119 – Krystyna Skarbek: Christine Granville

Transcript

Speaker: Hi, Sam. Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Jeff and Sam Show. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. Hi, everybody. Hey.

Speaker: welcome to the jeff and sam show i'm jeff and i'm sam hi everybody hey Hi, Sam. Hi. Well, first of all, you know, you guys can email us at jeffandsamshow at gmail.com. Find us on Instagram, jeffandsamshow.

Speaker: You know, let's just put that out there. Boom. um Sam, how are you? I'm good, but why would they reach out to us? Suggest stuff. Okay. Suggest stuff and also review us.

Speaker: For why? What are we? What are you? What are we together? ah Together we're a podcast. Yeah. And together, when you hit the little star button and you subscribe, well, we have to assume that you've already subscribed to this hot mess. Because why else would you be listening to it? Because why the fuck else would you be here listening to us? What a thing to stumble upon. God. Like imagine the people that are like, oh, I want to hear about this thing. And then our show pops up. Imagine the strangers that hear our voices and are like, these fucking nutjobs. And then they listen to the first five minutes and they're like, yeah this is not us.

Speaker: Or they're like, yay. And then they're our people, right? love these weirdos. And then if they listen to the first five minutes and then they decide to stay, then they're like, one of us. I want more. yeah the i want more. Give me, give me more.

Speaker: we just took two weeks off. We did. We did. and you know what? We needed it. We did. We did. We needed life was happening. Life was happening. Alan, get this, Sam. Tell me about Alan decided to take a vacation to the Caribbean.

Speaker: What? You heard me. That bitch, Alan's our producer, our editor, our everything. so tech guy, our social guy When he says he's going to go on vacation, ah the show comes to a halt. i mean, we could have recorded, but then at the same time, we also needed a little bit of a break. Yeah, yeah. You know? But while he was down there, he... um I've got this quoted, okay? I'll give it to you straight.

Speaker: I'll give it to you straight. Oh. Ellen said, quote, met a bunch of cool gay DC folks, Joy, Brian, and Jen.

Speaker: We danced our asses off together. Oh, i love that. One of them called him her white chocolate. ah ah Sounds about right. Isn't that cute? Sounds about right. Ellen, don't think about leaving us.

Speaker: Never. We're your gays up here. Yeah. We're your number one gaze. We're irreplaceable. We're irreplaceable. Damn it. Damn it.

Speaker: Wait, once more with fury. Damn it. God, that was good. We're irreplaceable. Damn it. Alan Akins. Yeah. We love you.

Speaker: We do. Don't leave us.

Speaker: Don't leave us, please. We can't do this. You should have seen this. We're recording for the first time in Sam's house. And this was like, a to set this shit up, Alan.

Speaker: I'll send you videos. We almost called you. But we got it. we do We think we do. We'll find out. I mean, the little green thing keeping us between the 12s and the 6s. The audio recorder thing. You gotta learn this. The the box with the magic.

Speaker: Yes. White chocolate. Do not leave us, okay? How dare you dance with other gays? He can dance as long as he doesn't desert, okay? Yes. No deserters.

Speaker: It's like you can look but just don't touch. Yes. So, what's new with you? Well, first of all, what are you drinking?

Speaker: Ollipop. Ollipop. Ooh, la-la-la-la-la. Okay, so Cherry Cola by Ollipop. Ooh, that sounds delicious. That sounds delicious. Get it? Because it's spookoy it spooky season? season.

Speaker: What are you drinking? I'm drinking a high noon tall boy. a She is sitting there with a cap on backwards. And she's got the orange socks on. She's giving me fall.

Speaker: she's It's fall weather outside all of a sudden. What the hell did that happen? It went from hot and wet as a devil's asshole to cheers, queers. Cheers, queers. Hot and fucking...

Speaker: humid outside to some storm came up the east coast and a nor'easter and then you god that was just so dreary for the last two days te indeed our days off it has rained the entire time and yeah the temperature just really did plummet um I mean, it's lovely though. I mean, ah I'm um i' ready for it. That ick was too much.

Speaker: it was getting over it. Ick was too icky. What'd you do? What'd you do this weekend? i went to Ocean City, Maryland, which is the beach that I grew up going to. My parents, our grandparents had a condo down there and my dad and mom just recently bought that from my grandfather. You're doing great.

Speaker: Thank you. We're still adjusting. Do you want to pull it closer? No, I think... Baby, pull me closer. There we go. i'm back seat you hear Can you hear me?

Speaker: Papa, can you hear me? Oh, there she goes. Okay, so you went to Ocean City. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Ocean City, in the middle of a Naista, which typically they don't come down this far. you know Massachusetts, New England gets hit with them all the time.

Speaker: Typically, we don't see the um the weather as bad as we did this past weekend. And when I tell you that Ocean City, it's it's obviously on the ocean.

Speaker: And, well, you know, I can't even say obviously because there are some towns that like are named named like lakeside and there's not a lake to be seen. you're right. That's not obvious. This place is on the beach. It is...

Speaker: Up the Atlantic, and then it's also, there's the Chesapeake Bay, there's the bay, everything, there's Asa Woman Bay, there's like all of these other water sources. What bait what was the name of that?

Speaker: Asa Woman. Asa Woman? Asa Woman. Asa Woman Bay, okay. Asa Woman Bay. So, obviously, lots of water all around, ah lots of water that feeds into these other things. Whale.

Speaker: the water decided that it wasn't going to stay where it was supposed to. And like half of the, the lower streets where like the boardwalk and, um, all the other kinds of stuff, uh, was just completely flooded out.

Speaker: Um, and it was, Ooh, she got rolled out of my ears. Uh, it was, it was fun though. It was, um, unfortunately for, many, many people throughout the entire nation. um The Ocean's Calling Music Festival got completely canceled um because it was unsafe. I mean, the wind speeds were unreal.

Speaker: Unreal. And obviously just the water levels. um So things started to settle out a little bit this morning before ah before we left. And there were actually some surfers out this morning. um So it was cool.

Speaker: It was a good weekend. Perfect. Yeah. What'd you do without me? You know what? I did... Pilates. ah The usual. i did the usual this weekend.

Speaker: ah One was called a crazy Barbie move on the on the reformer. Did I tell you about that on here? or in I think you texted me. crazy barbie okay i just loved everything about it so it was really kind of a low-key weekend i worked on my story that we're going to record next because we're only doing one today so look we normally at some point we're going to get back to recording two stories a show you know we flip a coin when people have given us coins from all over the world and we flip a coin we tell each other a story we're going to get back there

Speaker: just There's been a whole lot of life, life in Addis recently. So once we get settled, that will be back to normal. The theme. The theme. Okay, yeah. But what I did last weekend, Sam...

Speaker: last weekend Not this weekend, but last weekend. I went to go see Garth. oh yeah Garth Brooks, baby. Friends in Low Places. Indeed. Friends in Low Places.

Speaker: And it was a packed Capitol Arena. Capitol One Arena. It was packed. I believe it. is such performer. He's such a performer.

Speaker: and Just said excellent performer. And I went with Sal and then Gabby and then Chris. And ah I told them before the show started, whenever the dance comes on,

Speaker: Are you going to cry? to Every time. It takes me back to 10th grade Jeff. Okay. And ah we lost a friend that year and his favorite um singer at the time was Garth.

Speaker: And so in the gym of the high school was a thing for him. a memorial. A memorial for him. And it literally takes me back there. Oof. Whenever, not not randomly when I hear it, but like in in that moment.

Speaker: And so I was like, you guys, just ignore me. And so the whole show was great. It was wonderful. And then that song came on and I was like, you know what? I've got this.

Speaker: I expected it, right? Yeah. And then... There was a tear here and then there was a tear here and I get so quiet and Sal just put his hands on my shoulders. oh Yes. And was like, you good?

Speaker: I was like, I'm good. I got so quiet though, but dear God was that man amazing. And he saved friends in little places for the end. And he also saved, um

Speaker: was it standing outside the fire? I don't know. I wasn't there. For the end. It's one of the really good ones. He's got so many. How do you think? They're all so good. There are so many. That was such a fun night for the four of us. so That was a lot of fun for way more than four of us. That damn arena was full. yeah man.

Speaker: That's amazing. That's amazing. So, yeah. Still going strong. Way to go, Garth. He doesn't jump off the piano anymore. The piano lowers down, and he steps ah off of the piano, to be fair. Listen, he's taking care of himself so that he can continue performing. you Amen. Oh, and Trisha Yearwood came out. Of course she did. She didn't in the night before, but it was her birthday. So she came out, and she sang, of course, her big song.

Speaker: I don't remember the name of it, but it was that one from Con Air, the movie Con Air. You know what song talking about, don't you? God, how do i Jesus, Lord, that's so good. Yeah, and yes, she's singing it over there. Uh-huh.

Speaker: Okay, well, are we caught up? I brought you a candle. I mean, not a candle, a pumpkin. That's pumpkin. That says?

