My former colleague at Cato, David Archer, just sent me the moving story of Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, a spy for the British in Nazi-occupied Paris who was executed at Dachau:
In 1958, a former Dutch prisoner of the Nazis known as “A.F.” who witnessed Noor’s execution read her biography and wrote to its author, Jean Overton Fuller. He revealed her killer to be Wilhelm Ruppert, a sadistic SS guard at the camp, and he described Noor’s last moments on September 12, 1944.
“The SS undressed the girl and she was terribly beaten by Ruppert all over her body. She did not cry, neither said anything. When Ruppert got tired and the girl was a bloody mess he told her then he would shoot her. She had to kneel and the only word she said, before Ruppert shot her from behind through the head, was ‘libertÃ?Â??Ã?Â?Ã?©’.” She was 30 years old.
Tom,
I translated that short story of Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan from your blog and sent it by mailing list to a lot of people. Our yahoogroups also being read in Iran by some Azeri youth. I am sure they will enjoy the fascinating story of that brave woman. I was touched and many people are sending me e-mails saying that was a strong message.
We are also translating The Law by Bastiat for Azeri readers.
Greetings from Baku.
Rashad
Noor-un-Nisa was and still is a role model indeed, or to put it with Gorki:
“the ones who were born to crawl will never be able to fly”. She chose to fly.
NV