Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan
Summary: The value of espionage during World War II
Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan
1914 - 1944
There are no easy answers to the questions posed in the introduction of this web site. No magic formulas exist, and no standards may be used to gauge whether or not someone is successful as a spy. Noor volunteered for the SOE; she knew the dangers and the risks involved by volunteering to go back into occupied France and work as an undercover agent for the SOE. The decision was hers, and she was courageous and brave enough to accept the challenge. If Noor's noble birth meant anything to her, it meant she was a leader and was expected to take greater risks to protect not just herself, or her family, but also the rest of her people--her friends, her acquaintances, her colleagues. In many ways, Noor put the values taught in her religion into practice. She acted as if she was fighting evil and not just the Germans. Rather than honoring national lines which separate countries, Noor tried to stand up for good in the fight against evil. It just so happens that evil, in Noor's case, happened to be in the form of the Nazis.
Some may say that the British spies and saboteurs of World War II did not accomplish enough. True, at best they simply helped end the war a little quicker. They accomplished very little in terms of bringing down the Nazis. The Germans, especially the Gestapo, did not take the Resistance as a serious threat. Nazis squelched any serious attempt at creating a Resistance force from inside the occupied territories. In this case, the efforts of the SOE agents amounted to very little. Had Churchill left the war to his 'secret armies' of spies and saboteurs, the Germans would have won easily. It took an invasion of Europe and the armies of several countries to overthrow Hitler, but that simplified view of the value of spying undermines the value of these SOE agents. Someone had to go do the jobs these individuals did. Perhaps without the SOE and other branches of the French Resistance, the French people would not have the will to fight the Nazis. Someone had to go into France, and give their life if need to be, to help spark widespread French resistance to the Nazis. By their bravery and enthusiasm, the SOE agents helped inspire the French people to fight on against Germany.
Even today--perhaps especially today, countries need to be involved in intelligence gathering. It is not something most countries, or most people, want to do. Most of the time, the secretly discovered information is of little value. Sometimes the information is wrong. Very rarely does a spy prove to be successful in a way the general public would find acceptable, yet if these countries did not engage in espionage and even the occasional act of sabotage, then this world would be a much more unstable place. So what is the value of a spy? Their sacriface, no matter how great or small, helps insure to us our freedom.