Speaker: Sweater weather. Sweater weather, because it's sweater weather. Or flannel season. As you like to call it. I like to call it flannel season. You definitely don't call it a mock turtleneck season.

Speaker: I was having a really, really, really hard time believing me that was a real thing. I thought you were messing with me. No, asyn I was looking for some sweaters, right? Because it's like, it's that, whenever it gets cold outside, immediately I start shopping for sweaters. Cause I'm like, Ooh, I get to wear sweaters. Ooh. Ooh. And then a texted you one that had a mock turtleneck on it.

Speaker: And you're like, well, I mean, i like the pattern, but that's, you can read it. actual hold on I like the pattern, but like that sad little collared thing. And I was like, that's called a mock.

Speaker: You said a mock what? Yeah.

Speaker: Uh-huh. ahha

Speaker: So I said, i said you i sent the picture, you said, do you like this? I said, well, I really like the design, but I'm a bit unsure of that collar, sad, half-wannabe, turtleneckish thing. And you said, it's a mock, LOL, fair. I said, a mock of what?

Speaker: ah And I was like, she's never heard of mock turtleneck. And then I doubted myself. He made the gay man doubt himself on clothing. I mean, you should know that I would never know anything about fashion or styles. So i just, because I love you, brought you a mock turtleneck for you to wear. oh no. I'm just kidding. I would be the whole time just pulling at my collar. Sam, this is so neat to be sitting on your couch recording this shit. its yeah

Speaker: It's like a different vibe. It is. It's cozy. We're cozy. We're not sitting in chairs across from each other on a table. We're like slunked down, squished in the couch. We're chilling the fuck out. We are. and Okay. All right.

Speaker: So that was it. We did the intro. any ah Anything else we need to say or do or? No. Are we good? I think we're good. Should we get into the actual reason why people come to listen to the show?

Speaker: Well, it's debatable whether or not can do that. Yeah. ok um Okay. Okay. I'm hoping you have the story this week because I don't have a story this week. I do. i this is my This is my novel, remember? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We've been talking about it, um but I'm finally in a place where like I feel I've got enough energy to tell you about this and give it the pizzazz or demands.

Speaker: like I like the word pizzazz. I'm partial to the word pizzazz. You are pizzazz. My whole life, I've been full of pizzazz. Pizzazz. kind i say It's only when I hear myself in this microphone, I'm like, fuck, I'm so gay.

Speaker: why And I like it.

Speaker: Okay. no people People listen to this show. They do. And a lot of them say that they do it for this. yeah And you know what? if you've made it Seriously, we thank you. And we know we have a lot lot of people that are new to the show that are listening.

Speaker: and we're always this unprofessional and honestly unhinged. And it's just not going to change. And we have new listeners. And it's crazy because...

Speaker: it's you know yeah thank you yeah honest to god thank you for just tuning in to listen to this it just means you're one of us and that's a great thing to be fucking a it is so on with the show onward but james belushi said heroes aren't born they're cornered

Speaker: This is a bit of a combo story for you. I mean, it's obviously gonna be because it's 20 fucking pages long. There's funny, sad, tragic, horrific, amazing, unbelievable, badass, injustice, disgust, and so much more.

Speaker: There's a couple of side quests because there's so much to share. And um again, as I was writing this, I just kept going back. And when I would edit it, I would just add more. So it didn't seem right to hold back on some of the things.

Speaker: So on August 17th, 1944, a Nazi guard wearing his weapons herded three prisoners across a courtyard to what they assumed was their death.

Speaker: When they were led to a vehicle instead of towards the football field where the executions were held, they were confused. Their puzzlement increased as they climbed into the car and drove away from the prison.

Speaker: Again, confusion intensified when the guard said, what a wonderful woman you have. The fuck? And that was it. Yeah. After just a short drive, the car turned to bend.

Speaker: The prisoners were immediately overcome with relief. Standing along the side of the road was the woman the guard had clearly been talking about. They all recognized her and knew she had rescued them.

Speaker: Who was she?

Speaker: This is another one of those ones with the names, and I'm sorry if I butcher them. I think i have to sneeze.

Speaker: Awkward silence. Gesundheit. Thanks. um Maria Christina Janina Skarbek was born in Warsaw, at the time located in Russia, on May 1st, 1908.

Speaker: At birth, and for a couple of years after, she was frail and small, so much so that her parents feared that she would not survive or live very long.

Speaker: After a couple of rushed baptisms, just because, they were like, ooh, she's a frail, sickly child. She's going to die. Let's just dunk her in the water. She lived a life that proved them wrong.

Speaker: Her family was considered political nobility. Her father, Count Yeza, Skarbek, came from one of the oldest Polish families. He grew up privileged and pampered.

Speaker: He was reckless with all the family money. He had an addiction to betting, women, living large, and enjoying the finer things in life. So, he rapidly became drowned in debt.

Speaker: By his early 20s, his family arranged for him to marry an heiress to a wealthy Jewish banking family. family Like, you bail them out, right? Her name was Stefania Maria Goldfeder.

Speaker: The marriage was far, far, far, far from perfect. Jezza could not seem to stop his gambling or lavish obsessions. Including women?

Speaker: Although he was described as devilishly handsome and hugely popular among friends, he was brash, aggressive, and sassy. That's very much you. Maybe not the devil devilishly handsome, but... You're brash. Aggressive. A little aggressive. Sassy. Definitely sassy. And just hugely popular among friends. Exactly.

Speaker: She's so outgoing. I am. I just have so many people that I want to spend time around. Conversely, Stefano was kind, gentle, and intellectual. The couple had a son named Andre...

Speaker: who, and honestly the spellings of these things, right, who was just like his mother. Yeza didn't hide his disdain for the boy. As the years progressed, Yeza turned to the bottom more, became more disrespectful, and found humor in making incredibly anti-Semitic jokes about Stefania and her family.

Speaker: Mind you,

Speaker: It's her fail her Jewish family that bailed his dumb ass out. so like And like what year are we in at this point? It's like the 30s, right? ah Late 30s, early, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Speaker: Early 30s. Okay. um That being said, both parents absolutely adored Christina when she arrived eight years after Andrej. Christina clearly took after her father with her adventurous, wild, and energetic side, so he had no trouble showing her affection.

Speaker: The family moved to their country estate when Christina was still a young child. She ran free. She learned to ride horses, shoot guns, climb trees, all of the fun things that an aristocratic child, female child, shan't be doing. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: When she was only 12 years old, Christina boldly and fearlessly decided to ride Jezza's prized and appropriately feared massive black stallion named Satan.

Speaker: Appropriately named Satan. Jezza had taken his friends out to the stables to show off the horse when they arrived at an empty stall. He only had moments to panic before Satan came calmly trotting back up to the stables,

Speaker: With Christina sitting proudly in his saddle. Huh. 12 years old. She never saw an obstacle she didn't want to overcome or challenge she would back down from.

Speaker: I mean, it kind of sticks, right? She was born sickly, and they told that everyone said she was going to die, and here she is, right? like She just went full tilt into this. I wish I could be more like that.

Speaker: Obstacle. I'm like, and turn the left. Let's go the other way. Seems like we're not doing this today. go the other way. When Poland finally achieved independence and the country was a bit more stable, her parents felt it was safe to send her to a convent school.

Speaker: no As you can imagine, the Spitfire 14-year-old was not made for that kind of environment. Surrounded by aristocratic snobs who judged her for being Jewish and for not falling into the perfectly groomed line of cookie-cutter wives-to-be, Christina didn't last long.

Speaker: I think you're really going to like this next part. right. During morning mass, Christina gave in to an intrusive thought. I am so here for this. And I don't even know, whatever you say next, I'm gonna, I'm gonna love. I hope so. What's her intrusive thought?

Speaker: So it's a convent school. uhu Mass was a daily routine that took place before breakfast. So the poor girl was bored out of her mind.

Speaker: she was She later recalled that she was just impressed at the the priest's ability to just drone on and on, which having been a Catholic at one point in my life. I get that.

Speaker: I do. um And then maybe, maybe, maybe she just gave the scientific process, you know testing a hypothesis hypothesis. So standing there, holding the candle as the priest continued to just talk and talk and talk, she wondered if he was in fact pious enough to continue preaching while his cassock was on fire. Oh.

Speaker: we What's a cassock? It's the fancy robe. So as is the case when one lets the inside thoughts win, it didn't quite go as she expected.

Speaker: She thought the robe would smolder and like slowly burn. Unfortunately for her future convent education and conversion into housewife material, it ignited just god up in flame.

Speaker: She immediately jumped in to help out and the they put the fire out. Nobody was badly injured. The priest actually found it highly entertaining. Like couldn't stop laughing because she explained like what her thought process was. She was just trying to figure it out. So he thought it was hysterical. She was thinking, how close are you to God? Let's figure this out.

