrator: The flight to France and the drop went off without a hitch.

With just a basic map, Noor cautiously made her way to Paris to rendezvous with her Prosper contacts.

But within just a few days, there was a major problem.

The Prosper circuit is blown, and they are arrested.

About six wireless operators are all taken away, and Noor is left alone.

Narrator: She was now the only wireless operator for the entire circuit, a terrifying responsibility for a brand-new recruit.

But Noor's training soon kicked in.

[ Headphones clicking ] ♪♪ Before flying to France, she had been through the SOE's rigorous education programme.

Remote country estates, like Beaulieu in the New Forest, were chosen as training centres.

Tomkins: Beaulieu was the finishing school for the SOE.

Trainee agents like Noor would've been sent here towards the end of their training.

And every trainee agent had to pass in order to qualify as an agent.

Narrator: Men and women received exactly the same training at Beaulieu.

They were taught disguise, escape techniques, and all about life in occupied France.

It was essential they got every detail right.

If you stood out, then not only were you a danger to yourself, you were a danger to a lot of other people, as well.

Narrator: Noor's reports from Beaulieu were decidedly mixed.

One examiner stated that she was "not overburdened with brains" and that it was doubtful she was "really suited to work in the field," something that Maurice Buckmaster, the head of the French Section, strongly disagreed with.

On the margins we see Buckmaster's comments, and he writes very furiously.

He says, "We don't need them overburdened with brains."

You know, these are women.

We don't need them so clever.

And also he's like, "I need these agents out in the field."

They are desperate for radio operators.

Narrator: Underestimated by her tutors, all alone out in the field, Noor was caught up in a dangerous game, and the odds were stacked against her.

The Gestapo can just pull her up and say, "What's this?"

And she'll be arrested.

♪♪ Narrator: By July 1943, SOE agent Noor Inayat Khan was the only wireless operator for the whole of Paris.

It was vital that she continue to send messages.

Agents relied on supply drops of weapons and gadgets to help them commit sabotage.

Awaiting these crucial messages back home were staff at SOE receiving stations across England.

You can't have your hero on the ground behind enemy lines unless he or she has someone to feed back to.

Narrator: These stations were largely staffed by women from a military group called the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, known affectionately as the FANYS.

We were called the housekeepers of SOE, and we could have been anything from a cook, a driver, to the wireless operators.

Narrator: Joyce Wilding worked at a receiving station in Oxfordshire.

Wilding: We would be rung up by the signal office, given a frequency that we would've tuned the transmitters to.

The Morse code would start coming through, and it would only be perhaps for five or ten minutes because they daren't risk being on the air for too long.

Narrator: Joyce knew from experience that the SOE agents were in constant danger.

Our biggest worry was if it suddenly went dead.

That was a horrible moment, because one would realise then that they had been found out.

Narrator: As a wireless operator alone in Nazi-occupied Paris, Noor had many close shaves.

Once, desperate to transmit a message, she took a great risk and put an aerial up in a tree, directly outside her own apartment.

Basu: Suddenly somebody comes up behind her, and he says, "Excuse me.

What are you doing?"

And she turns around, and it's a German officer.

And she just turns on all her charm, and she says, "Oh, I was just listening to a radio station," so that it's like she is breaking the law, but a small law.

And she is so charming and so beautiful that this man, he just melts.

And he actually helps put up this aerial, not knowing that half an hour later she's transmitting to London.

Narrator: For several months, Noor managed to outsmart the Nazis.

Moving from location to location, never staying long, she always kept one step ahead.

But then in October 1943 Noor's good fortune ran out.

Her transmissions suddenly stopped.

Back at HQ, Vera Atkins wondered what had happened to Noor.

But she would have to wait until the end of the war to find the answer.

She went to France, and she spent four days inside Germany, as well.

And she interviewed various prison warders to discover what happened to her female agent.

Narrator: Vera eventually pieced together Noor's fate.

Betrayed by the sister of a French contact, she had been arrested and taken to the Gestapo Headquarters at Avenue Foch for interrogation.

Noor defiantly refused to say anything, but the Nazis were convinced she was an SOE agent.

She's labelled Nacht und Nebel in German, which means translated night and fog.

And the subtext is that this person should just disappear into the night and fog.

The return is not required.

Narrator: After 10 brutal months in jail, Noor was taken to the infamous Dachau concentration camp.

