Outlook

In 1942, several years into the Second World War, the British government sent out a series of bulletins requesting any personal photos the public might have of the French coastline. Odette Hallowes, a French woman living in the UK with her three young children, answered the call and was invited to London where she was offered a role in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The SOE, formed under the direct orders of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, aimed to create a top-secret underground army to help local resistance movements and conduct espionage and sabotage in enemy-held territories. Odette eventually agreed and arrived in France in November 1942, where she worked undercover, under the code-name ‘Lise’.The following year, Odette was captured, interrogated, and tortured by the Gestapo. She was sentenced to death and transported to Ravensbrück, a concentration camp for women in northern Germany. In the midst of her suffering and isolation, Odette found solace in the most unexpected form – a tiny,