Speaker: I mean, there was no there was no malicious intent to it. It was just like a Impulsive thought. Intrusive thought. Yeah. Again, unfortunately, the mother superior was not so impressed with her. yeah So she was kicked out of the school, obviously.

Speaker: By the time she was 21, Christina lived with her mother and brother in an apartment in Warsaw after the bank that her grandparents owned went under. The war had been hard on the economy and the Scarbex. They were forced to auction their home and property.

Speaker: Jezza had abandoned the family by this point. He was living with another woman, and he was a raging alcoholic. In 1930, died of tuberculosis. She took a job as a secretary at a fiat dealership to help the family climb out of the crippling debt that Jezza had left them in.

Speaker: um She could have decided to use her looks, intelligence, and pedigree to land herself a rich young man, but that really wasn't her first plan. um Working in the dealership was quite literally draining the life force out of her. Her soul, her passion, and then also the exposure to the fumes was making her physically ill.

Speaker: um A Fiat dealership. Like the car? Yeah. Huh. Yeah, who knew? Yeah. ah A man named Gustav Getlich made his way into her life while she was working there.

Speaker: He was handsome and motivated, and he was ready to boost his social standing by finding a lovely aristocratic woman to entertain his clients, cook and clean for him,

Speaker: pop out a few babies and raise them, you know? Mm-hmm. All the things that k Christina... The womanly duties....would not be ideal for. She decided to wing it, though, and stuck with him for a while. She's like, meh, nice one.

Speaker: He's cute. Does she know that he set the priest on fire? No, does he know that she said... Probably not. Yeah, okay. That's probably not something that she like advertises. She might not be a picture-perfect aristocrat, but she's not walking around with like a here's my resume. Yeah.

Speaker: During their time together, they took a trip Zakopan, a town that continues as the story progresses to be an important role in her life.

Speaker: Upon returning to Warsaw, she enro enrolled in a beauty pageant. Because why not? yeah Even though she didn't win, her glamour shots and her near-winning finish launched her in the social scene as a national star of beauty.

Speaker: Gustav immediately proposed because it was like, yes, look at my beauty queen wife. Look at this. yeah They were married by April 1930. They both very quickly realized that it was a mistake.

Speaker: k Christina was not about to give up her life of cinema, clubs, and cafes. And Gustav wasn't going to give up on his dream to have the perfect stay-at-home wife. Gustav was incredibly busy with his job, and k Christina began taking every opportunity to return to Zakopan to enjoy the winter sport opportunities.

Speaker: She spent much of her time skiing. When she got bored of just just just skiing, um and just because she was able to, she started smuggling cigarettes over the mountains between countries. Because why not? Yeah.

Speaker: So she learned the lesser traveled routes in and out. She marked the border patrols and the crossing stations. And without her knowledge or in any any intent, she was actually developing and perfecting a set of skills and gathering information that would be highly sought after by some very important figures and crucial to her strict success and survival in a few years' time.

Speaker: She was becoming the person who would turn into a hero and a legend. You gotta smuggle the cigarettes, you know? Gotta start somewhere? Yeah, hell yeah.

Speaker: mean, that's how it was for me in prison.

Speaker: I've never been to jail, just for those of you listening.

Speaker: Within a few months, the couple divorced amicably. Christina moved into an apartment in downtown Warsaw. She continued her adventures in Zakopan. Living in Warsaw allowed her to live the free and bohemian lifestyle that she craved.

Speaker: She enjoyed socializing at clubs, drinking at bars, books and art in shops and studio. um She was just kind of... networking without even realizing what she was doing. She was, again, stunning and sociable and personable and people liked her.

Speaker: While on one of her visits to Zocopan, Christina decided to ski through a blizzard because why not? ah A man named Jeza Gagitski. Gagitski. Gagitski.

Speaker: you get get get your giy I'm going to... Yeah, they both sound good to me. Yeah, well... ah Had also made the choice to ski through that same blizzard.

Speaker: He was adventurous and had lived an exciting life already. This is kind of one of those little side quests. He had been a cowboy, a lumberjack, and a gold prospector in America...

Speaker: A secretary at the Polish embassy in the United States. A personal driver for John Rockefeller. Oh, shit. And a photographer in Africa. Okay.

Speaker: That sounds like a good side quest to me. Right? Damn. Like, what a man. Yeah. So, he was also very likely us spy Before he moved to Zakharpatan to quote unquote settle down. i would be so fucked.

Speaker: I would be like, oh, I'm so in love. and so He's a spy. I'd just give it all away. yeah The spy who loved me. yes ah During this blizzard, Christina lost control of her skis and went flying down the mountain out of control.

Speaker: this would You're going to swoon. Jezza rushed after her and rescued her by picking her up. skis and all, yeah and carrying her the rest of the way down the slope. he was such a spy.

Speaker: Yeah. He was such a spy. Right? It's too good to be true. you know? God damn it. Following the daring rescue, they went to grab drinks.

Speaker: Vodka, obviously. Vodka. votakeka Vodka. And they hit it off. Despite the age gap, more than 20 years, they became romantically involved.

Speaker: They traveled together and spent time throughout France and England and other parts. um They got on very well because they were both very similar in attitude, adventurous nature, and a desire to live active, full lives. So even though he had moved back to, like, Zacapun to settle down, he was like, I'm not ready yet.

Speaker: And Christina gave him the opportunity. In 1938 November, ah just a few months after officially tying the knot, Jezza was given the opportunity to open a Polish consulate in Kenya.

Speaker: Although Christina was already kind of getting slightly bored with the marriage and the social demands, she stuck by her man. The couple arrived in Cape Town in August 1939 and then traveled to Johannesburg on their journey up to Nairobi.

Speaker: While there, they received the notification that Nazi Germany had launched a massive military movement and invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939.

Speaker: Without declaring war, 1.5 million Nazi German troops troops swarmed across the only just recently recovered Poland. Okay, because they had just become independent. They had been fighting off Russia and all that kind of stuff and...

Speaker: Here they are. Just a few weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded from the other side. In little more than a month, Poland was now divided and controlled by its two oldest enemies.

Speaker: Although Britain and France france french bre plan declared war against Germany, they either couldn't or wouldn't provide the troops necessary to liberate the country. Christina and Jezza were horrified. It took no convincing for either of them to end their African journey.

Speaker: They made the trip back to Cape Town to catch a ship home. Due to enemy submarines and obstacles, their ship was delayed and they did not arrive in Britain until October 6th, coinciding with the surrender of the last official Polish forces.

Speaker: The Polish military and government were sent into exile to try and regroup in France. Yezra went to Paris to join the military, but he was rejected because he was over 50 years old and had multiple previous injuries from all of his life adventures, okay? Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Christina made a plan to help in her own way. She had spent her life creating an ever-expanding network of contacts and friends all over, everywhere they went. She had also become exceptionally skilled at smuggling and skiing hitting routes through the Carpathian Mountains that crossed into and out of Poland.

Speaker: Hmm? Hmm.

Speaker: within a few days of arriving in england k christina was in london and in contact with the secret intelligence service or s si she met with a journalist friend and pitched her idea to him he presented christina and her idea to the right government people She had everything they wanted and needed.

Speaker: In a December report from the service, the officer described her as, quote, a flaming Polish patriot, expert skier, and great adventurous.

Speaker: She is absolutely fearless. I love her. Don't you, though? So much. So much. The SIS was notoriously a boys club.

Speaker: All of the, quote, secret agents were directly approached and recruited, and they all grew up and lived in the same kinds of circles. So, yeah, they were secret agents, but they all knew who they were. And they always, it seems like, knew the right women to call when they needed help.

Speaker: Exactly. do you remember um Virginia Hall? Yep. Yes. Yep. Yep. Um, so, Christina's decision to insert herself and demand to be a part of the service was shocking and unheard of in all the right ways. Okay?

Speaker: she I mean, she basically, like, marched in there was like, I want to be a spy. Make it happen. And they were like, oh! Oh. Oh. Okay. You know what?

Speaker: Yeah, we can do this. So, eventually, the SIS fieldwork operations in occupied countries were taken over by Winston Churchill's special operations executive, the SOE.

Speaker: The work was incredibly dangerous and deadly. Nearly 25% of male agents never returned home from an assignment. I mean, that's a significant number, right? Christina Skarbek became the first ever female agent.

Speaker: Holy shit. The risk was even greater for women. Statistics rolled in afterwards, and one in three female agents were captured and executed or killed in action. As a Jewish-Polish woman, k Christina was at even higher risk of suffering an absolutely horrific end.

Speaker: She didn't care. Her plan was approved on December 1939.

Speaker: She was sent to her base of operations in Budapest, Hungary, with the cover as a French journalist. Her upbringing, education, and ability to speak flawless French made her cover perfect.

Speaker: At the time, Hungary was sympathetic to Poland and was accepting floods of refugees. It was also technically neutral and a temporary home to journalists from all over the world.

Speaker: Her time in Budapest was interesting. Also, I love how you're saying Budapest.