On the morning of the 13th of September 1944, she was shot at point-blank range.

♪♪ Today Noor's statue stands proud in central London, not far from the SOE Headquarters.

♪♪ She wasn't the only remarkable female agent in the SOE.

♪♪ Mulley: There were actually 39 women from 13 different nations, including Germany.

There were German-Jewish women sent out.

There were Soviet women.

They were an incredibly diverse force.

♪♪ Nearly all of the women made a very important contribution to the Allied war effort.

♪♪ Miller: We often find that women are missing from our common narratives of the Second World War and its history and actually this is mainstream history, and we need to put them back in that story.

♪♪ Woman: ♪ There's something sweet about life ♪ Narrator: But it wasn't just women on the Allied side who faced the difficult decision of whether to fight behind enemy lines.

♪♪ Just after the outbreak of the war, a 24-year-old Austrian woman named Lilly Stein sailed for New York, leaving the war behind.

The United States was still neutral.

It was the perfect place to start a new life.

New York to someone coming from Vienna, Austria, had to be absolutely overwhelming.

The frenetic pace, people rushing here and there -- it would've just been an explosion of the senses.

Narrator: But Lilly was not a typical immigrant.

She was a spy sent by the Nazis.

Germany wanted to gather as much information as possible on which way the Americans would enter the war, on which side.

But they also wanted to prepare for the fact that if America entered the war on the side of the Allies, how they would best be able to sabotage that.

Narrator: Lilly was not going to operate alone.

She joined a large spy network headed by German agent Fritz Duquesne.

He planted spies in various industries across America to gather intel on aviation, shipping, and weaponry.

It was easy for these agents to avoid detection.

Batvinis: Many Germans and Austrians emigrated to the United States.

But there was never any background investigation done on them.

There was never any effort to determine are their loyalties still to Germany.

Narrator: The Duquesne Spy Ring urgently needed a way to get information safely back to the Fatherland.

Their answer was Lilly Stein.

♪♪ ♪♪ Lilly was born into a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family.

Her parents died before the war, and the Nazis confiscated her inheritance.

As a Jew with no money and no close relatives, Lilly was vulnerable.

She needed to escape.

Taylor: An old friend of hers told her, "Lilly, I can help you not lose everything you have.

And I can get you a passport out of the country.

And in return, all you have to do is send us back information of any business deals you hear of in the U.S." Batvinis: They made almost an extortion recruitment.

"The only way you are going to get out and that you're going to get your money is if you cooperate."

She knew what they were talking about, and she made that pact with the devil.

Narrator: Lilly agreed to work for the Nazis.

Her cover story was that she was the owner of a ladies' clothing shop in Midtown Manhattan.

In reality, it was the epicentre of the Duquesne Spy Ring.

Vital information that needed sending on to Germany passed through Lilly.

She would then give these letters to contacts working on ships bound for Europe.

She also started gathering intelligence herself.

Now with her hair dyed blonde, Lilly would visit high-end nightclubs and hotels, hunting for influential businessmen and politicians.

If she was having sexual liaisons, she's having them to pick up gossip, titbits of information that could be of interest to the Abwehr, maybe from a political standpoint.

Narrator: Lilly was living dangerously.

If she was discovered, she would be looking at a lengthy jail term.

But Lilly needed to play the game if she wanted a chance of freedom.

She later wrote...

In February 1940, the FBI got wind of the network.

When German national William Sebold came to New York to join the spy ring, the FBI persuaded him to turn double-agent and work for them.

They filmed the spies through 2-way mirrors in Sebold's apartment.

Man: There's Duquesne again, the leader of the ring and the most cautious of them all.

Narrator: Sebold was trusted by everyone, including Lilly.

The net was closing in.

Batvinis: Lilly Stein is operating in the dark.

And then Sebold comes along, and he's the bright light.

Shines right on Lilly Stein.

Narrator: FBI agents followed Lilly and the other spies around the clock.

By June 1941, they had seen enough.

♪♪ Two-hundred-and-fifty FBI special agents pounced, rounding up many of the Nazi spies.

Man: The evidence was there, reams and reams of it.

Hitler wanted to know every American secret but dug up only grief for his blundering agents.

Narrator: As a woman, Lilly Stein was demeaned and belittled.

In her affidavit, recorded after her arrest, Lilly gives her professions as "director," "houseworker," and "selling."

