Long read: ‘She believed you have to take sides’: How Audrey Hepburn became a secret spy during World War Two

As the memories of the bloody conflicts of the 20^th century fade away, we have entered a new age of rage in which demagogues further their careers by committing their countries to long & bloody conflicts. These conflicts in turn are going to force most us to take a side. And then we will have live with the consequences of having taken a side. From 70 years ago comes the story of a Hollywood superstar who long before she became a star, stood up against Hiter’s Fascists and her parents (who were Fascist sympathisers). As Chis Luu writes for the BBC: Audrey “Hepburn was born in Brussels in 1929 to a Dutch baroness, Ella van Heemstra, and a British-Austrian businessman, Joseph Hepburn-Ruston. In London, her parents were drawn to Oswald Mosley, leader of the violent antisemitic British Union of Fascists (BUF). Van Heemstra wrote an article for the BUF’s magazine about what she saw as the glories of Nazi Germany. Hepburn-Ruston walked out on the family when Hepburn was six years old. He would later be arrested as “an associate of foreign fascists” and spend the war in British prisons.”

During the war, Hepburn’s mother relocated from England to her family estate in Holland thus setting the scene for the bravery that young Audrey was about to demonstrate in the wake of the German invasion of Holland in 1940.

In her principled stand against the Nazis, Hepburn had a role model in her family: “Hepburn’s uncle, Count Otto van Limburg Stirum, took a principled stand against the Nazis. In 1942, a resistance group attempted to blow up a German train near Rotterdam. Though van Limburg Stirum was not involved, he was arrested because he was a prominent anti-Nazi figure. Nazi agents drove him and four others into the forest, shot them, and dumped their bodies in unmarked graves. Hepburn loved her uncle as a surrogate father and was devastated by his murder.”

After her uncle’s death, the Nazis gave Hepburn, an accomplished ballet dancer, an ultimatum: “When Hepburn turned 15, she was ordered to join the Nazi Kulturkammer, the artists’ union, or give up publicly performing dance. She chose to give up performing.”

The Nazi ultimatum set Hepburn down the road less travelled: “Hepburn danced in a safe house with closed blinds and only a candle for light, so she would not be discovered. A piano played very softly while she performed – but there could be no applause. At the end of the show, money was collected for the resistance.”

As the war progressed and Hepburn’s courage and conviction grew, so did her role in the resistance against the Nazis: “In the spring of 1944, Hepburn volunteered as an assistant to a doctor – Hendrik Visser ‘t Hooft – who was a member of the resistance. Though Hepburn’s mother was widely seen as a collaborator with the Nazis, Visser ‘t Hooft desperately needed help to support thousands of people who were in hiding from the Nazis. He trusted her enough to bring her in.

…When Allied airmen heading for Germany had to make an emergency landing in the Netherlands, Visser ‘t Hooft sent Hepburn to the forest to meet a British paratrooper with code words and a secret message hidden in her sock. She made the meeting, but on the way out of the forest, she saw Dutch police approaching. She bent down to pick wildflowers, then flirtatiously presented them to the police. They were charmed and didn’t interrogate her further. After this, she often carried messages for the resistance…”

Luca Dotti, Hepburn’s youngest son, says that during World War II and in her subsequent career in Hollywood and then for the United Nations, Hepburn saw conflict through a very simple lens: “She believed very much that there is a struggle between good and evil and you have to take sides.”

If you want to read our other published material, please visit https://marcellus.in/blog/

Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.