Speaker: Sorry. Budapest. Yeah, it is. We all we always hear it Budapest. Budapest. You're saying it Budapest. So, it was interesting. Her first guide, again, I'm sorry about this name pronunciation, Joseph Rudzyminski. Uh-huh.

Speaker: was a, quote, journalist for the Telegraph Agency Express, which was actually just a cover for Polish intelligence, who rapidly became obsessed with her.

Speaker: And like, this is a theme for this leading lady of ours. She ditched him because she found him annoying. Like, same day. it Gets introduced and then she's like, dude, climb out of my ass. Like, I'm not about this life.

Speaker: So she ditched him, she finds him annoying, she's like, I can be more productive on my own, be be gone. Her mission into Poland kept getting delayed due to some concerns from Polish intelligence officers.

Speaker: Apparently, she was causing a bit of ah commotion. There was a report stating, quote, her attractiveness appears to be causing difficulty in Budapest. Oh, those poor men.

Speaker: While there, she also reconnected with a man named Andrzej Kowarski. This is another side quest. He's my hero. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. But you're also going to love this guy. Anje was a military officer she had known when they were children. And then again, they would meet up. ah They would see each other in Zakopan and ski together, that kind of thing. Now, he was a decorated soldier with a partial leg amputation, an addiction to fast cars, and an inability to give up a fight.

Speaker: He was an absolute badass and funny as all fuck. After one specific German invasion, Andrzej joined the Motorized Black Brigade, a unit that launched dangerous and daring attacks against the invaders. He was awarded the nation's highest honor for valor.

Speaker: One operation ended with him being found alive but pinned under a large tank. The medical officer who found him panicked and wanted to call for a doctor. But Andrzej stated, quote, I don't want a doctor, you idiot. I want a blacksmith. Yeah.

Speaker: Because he had been pinned by his prosthetic leg. Oh, shit. Not a single other bit of him was hurt. Huh. The rest of him was fine. um Moving forward, when his unit got captured, Andrzej stole a German officer's car and led the brigade to Hungary.

Speaker: They were interred in a camp under the Geneva Convention as combatants in a neutral country. They were all to be held until the end of the conflict. Actually, wasn't really about that life. He wanted to get back out there.

Speaker: So ah he found some Hungarian soldiers who had sympathies for Poland and somehow managed to um escape by stealing a sleek and, of course, very fast little sports car that belonged to a German officer.

Speaker: Another theme, it appears. He returned a few nights later to retrieve the rest of his men. Andrzej's unit began their trek across the countries to get back to France, but Andrzej was not going with them.

Speaker: He had been tasked to stay in Budapest to assist the efforts and evacuations from there. And this is, I mean, hearing more of his story and like the things that he was able to accomplish and it was just so badass and and and daring and like

Speaker: Just, it was just so, he's so cool. There's a whole, like, story there. Yeah. For him. For him. i mean, and he really is, like, it's extraordinary. But it's like the thing with World War i as horrible as it was, so many amazing stories come out of that. Because heroes are not born. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. um So this is this is how he ended up in a back room of a bar telling war stories with Christina listening in. She approached him after he finished his sharing and told him about her connection to the British intelligence and asked him to dinner the next night.

Speaker: Although she was married, she was an incredibly beautiful, incredibly intelligent woman with a voracious, healthy... Sexual appetite. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: And her husband was far away. Their dinner initially got delayed by just day because Andrzej was called away. And then when they did get together a couple days later, Christina confidently and shamelessly invited him back to her apartment for the night.

Speaker: So began their lifelong and magnificently wild relationship. They turned out to be, again, lifelong partners and operational allies. Hmm. So she still hasn't been sent on her first mission yet. Things get it pushed back, pushed back. They're like, oh, you're causing a lot of drama. People are uncomfortable about you. So the personal drama... um

Speaker: flashback to, despite the absolutely clear and direct rejection, Joseph Radzyminski, her first journalist person spy, had never stopped obsessing over her.

Speaker: He showed up at Christina's door one morning, pointed his gun at his own genitals, and said that he was going to shoot off his penis in his despair. He chickened out because...

Speaker: I guess you just, yeah you yeah am I really doing this? But he did shoot himself in the foot. So after his medical treatment, this I mean, this isn't funny, but it is.

Speaker: After his medical treatment and when he was able to walk again, he decided to throw himself off the Elizabeth Bridge. Unfortunately for the poor heartbroken Joseph, that narrow section of the Danube was mostly frozen. He landed on the ice and broke his other leg.

Speaker: Dumb. At this point, the intelligence community just can't win. Uh-uh. Poor guy.

Speaker: um So at this point, the intelligence community is like, dude, what the fuck, man? This is embarrassing. You can't even kill yourself, right? Like, come on. So he's he's an idiot. He's a poor victim of the lore of Christina's wiles, right? I get it, but they're like...

Speaker: Get it together, dude. you're You're a spy. Come on. So he was replaced and removed from Budapest. And then all of a sudden, the drama surrounding Christina and her quote unquote distractions evaporated.

Speaker: She and Ajay were assigned to organize surveillance of all river, road and rail movements on the border of with Romania and Germany. By February 1940, Christina was finally cleared to start her first mission. mission She reached out to former Olympic skier turned courier for the Polish military, Jan

Speaker: Marujasz. Marujasz. Sounds perfect to me. Marujasz. Sounds great. Who thought k Christina was fucking insane. Undoubtedly. He was like, you're, you're, this is stupid. There's 12, literally 12 feet of snow on the mountains and temperatures are about negative 30.

Speaker: This is the worst storm that they've had in forever. And he was like, and also, were that there's a war going on. The border crossings are impenetrable. Not for her. er So she somehow convinced him to just give it ah give it a shot.

Speaker: And she manages to get him onto a train heading into Czechoslovakia. They jump out of the train before it reaches their final station. Just moving train. is so Is there a movie about her? Uh-huh. Yes. um And also, fun fact, it has been rumored slash whispered, and never confirmed, that she is the inspiration for like the James Bond like viper. his oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: His lady. Yeah. um Anyway, so they jump out of the train and then for days they climb up into the mountains, staying in wooden huts that Jan had known from his travels.

Speaker: This is kind of sad. One night, a blizzard struck the mountain and the visibility was near zero. They huddled in shack together to wait it out. But while they were there, they heard sounds that turned into unmistakable human cries for help.

Speaker: They weren't able to tell where they were coming from. So Christina, like, jumps up, like, she's going to run out of the the shack to go find these people. And Jan literally has to physically restrain her and hold her back so that she didn't get lost in the storm.

Speaker: Later, Christina would find out that 30 refugees fleeing the Nazis died in that blizzard. And later still, the Nazis would end up doubling their mountain patrols because of all the bodies that were found.

Speaker: After the treacherous and slow and depressing climb up, they easily jetted themselves down the mountains on their skis. They went to Jan's parents' house with where k Christina slept for a full day, freshened up, put on some new clothes, and headed into Warsaw.

Speaker: On the train, she had a brief moment of panic when she noticed Nazi soldiers going through the cars and checking people's identification and belongings. In her rucksack, she had propaganda documents disguised as a wrapped package.

Speaker: If they searched her, she would surely be arrested and likely executed. She struggled to find a solution that didn't involve her just, like, launching herself off the train and running. But then a Nazi officer walked into her compartment, so she switched gears.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. you think she did? Uh, batted her eyes. Ooh-hoo. Give him compliments. Of course. Yes. Of course.

Speaker: So she got flirty with him. And then she shared with him that she was a little bit nervous because she was transporting illegal black market tea for her very ill mother. And she was scared that she would be arrested. Smart.

Speaker: Of course he fell for it because when a pretty girl, you know, needs to be a damsel in distress, you want to be the knight in shining armor, right? Yeah. So he said, here, I'll take the package. I'll put it in my bag. And then when we get off the train in Warsaw, you can have it back. Holy shit.

Speaker: Our aristocratic super secret agent had stepped into a completely shattered and war-torn place that she used to love. As we all know, life was horrendous for the Polish and even worse for Jewish Polish.

Speaker: Christina wanted to find her mother and get her out. Unfortunately, Stefania refused. She was doing her own part for the resistance and was actually teaching at a secret school. um Because obviously in German-occupied Poland, like...

Speaker: they The schooling, that's in quotes, that that the children were allowed to receive was hellacious. So there were people all over the place who were her doing their best to still educate kids. um And that's like on a side note. that I don't know if you've ever really looked into the Polish resistance, but like, holy fuck.

Speaker: Unbelievable. So many things that like... both In my backlog of stories that I'm going to do is a member of the Polish resistance who you're going to fucking love. Cannot wait for it. So don't do another one yet. Okay. Okay. But yeah, you know just they're just badass. Strong, strong. Incredible. Incredible.

Speaker: Nothing quite like a bunch of absolute racist, supremacist, fascist, totalitarian, imperialist fucknuggets to unite a people. Amen. I thought that was eloquently, but... Apropos. Apropos.