The FBI added "prostitute."

Batvinis: It's the tenor of the times.

Rightly or wrongly, she was perceived as a loose woman, a woman who used her wiles to get to men.

Narrator: Thirty-three members of the Duquesne Spy Ring, including 2 other women, were all found guilty of espionage.

Lilly was sent to a federal prison for 10 years.

It was hailed as a triumph for the FBI.

Batvinis: It really put the Bureau on the map.

And even today, it still remains the largest single arrest of agents in American history.

Narrator: After her release in 1953, Lilly fled to Europe and eventually opened a hotel in an Austrian ski resort.

Sheila Taylor worked for Lilly in the 1980s.

Taylor: She was the sweetest lady.

She was so kind and generous, She was always giving little presents.

She would chat with everyone.

But about her own personal life, she never, never said anything.

Narrator: Lilly's hotel was so successful it became popular with members of the British royal family.

She did tell me that she got invited to the garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

I'm sure it gave her the biggest lift of her life, after what she's been through.

Narrator: The convicted spy who had worked behind enemy lines had come a long way from her double life in New York.

But Lilly's friends felt she was never truly happy.

You kind of saw her staring off into the distance sometimes.

I think she did feel that shame.

I think she would've always felt that shame, you know, because she did it.

But she did what she did to survive.

You can only admire her.

Narrator: Over in the Netherlands, another Jewish woman made a different choice.

She decided to fight the Nazis.

♪♪ 100-year-old Selma Van de Perre lives quietly in West London.

Selma has lived a fascinating life that was at times full of danger.

On May the 10th, 1940, her world was turned upside down.

The Nazis invaded her Dutch homeland.

♪♪ Selma's brother Louis woke her in the night.

I said, "Oh, boy, let me sleep."

And he said, “But it's war.

Wake up, wake up."

And I didn't really realise what it was.

I was too young for that.

Walters: The assault on their country takes the Dutch completely by surprise.

They were neutral in the first war.

There hadn't been any simmering resentments or annoyances in that way.

So, it is a massive shock to the Dutch.

Narrator: Selma's family, the Vellemans, were non-practicing Jews living in Amsterdam.

They'd enjoyed the many freedoms of this liberal city.

But life soon became extremely dangerous for all Dutch Jews.

Poldermans: They were banned from all public areas.

They had to give up their money, property.

Later on, Jews also had to wear a yellow star of David.

I used to keep my bag against the star so that they wouldn't see it.

But you weren't allowed to do that, really.

You had to show it.

It was a terrible feeling, because you suddenly realised that you were different.

People thought you were different.

♪♪ Narrator: Two years after the invasion, Dutch Jews of working age were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

Her brothers escaped into the army and merchant navy, but her father was not so lucky, and he was deported.

When her mother and sister went into hiding, Selma travelled to the city of Leiden to stay with a group of doctors.

It was there she first came into contact with the Dutch Resistance.

They came in the evening to have dinner with us.

And they told stories about taking people away and so on.

And it was then that I realised that they were helping people.

Most groups operated in the region or even locally, so very small cells of people.

The network wasn't too big, and they could not betray each other.

Narrator: The group Selma lived with distributed illegal newspapers across the Netherlands and created fake IDs that allowed Jews to hide.

In early 1943, Selma, just 19, joined in their fight against the Nazis.

♪♪ ♪♪ Selma's mission was to deliver the documents to Resistance groups across the Netherlands.

It was dangerous work.

Walters: The Germans are absolutely merciless.

And what makes things even worse is that the level of Dutch collaboration with persecuting, hunting down, and dispatching Jews to the concentration camps is the worst in all of occupied Europe.

Poldermans: A German officer was very easy to spot.

A member of a Nazi party you couldn't recognise from their clothes.

Could be your own neighbour.

So, it really meant that you could not trust anyone.

Narrator: Selma was always one slip-up away from being captured.

Once, on a train heading to the south of the country, her suitcase was stolen.

It carried valuable Resistance papers.

Van de Perre: I had to go to the loo after about half an hour or something.

And when I came back, I thought I was in the wrong compartment because I couldn't see the suitcase anymore.

And the woman sitting opposite me said, "Have you lost your suitcase?"

And I said, "No, no, no, no."

But she opened the window, and she yelled out of the window, “The girl has lost her suitcase!"

And I could have killed her.

I was so scared.

