Information from Sara Cox one of our group – I have always been a “fan” of Violette Szabo since being made to read the book “Carve Her Name with Pride” whilst a school girl. Last week I watched the movie version of the book (not for the first time) and was reminded that I meant quite some time ago to check her link to Oswestry. According to Wikipedia Violet Szabo – “on 11 September 1941 she enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). She was posted to Leicester for initial training before being sent to one of the first mixed anti-aircraft batteries of the 7th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Training Regiment, Royal Artillery in Oswestry, Shropshire for specialised instruction as a predictor and then to the 481st Heavy (Mixed) Anti-Aircraft Battery. After further training in Anglesey, Gunner Szabo and her unit were posted to Frodsham, Cheshire near Warrington, from December 1941 to February 1942.” This would have been before she joined the SOE (Special Operation Executive). Violette Szabo was executed in the execution alley at Ravensbrück, aged twenty-three, on or before 5 February 1945. She was shot in the back of the head while kneeling down, by SS-Rottenführer Schult in the presence of camp commandant Fritz Suhren (who pronounced the death penalty), camp overseer and deputy commandant Johann Schwarzhuber (de), SS-Scharführer Zappe, SS-Rottenführer Schenk (responsible for the crematorium), chief camp doctor Dr Trommer and dentist Dr Hellinger, information confirmed from the deposition of Schwarzhüber recorded by Vera Atkins 13 March 1946.