Speaker: Much to her dismay, Christina wasn't able to change her mother's mind. She had to quit trying to convince her and get back to her own assignment, right? She began distributing the propaganda, tea, which is kind of funny, right? Spilling the tea. Tea. yeah I love this story. Yeah.

Speaker: She struggled to gain the trust of many because she was new to the intelligence service, unknown to these groups, and working for the British. They were like, who the fuck is this bitch? However, she did succeed in cultivating a good relationship with a group that called themselves the Musketeers.

Speaker: They provided her with microfilm that contained images of German military movements and formations. After a near-miss incident in a coffee shop where an old acquaintance... ah acquaintance damn near blew her cover, she left Warsaw that night. She traversed Poland by train over the next two weeks and collected information about German industrial activity, oil movements, and additional information from other resistance groups.

Speaker: The Musketeers had come up with a new route for Christina to take back to Budapest so that she could avoid the heavily occupied Zakopan. Her guide for this trip was Count Wladimir Lidlszewski, another excellent skier and courier.

Speaker: Again, Christina and her travel partner took a train and then jumped off into the snow as it slowed and neared the station. Unfortunately, this time, they was seen. And so they ran full speed, shots firing them until they made it to the woods. They spent hours hiking through the dark until they reached the Slovakian border.

Speaker: In celebration for being safe for the first time in weeks, Vladimir landed a hooray kiss. And Christina went for it. They made it back to Budapest where she took him out to dinner and then back to her apartment.

Speaker: Again, we've got some themes. Of course, Vladimir and her other Budapest lover, Andrzej, knew each other because that's how it goes, right? yeah Instead of things becoming awkward and escalating, the three of them came to a sort of agreement because we're all adults here. It's wartime.

Speaker: Nobody owns me, right? When Andrzej was in town, he was Christina's choice, okay? When he was out of town, she was with Vladimir.

Speaker: Hilariously and naively, Vladimir was under the impression that Christina was only with Andrzej because she felt bad for him because of his amputation. She and Andrzej allowed him to believe this because they both knew the truth.

Speaker: They were soulmates. And she still enjoyed Vladimir's Company. yes Yes. Vladimir and Christina took another mission later that year to transport microfilm documents and other things to the resistance and back.

Speaker: They carried the microfilm maps, falsified papers, documents, coded letters, U.S. currency, and more propaganda. Unfortunately, the Hungarian police was now under the control of the Gestapo. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Crossing the border was now exponentially more dangerous and difficult. The pair took fire from the border guards guards as they fled across. They were exhausted after running and they fell asleep at a train station to rest. They were awakened by armed police and taken towards a police station.

Speaker: As they were led across a bridge that spanned a very deep, very fast moving river, Christina came up with a crazy plan to try and spare them a little bit of tor She feigned an injury to slow their progress, and Vladimir claimed that he needed to get a bandage from her bag so that he could help her.

Speaker: Instead, he pulled out a nice, thick, heavy envelope that contained the most incriminating documents and chucked it over the edge so it disappeared into the curtain. Hmm. The guards weren't thrilled. They were like yelling at him what was in that package, what in that package. So they dragged him away, threatening to shoot him and screaming that he needed to tell them what was in the envelope.

Speaker: Christina told him that it was black market magazines and foreign currency. They didn't believe her. They stopped and dumped out both packs to see what else they had. They found a whole bunch of semi-troublesome stuff, but nothing truly serious, until one of the guards pulled out a pendant from Vladimir's pack and became totally jazzed.

Speaker: The pendant was, supposedly, a secret token that indicated one's involvement in the resistance. And obviously the secret was out, because the guard immediately recognized it.

Speaker: So they realized they were about to die. However, one of the other guards pulled out a quartz necklace from Christina's bag and began examining it in the light from a single flashlight. So it's dark now. The only light they have is that.

Speaker: Quick thinking, Christina lunged at the man screaming, my diamonds. She scratched at his face, broke the necklace, sending the gems tumbling towards the ground. The guard slapped her and then reached out for the falling diamonds.

Speaker: Vladimir took his cue from Christina's actions. slapped the flashlight from the guard's hand, grabbed Christina as they were plunged into darkness, and then fled up the embankment and down the other side.

Speaker: They ran through the trees, dodging bullets, and the guards didn't follow because they had stacks of currency and what they believed were plenty of diamonds. Hee hee. ha ha

Speaker: The pair escaped and made what made their way back to Hungary. Unfortunately, in the hurry to flee, the forged travel documents containing Christina's photograph were left behind. Oh, shit.

Speaker: Shortly after their encounter, Christina's picture was plastered in every train station with a large reward for capture or execution. Mm-hmm. Now she was unable to return to Poland as a courier, so she decided to join Andrzej's escaped POW and refugee evacuation unit, saving those that were crossing out of Poland and also smuggling money and weapons the other direction.

Speaker: Thousands of people were saved by those two. Vladimir was reassigned to the Polish army in Palestine. His service there earned him many medals and awards for courage. He was later wounded and transferred to intelligence work, just kind of fading from Christina's life a bit. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Andre and Christina continued their work for months, frequently under gunfire and driving at breakneck speeds with a vehicle packed full of refugees and POWs. They were also able to maintain k Christina's contacts and continue to smuggle microfilm by hiding it in her gloves or in the special secret compartment in Andre's wooden leg. Oh, shit. That's good.

Speaker: Unfortunately, Hungary was becoming more aligned with German sentiments. Andrzej was under increasing surveillance. Despite this, he still teamed up with people trying to sabotage whatever they could get their hands on, including, you'll like this one, swimming out to and planting explosives on barges carrying oil and gasoline bound for Austria. huh Christina couldn't swim, so she waited on the shore with a car ready to speed away, keeping Andrzej's wooden legs safe.

Speaker: So this man swam out with one and a half legs. Huh. It's amazing. To plant bombs on boats. Do you know who that reminds me of?

Speaker: Jan Balzrud. i know. Fucking Norwegian resistance member. Yeah. Isn't it so cool? Yeah, it's great. It's just phenomenal, these stories. Yeah.

Speaker: In January 1941, at four in the morning, Christina was fighting a cold. She and Andrzej were awakened by the police banging on their door. Christina flushed some incriminating journal entries down the toilet, and Andrzej hid his coded notebook in a secret pocket inside his coat.

Speaker: They were taken in for interrogation, and for 19 hours, Andrzej was questioned and beaten repeatedly while Christina was receiving the same treatment in a separate room. After a brief night's sleep, he was returned to the interrogation chambers and found Christina already there, sporting the same bruising he had.

Speaker: The police continued their questioning and revealed that they knew Andrzej had spent what they considered an inordinate inordinate amount of time visiting the British ambassador in Budapest.

Speaker: When asked why he was there so much, Christina chimed in that it was because of the ambassador's beautiful 18-year-old daughter.

Speaker: When they produced the photograph of Christina that had been posted in the Polish train stations, she stared at it for a long moment and then simply said, hmm, the likeness is striking.

Speaker: However, it seems to me that the girl in the picture is much prettier. Oh, yeah. Good answer. Using her cold, flu-like symptoms to her advantage and big old brain, Christina devised a fantastically diabolical plan.

Speaker: She set herself into a hacking cough and hid the fact that she was biting her tongue while doing so. As her tongue began bleeding, her cough turned bloody. And... Consumption. The Gestapo were horrified. Yeah. Tuberculosis consumption was in full swing. Antibiotics treatments didn't exist, and it was highly contagious and almost entirely fatal.

Speaker: The guards called in a doctor to examine her, all while standing, like cowards, off to the side. The doctor was Hungarian and likely knew that he wasn't witnessing true TB, but he really had no loyalties to the Nazi regime, so she got lucky.

Speaker: How did he know that that wasn't...

Speaker: Because he probably saw like the ah bites on her tongue. yeah The x-rays, and she probably didn't look like she was she had the consumption. Consumed. Yeah. The x-rays that he had taken showed some suspicious shadows in her lungs.

Speaker: conveniently left over from the physical effects of working in the car factory. The doctor showed the images to the Gestapo and said that they needed to release her and Andrzej immediately, who was obviously undoubtedly also infected.

Speaker: The guards let them go, but they were told they were to be under house arrest and needed to check in with the police every three hours. They got back to their apartment.

Speaker: And packed immediately. They knew they had been followed, so they had to be smart. Conveniently, they both had plenty of friends willing to help and a secret, unregistered little sports car that Andrzej had made his first daring escape in from the camp.

Speaker: The little gem that he stole from the German military officer. Mm-hmm. A friend came to visit the couple, bought ah brought a bottle of brand brandy, and then shortly after be like arriving, a big clunky Chevrolet that had previously been driven by Anjé um left the apartment parking.

Speaker: That was a vehicle they had been registered to, and they had gone back to the apartment inn, and meh. Moments later, the hidden sports car hauled ass out of the other side of the apartment complex. Anjay and Christina arrived at the British ambassador's residence in the sporty car within minutes.