Narrator: A German officer ordered Selma onto the platform, but when his back was turned she managed to sneak onto the train as it departed.

Selma was still in danger.

Van de Perre: The conductor came up to me and said, "Are you the girl who lost her suitcase?"

He said, "Well, I think I found it."

I was scared to death.

If Selma would've been caught with illegal newspapers, most likely she would've been arrested.

She could have literally paid it with her life.

Narrator: By a stroke of luck, the suitcase the conductor brought contained only clothes.

It wasn't Selma's.

Her case had been discarded by the thief.

As a Jew, Selma was in greater danger than most, but she never let the worry get to her.

I was scared, of course, but I just did the job because it had to be done.

♪♪ Narrator: In early 1944, a German officer invited Selma to his home.

She was suspicious about his motives, but Selma's Resistance leader saw it as an opportunity to steal the officer's identification papers.

Papers like these were extremely important because you could impersonate a German officer.

They had all the power -- the power to release prisoners, but also the power not to have Jews deported.

Van de Perre: So, I went there, and we talked.

It turned out he was an Austrian officer.

And he wanted to dance a bit, and we danced.

And he started to be friendly, started to cuddle me.

Then he asked at a certain moment, "Are you a virgin?"

And I said, "Yes."

And so he stopped straight away.

So, he went to the kitchen.

He took his jacket off and hang it over the chair.

And while he was in the kitchen, I went through his pockets and found papers and took one.

Narrator: The stolen papers saved lives.

The Resistance used them to enter a jail and rescue two prisoners.

Selma wasn't the only teenage girl risking everything for the Resistance.

In Haarlem, 30 kilometres outside Amsterdam, lived two Dutch sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen.

They were just 16 and 14 when the Nazis invaded.

But that didn't stop them from becoming killers.

Sophie Poldermans met the sisters when they were in their 70s.

Freddie was very feminine, very fierce.

Truus was very down-to-earth, very practical, bit of a tomboy.

They were ordinary teenagers, and then all of a sudden there's a war.

Narrator: A radical communist resistance group asked the sisters to commit acts of sabotage and murder.

They accepted because they really, really wanted to contribute to the Resistance.

Narrator: Together with Hannie Schaft, another young resistance fighter, the girls made a formidable team.

One of their main jobs was to use their feminine charms to murder Nazis in cold blood.

Poldermans: Truus and Freddie would dress up nicely.

And then they went into bars, seduced these high-ranking Nazi officers, lured them into the woods, where one of their resistance group would shoot this particular target.

Later on, the girls would learn to carry out liquidations themselves.

[ Gun fires ] Narrator: For other assassinations, the older girls would often disguise themselves as men.

And Freddie would act as a lookout.

Freddie was quite young and looked even younger.

She would play with that a little bit by braiding her hair and she could be standing on the corner of a street skipping rope and then, in the meantime, spot the route that their target was coming.

Narrator: They also committed acts of sabotage.

Riding around on bicycles with dynamite hidden under long coats, they placed the explosives under bridges and on railway tracks.

No-one suspected that teenage girls could be so ruthless.

But in 1945, their luck changed.

The sisters' comrade Hannie Schaft was caught and executed.

Truus and Freddie survived the war.

But their experiences at such a young age would come to haunt them.

Poldermans: They were suffering from what we call nowadays post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Both sisters were absolutely deprived of their childhood, but they never complained about that.

They didn't see themselves as heroines.

This was just what had to be done.

Narrator: Selma Van de Perre's Resistance career ended in June 1944.

After over two years of covert work behind enemy lines, she was finally caught and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

Fortunately, after just a few months, in April 1945, the camp was liberated.

Selma moved to Britain, where she was reunited with her brothers and started a new life.

Her parents and sister did not survive.

They had all been killed in concentration camps.

Van de Perre: It was terrible.

Yeah, yeah.

Still is.

I think it stays with me and with other people like me until we die.

You can't forget these things.

I've had questions of people who said, "Can you forgive those people who did it?"

And my answer is, "No, I don't think so."

My brains tell me that you ought to forgive, but my heart can't.

Woman: ♪ I am woman, and I am strong ♪ ♪ And of this earth, I belong ♪ ♪ Oh, I am ♪ ♪ Here I am woman ♪ ♪ And I am strong ♪ ♪ And I whisper the echoes all by myself ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh-ooh ooh-ooh ♪ ♪♪