Speaker: The ambassador and his wife very quickly obtained forged British documents for the couple. Anjay was now to be known as Anthony Kennedy, and Christina was now Christine Granville, and seven years younger. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Her new identity would be the one that she used for the remainder of her life. So from now on, Christina is Christine. Okay. The pair separated briefly as Christine Granville was smuggled out of Hungary to Yugoslavia in the trunk of the umba embassy driver's Chrysler, bearing diplomatic markers that allowed it to pass the border without being stopped or searched.

Speaker: Mr. Anthony Kennedy drove a little sports car across the border... And when stopped, he said that he was just just popping over the border to sell the car and he would be back right after the sale.

Speaker: They fucking believed him. Like what? I'm just going to go sell this car. I'll be right back. And I'm coming right Don't you worry. Believe me. Totally, totally, totally.

Speaker: I mean, come on. they reunite The couple reunited in Yugoslavia, spent a few days enjoying each other's company and the reprieve from being hunted. After their short rest, the pair wanted to get back to work and head to the SOE headquarters in Cairo.

Speaker: The SOE offices wanted Christine's suggestion for a replacement for her position that she had fled back in Budapest. She offered up her husband, Jeza,

Speaker: Yeah, still around, still married. And he was actually like starting his journey towards Cairo to reunite with her anyway. Okay. So he's all excited.

Speaker: He is charismatic, diplomatic, because he's a diplomat. um And he had connections throughout many countries and would make an excellent replacement for her. He was also an excellent skier, multilingual, brave, and adventurous. Okay.

Speaker: Anthony was officially recruited into the SOE and Christine handed over her last roll of microfilm. On this roll, there were images of German military forces building up along the Russian border.

Speaker: This was shocking because it indicated that Germany was preparing to attack. Mm-hmm. Anthony and Christine made their way towards Istanbul, where they were where they intended to meet ah with Yeza to discuss his new opportunity.

Speaker: As they crossed into Belgrade, which was German-leaning, they encountered some nasty border guards who pulled them out of their vehicle in the pouring rain, attempted to humiliate them, like took off Andrzej's leg and like, oh yeah. um They searched every single crevice of them, their vehicle, and their belongings.

Speaker: laughed in at Anthony's face when their German shepherd lunged and barked at him. Christine really didn't like this. You know, like, why be a bully for bully's sake? So she cozied up to the dog because she had been raised with them on the country estate that they had and had the dog falling in love with her.

Speaker: And then she stepped back to Anthony's side. When they were eventually released, Christine had Anthony stop the car just over the border, leaned out the window, and whistled for the dog.

Speaker: He launched himself over to the car and allowed Christine to love on him some more. She patted his head and sent him back to the guards with a smile on her face just to prove that she could have taken the dog to get back at them for the way they had behaved towards her man. Badass.

Speaker: They proceeded to in Istanbul without any additional issues. They awkwardly met with Jezze and spent a few days briefing him and soothing his ego so that he would take the job. He did.

Speaker: He was successful in the position, but by April 1941, the Nazis marched right through Hungary, unimpeded, to conquer Yugoslavia. Britain with withdrew all diplomatic staff and cut ties with Hungary. Jezze needed to head back to Istanbul and telegrammed ahead to tell Christine to wait for him.

Speaker: However, when the telegram arrived, it read, quote, tell Granville not to wait. So Christine and Anthony jetted off again for their next mission. Yezha was wildly unhappy and thought the British intelligence had intentionally misinformed Christine so that she wouldn't be distracted from her assignments.

Speaker: Pretty likely. yeah but She was an exquisite asset. like they They didn't need anything. The pair made their way through Syria and Lebanon to Cairo. When they arrived back in Cairo, they quickly realized they were not really welcome and actually under suspicion because of, reportedly, Christine's ties to the Polish-resistant group noted as the three or the Musketeers.

Speaker: Apparently, there were wildly inaccurate and absurd rumors and accusations that Christine, because of her connections to the Musketeers, and their occasional manipulation use of the Germans to fight against the Russians, was in fact working for the Nazis.

Speaker: The Brits wanted to keep the Poles happy, and the Poles were divided because of varying opinions on who was in fact the greater threat, the Soviets or the Nazis. The Musketeers had made their choice, and they thought that the Soviets...

Speaker: were enough of a threat that they would sometimes use Nazis to... Yeah. And they had made enough people uncomfortable with their choices and tactics. Yezure returned to Cairo in a rage about the accusations because insinuating that his wife was a traitor reflected poorly on him.

Speaker: Although his angry return had made things better for Christine because he was so outraged that they were kind of like, oh, yeah, okay, we're lying. Didn't mean it. She chose a rather blunt approach to finally telling him the truth.

Speaker: She said she no longer loved him, and she was leaving him. He was not pleased, obviously. He went bonkers, raged, threw a fit, and then stormed out, and the two never spoke again.

Speaker: The British intelligence services offered him additional role roles, but he wasn't in the mood to put up with the people responsible in his mind for him losing his spunky and gorgeous wife, so he respectfullyfully respectfully told them to go fuck themselves.

Speaker: He sailed back to London and then onwards to Canada, where he started a new life as a journalist and left the war in Europe behind him, along with his failed marriage, which officially ended in a divorce in 1946. On June on june twenty second Germany invaded Russia, which started the slow downfall of the German Nazi empire.

Speaker: The invasion so ah solidified solidified Christine's position as not a Nazi spy, and she was completely exonerated in the eyes of the British. Churchill was thrilled and believed that because the secret had been so closely guarded, no Nazi supporter or allied traitor would have given up such valuable information.

Speaker: He was obsessed with her. Churchill was like, she's my girl. i love this. So while Christine and Anthony stayed in Cairo for a year, the SOE tried to find appropriate assignments for them, but it was proving difficult because they both had become so individually famous and infamous and notorious throughout Eastern Europe, and as a pair, they were very well known by the Gestapo.

Speaker: Christine kind of made herself crazy and bored during their extended stay. She felt useless and wanted to get back into the work. Anthony, now going by Angé again, stayed busy with paramilitary operations and training. The two maintained a close relationship, but Christine's healthy sexual appetite was not fully stated by the relationship with only Angé, especially because he was spending a lot of time in Palestine training. So obviously she had flings throughout her stay.

Speaker: While in Cairo, Christine learned that her mother and brother, who had ended up joining the Polish military, had both been arrested. Her mother disappeared after records indicated she had been imprisoned.

Speaker: It's likely that she was taken as ah ah part of a large group into the woods surrounding the prison where she was being held and executed and then mass buried. wow Her brother, though, had fake documents that hid his Jewish heritage and spent the years um of the the final years of the war in a POW camp.

Speaker: Andrzej also found out that nearly his entire family had been slaughtered while at a country house celebrating a wedding, all because a Nazi official wanted the house for himself.

Speaker: Of the 21 people in attendance, only two brothers had survived because they had been quickly hidden by their mother. The Polish resistance approved the execution of the official and his family. The firing squad included those two surviving boys.

Speaker: The boys then stayed on with the resistance and were later killed in action. By the end of the war, Andrzej had only two surviving family members, a sister that had not attended the wedding and a cousin who had already been in the resistance.

Speaker: Even a man as strong and resilient as Anje had his limits. The massacre of his family was his. He transferred to Haifa, where he began parachute training after receiving special allowance from a doctor who approved him to participate.

Speaker: Obviously, he excelled. Unfortunately, the SOE remained firmly fixed that he was not being ah he was not allowed to be sent into direct combat because of his leg. He was sent to Italy as a parachute liaison officer.

Speaker: He stopped in London for a new prosthetic before going onward to Italy. And while in London briefly, he reconnected with Kate, the now 21-year-old beautiful daughter of the British ambassador.

Speaker: The two began a romantic relationship for a few weeks, and then the relationship fizzled out when he moved to Italy. Again, because this is just how these things go, Kate was good friends with Christine, and the two frequently corresponded by letter.

Speaker: Kate told Christine of the affair, and Christine had the gall to be pissy about Anje's, quote, betrayal. Come the fuck on. And also, just side note, one of the flings that Christine had while in Cairo was with Kate's older brother. God almighty. Yeah. This is messy. Yeah.

Speaker: Their brief connection ended rather quickly because it started just before he got married. And apparently his fiance was one of very, very few people who Christine actually found intimidating.

Speaker: oh What? a What? Exactly. No way. i you imagine what kind of person it takes For her to be intimidated.

Speaker: what What? What? Like who who would you picture of like made up people? Who would you picture would be someone that this type of person would be intimidated by? I don't know because she is the one that intimidates people.

Speaker: You know, I don't know if she intimidates people. If that's the right word. She scares the ever loving fuck out of them. Yeah. And she's strong. Somebody. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah um 1943 saw the s SOE beginning to employ female agents as couriers and radio operators in ocu occupied territories. The push into France was rapidly approaching, and with Christine's background in fluent French, she was an ideal candidate.

Speaker: Sabotage, arson, ambushes, and instruction on handling informants were taught during a nine-month training period. Handling informants. We all know what that means. yeah The candidates and agents participated in paramilitary training in the Scottish Highlands where they learned to live off the land, handle firearms and explosives, and how to kill someone silently.

Speaker: And play with the coos. The Highland coos. The coos. Hopefully they weren't using their explosives on the cows. No. You think? No. For the sake of the story, they're not.

Speaker: Did they? No. They wouldn't do that. They're too cute. They're too cute. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Upon completion of this phase, ah they did parachute training, followed by courses on subversion and recruitment. I mean, just so fucking cool.

Speaker: Christine was pushed through these courses rather rapidly because she already had a load of field training and experience. Despite this and her upbringing on the estate where hunting was a common pastime, Christine made it very clear that guns were not her favorite thing.

Speaker: She preferred to use knives and blades. One of her signatures turned out to be the SOE dagger she kept strapped to her thigh that boasted a seven-inch blade. Holy shit.

Speaker: She was also extremely persuasive and had an unusually impressive impressive talent for making people, mostly men, basically agree to anything.

Speaker: Christine was instructed to meet up team up with a man named Francis Kamar. This is a side quest. Francis was a tall, thin man, fluent in French. At 16 years old, he decided to become a pacifist and socialist.

Speaker: He registered as a conscientious objector when the war began. He was able to convince the board that his intentions were true, and he wasn't just trying to skip on the whole you-could-die thing, right? But he lost his job as a history teacher because they were like, screw you. like He began working working as a farmer.

Speaker: His brother, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, was killed in action in 1941. He began wavering on his pacifism. The doubts intensified with the birth of his daughter in 1942. He chose to become involved in the war efforts, but he still wasn't super jazzed about becoming like a military member.

Speaker: He said, quote, I might be ordered to kill people in a way that was entirely wrong. Once you'd accepted the notion that the discipline of an armed force, you were bound to accept the probability of stupid and ridiculous orders which you'd have to obey.

Speaker: Valid. So Francis used his connections with the, quote, boys club guys that he had known throughout his life and asked for an introduction at SOE. And out comes super badass pacifist turned spy. Like...

Speaker: Also, this dude excelled. By March 1943, he was plopped into France and driven to Paris to meet his first connection. He got spooked... word choice, when his contact didn't arrive, and rightfully so because his contact had been arrested.

Speaker: He made his way to the mountain village of San Giorgio. He met up with a number of men ah who were gung-ho and all dressed, like, quote, dressed like resistance people.

Speaker: He was concerned at this presentation because... it went against all of his covert training with the SOE because the whole point was to not look like resistance people.

Speaker: They were also apparently idiots because they received a letter that claimed to be from the arrested contact requesting the group fly a defecting German enemy contact requesting, ah like, German colonel to London.

Speaker: It also went against the SOE training that clearly said that anything... That is hinky should result in the immediate death of whatever person is causing the hinkiness. Right.

Speaker: There's nothing. like No hesitation. You're just supposed to kill people. Like, this is sketchy. Kill him Kill them. He shared his concerns with them, but they wouldn't listen to him to their demise. The defecting colonel was, in fact, a spy hunter, a notorious one.

Speaker: Francis headed south to start his own little fledgling resistance group. And the one that he had been staying in San Giorgio just fucking got demolished. um Francis' group became one of the most successful operations in France.

Speaker: They disrupted enemy movements as they sabotaged hydroelectric power stations, crippling the enemy's ability to produce aluminum. Needed to outfit the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force.

Speaker: They blew up trains, railway lines, telegram lines. They received secret airdrops of supplies and ammunition, and they distributed where needed. His courier was captured, withstood the interrogation without cracking, and then was sent to a concentration camp in September 1943.

Speaker: She almost immediately underwent a successful operation to remove a tumor, but then was deeed deemed unfit for labor and was executed in a gas chamber. This is the position that Christine was being sent to fill.

Speaker: The Allied invasion of France began on June 6, 1944. The resistance ah doubled their efforts, and the Nazis responded with even more severe and brutal violence.

Speaker: Christine and three other SOE agents were flying in at night and low to the ground, using the LALO, low altitude, low opening, system that uses a static line cable attached to the plane that immediately pulls the parachute open upon exiting the plane. Again, your low altitude, low open means you don't have but a quick second to... Yeah.

Speaker: This method is intended to decrease time spent in the air and directly reduce the risk of detection and enemy fire. Because the longer you're just floating down, the more you can get shot at, right? Yeah.

Speaker: When the door opened, crazy-ass adrenaline-endangered junkie Christine literally laughed through the engine sound and the gale force winds. Fuck. She then tapped a Morse code on the wall of the plane. Of course she did. That is only documented as being, quote, excessively rude.

Speaker: i wonder what it was. What do you think it was? Yeah. My mind goes in so many different directions. Same. But it's probably something along the lines of, eat my ass, boys. Yeah. Like. Yeah.

Speaker: Fuck right off. you Fuck right off. Fuck off. She was, she jumped, launched herself out of the plane. She taps the Morse code message, laughs, and then launches, right?

Speaker: Into gale force winds. She's blown four miles off course and lands hard. She buried her flight gear, her parachute, and the gun that was now completely smashed because she landed wrong, and then waited for dawn.

Speaker: She walked out of the woods in her plain French clothes with a cyanide capsule sewn into a secret compartment. Holy shit. When she finally met up with Francis a few days later, the two immediately clicked.

Speaker: Her experience and personality made her an easy choice to quickly become Francis' second-in-command. Most of the other regions of resistance fighters were covert and more subtle, but the hundreds of fighters in this location was an army, and they were called the Maquis.

Speaker: She played a pivotal role in disturbing or distributing arms and ammunition all across the region, organizing raids, and planning and participating in sabotage. Her constant encouragement and laughter were a boost in morale for the resistance fighters.

Speaker: Within a week of arriving, Christine participated in the Bastille Day celebration in the French town of Paris. Early on the day of the celebration, the sky was full of the sound of the engines of 72 American B-17 bombers as they flew low overhead, dropping supply canisters on parachutes of red, white, and blue. Hmm.

Speaker: Unfortunately, the overt delivery was noticed by the enemy forces, and they responded within 30 minutes. They flew overhead in a recon plane and sprayed the drop zone with machine gun fire.

Speaker: All but Christine fled from the gunfire. It was reported that she stood in the field and simply looked up as the fire rained down. Soon after, fighters and bombers arrived and targeted nearby civilians and villages with incendiary bombs.

Speaker: Christine and the others quickly began breaking into the supply canisters and getting out the weapons. German infantry forces arrived to add to the chaos. The resistance fought hard into the night.

Speaker: And, as is Christine's habit, she fell into bed that night with Francis, seeking a distraction from the horrors of the day and the fear of death looming in the morning.

Speaker: With the sunrise the next morning, a bomber plane came into view and released a bomb. And they watched it from the window of the like burning. The hotel that they were in was actually burning.

Speaker: And they watched and they were like, this is probably how we die. But the bombs skittered off of the roof of their crumbling hotel and embedded in the earth behind the hotel and did not explode.

Speaker: The resistance fought hard and held the Germans until more experienced and better equipped SS commandos arrived. The four-day battle was a bloodbath, although overall it was extremely helpful in that it pulled thousands of enemy troops to the mountains and prevented them from joining the efforts at Normandy.

Speaker: Hundreds of the resistance army died in action. Those captured were burned alive or hanged by piano wire. The civilians had been slaughtered. Christine, Francis, and a few others snuck out when the German forces ordered the resistance disbanded.

Speaker: They walked 60 miles in less than 24 hours before they finally took time to rest and recover. It was brief. 60 miles. Wow. And this is like 60 miles through French mountains, and like this isn't like a walk on a track, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: There was plenty of work still to be done. One of the primary objectives of Christine and the others like her was to try and subvert the Polish forces that had been conscripted by the Germans and forced to remain loyal with threats to their families. The idea was that these young men and boys didn't actually want to fight for the Germans and they would be maybe able to be flipped. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: With the plan for the Allied forces to reach southern France in August, Francis and Christine moved into the Alps to try and prevent German reinforcements from Italy. They positioned themselves at a fort that was located at Col de Lac and mainly occupied by conscripted Polish soldiers.

Speaker: Although the local resistance group was too busy to offer her aid, she persisted. They neared the fort, Christine now in combat attire and carrying a megaphone.

Speaker: And that seven-inch knife. And that seven-inch knife. um She quietly approached one of the Polish guards and learned the time and location of morning roll call. When the order came through for the resistance to close the mountain passes, Christine returned to the fort and, using that megaphone, told the Poles her name and used her, quote, flaming Polish patriotism to encourage the men inside to sabotage the guns and desert with as many guns and weapons as they could carry.

Speaker: A few days later, more British agents arrived to attempt to convince the German commander to surrender. Christine had been successful. The garrison was turning on the German, so he had to surrender.

Speaker: No weapons were used, and Christine managed to take control of the crucial mountain pass with only words. Explosives were used to destroy the road so the Germans wouldn't be able to drive vehicles, armor, or weapons to reinforce against the American forces set to land in the south.

Speaker: Her victory high was short-lived because that same day brought news that Francis had been arrested by the Gestapo. m Francis had been meeting with a new SOE agent.

Speaker: ah Jean Fielding, an army officer who had been ah organiz who had been part of like the organization in Crete, and French SOE trained officer Christian Sorensen were going to be given a tour of the resistance efforts so they could take over if anything happened to Francis.

Speaker: The men decided to divide up the large sum of cash that Fielding had on him so as to look less suspicious. They met up with driver Claude Renoir, who, fun fact, is the grandson to the great Impressionist painter.

Speaker: oh They drove out of the town and saw a roadblock manned by armed soldiers. These guys weren't the problem. They were mostly Georgian and Armenian troops recruited by the Germans from Soviet POW camps. They hadn't been overly enthusiastic to fight for the Soviets, and they were less enthusiastic about fighting for the Nazis. So they waved through the blockade. Unfortunately, Gestapo pulled up right behind them as they made it through the roadblock.

Speaker: this Max Vom was the man in charge and a perfect Nazi specimen. Although he was Belgian and not German, he was a collaborator.

Speaker: He was also very well known as a sadistic fucking asshole and high on the really, really, really bad guy list for the resistance fighters. They told a mostly believable story that they were hitchhikers who had all been picked up separately by Renoir Unfortunately, the cash the men were carrying was sequentially numbered.

Speaker: So, fuckface Vom arrested the three SOE agents and let Renoir go free. The captives were chucked into a nasty, dirty basement cell in Denia prison with four bunks.

Speaker: One was occupied by a a French man with such a thick German accent that it was obvious the Nazis were trying to get the men to confess their truth in the quiet of the cell. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: The interrogations were messy, brutal, but nothing the trained SOE agents couldn't handle. When they were thrown back into their cell, they were told that they had all confessed to smuggling contraband and they were now condemned to death.

Speaker: Christine turned into full savior mode. She tried to organize a raid on the prison, but the Maquis refused because the risk of living losing too many lives in the attempt. Disappointed but not deterred, Christine made a different plan.

Speaker: Brute force and lying through her teeth. She marched straight into the Gestapo offices to meet with a man named Albert Schenck. He was a liaison officer and also sometimes a double agent for the resistance.

Speaker: She identified herself as Francis' wife and the niece of British Field Marshal Montgomery. She told him that she knew that the Allies would be landing on the coast very soon and threatened to send Schenck over to the mob.

Speaker: the germans were faring so well The Germans weren't faring so well, and Schenck was indeed scared of her threat. But, as is routine with shitheads and scumbags, he demanded that she give him 2 million francs to set a meeting between Christine and Max Vom, claiming he was the only person who could get the prisoners out.

Speaker: She agreed, and the SOE gathered the money and delivered it in less than 48 hours. The meeting took place in Vom's home that afternoon. She arrived first, and when ah who and when she opened the door, she had a gun pointed at her face.

Speaker: She told Vom that she was a British officer in communication with the Supreme Allied Command. She provided proof in the form of valuable radio crystals. She told him that there were no there was no way for him or anyone else to escape once the Americans arrived because the resistance had blocked all avenues out of Denia.

Speaker: Her threats continued. As a collaborator, Vaughn would be handed over to the Maquis for them to dish out their own version of justice for those they considered traitors. His fear was palpable.

Speaker: She demanded Vaughn release the prisoners and exchange would guarantee his safe passage to the Allied base outside of France. For three hours, she used her superior talents on him.

Speaker: At 7 p.m., he finally agreed. The execution was set for 9 p.m. Damn. Damn. That's insane. who the fuck was she afraid of Like, who was the person?

Speaker: i still come back to this. Like, who the fuck was she intimidated by? You know? Right? She's like the smartest woman. let me meet that lady. Yeah. Yeah. So, minutes before 9 p.m., Vom led the three prisoners across the courtyard to a car driven by shank. my God.

Speaker: They rounded the corner and saw Christine standing there waiting for them. She climbed in the car after helping Vaughn bury his uniform. She truly tried to keep her word, but the allies were not jazzed about the idea of helping a man who had committed such heinous atrocities.

Speaker: He was never seen again. Oh. The Americans arrived in Dinia two days later. Francis told Albert Schenk not to go home for his own safety, but he did.

Speaker: And he was rapidly unalived. Hmm. France was soon rid of the German occupying forces and the SOE agents were recalled to Britain. Francis, the sweet idiot boy that he is, ah lived in honesty, so he told his wife about his affair with Christine.

Speaker: And then he asked if she was okay if he continued the affair. oh no. She was not. yeah She also did admit to her own affair, though, with Francis's commanding officer who had just been killed in action. So they were like, oh, we've both fucked Let's call it even. Let's call it even and move on. But she was like, absolutely not. You don't get to keep doing that.

Speaker: Like, That's fair. But good for him for asking. Yeah. Um, so Christine and Francis actually remained friends. Um, the war was far from over for Christine, though. Poland was still in turmoil. The Polish underground staged an uprising in Warsaw, but the German forces tried their damnedest to follow Hitler's orders to destroy the entire city and kill literally everyone.

Speaker: The Soviet Red Army, which was reportedly, um... Poland's ally after the German betrayal was then sweeping through the country and wiping out the resistance fighters they met because Stalin didn't need any experienced fighters stopping his own plans.

Speaker: They arrived outside of Warsaw and watched the carnage unfold. Once the city was in rubble, the Soviets pushed on, occupying the cities as they made their way towards Germany. When Hitler killed himself and the war had hypothetically ended, the eastern parts of Poland were claimed by the Soviets.

Speaker: There was no home for Christina anymore. She was a Polish aristocrat and a British agent, and her life would have been forfeit. Her brother had outlasted the war in the German POW camp, was then arrested by the Soviets, and quickly released and then died of consumption.

Speaker: Christine, along with many like her, had spent years living an extremely dangerous and tightly controlled existence. With the war over, they were left floundering and trying to acclimate to, quote, everyday life.

Speaker: There was no family, there was no money. The SOE was disbanded and the agents were just... Sent away. Sent away. Yeah. She was awarded many medals and ribbons and such for her wartime efforts.

Speaker: However... At this time, women were not allowed to receive military honors, so every medal she earned were designated for civilians.

Speaker: She spent the next few years restless and lost. She reconnected with Andrzej briefly in Belgium, where he had started a business selling sports cars. Mm-hmm. Then she moved to Nairobi to live with one of her Cairo boyfriends.

Speaker: She bounced around jobs. She moved back to London and worked as a waitress and then a saleswoman. When she reconnected with a distant cousin, she was given the opportunity to work on ocean liners as a steward.

Speaker: In May of 1951, she ended up in Glasgow for her first job on a long cruise. On this trip, she met another steward named... ah Denny's George Muldowney.

Speaker: He was charismatic and made the otherwise miserable trip less horrific. He was her friend and he stood up for her when other staff was being xenophobic and disrespectful of the wartime medals and honors she was told to wear on her uniform.

Speaker: Because there was a lot of pride that was trying to be expressed, so her bosses literally said, if any of you are... former soldiers or service members wear your stuff proudly. So she did because she was proud of it. People made fun of her, said that she had like made them herself and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker: Their long trip likely included a romantic or intimate relationship because we know Christine, you know, she's a little bit of a slut in the best way. And her tradition of hiding her loneliness and vulnerability. In the way. In the best way. In the best way. Because why the fuck can she not do this? It was brains though. Brains, brains, brains. So it's not irrational to believe that they did share a bed. However, we also know that she...

Speaker: She doesn't really get attached, right? She easily moves on. So by the time the journey was over, the affection for Muldowney had transformed into an unhealthy and creepy obsession. She was a bit oblivious to the dangers of this and like having him around still. So she invited him to come back to London and introduced him to her friends and Anjay.

Speaker: What's the rule? When Anjay's around, she's with him. So with Anjay in London for a while, obviously Christine returned to his bed. He was her lobster.

Speaker: Muldowney was not great at handling that type of rejection and became jealous. This, understandably, pushed Christine even farther away. She was like, ooh, not a fan.

Speaker: She took another cruise in November of that year, this time with her cousin who had gotten her the job. Upon arriving back in England in January, Muldowney was waiting on the docks for her. The three traveled back to London together and Christine did the blunt thing and again told him to leave her alone.

Speaker: He said he was sorry, but he did not leave her alone. He began stalking her. She became scared and actually expressed her fears to Andrzej who told her to be gentle, but to end things entirely, which she thought she had already done.

Speaker: The three of them went to the cinema together to start the like closing out this whole Muldowney chapter of her life, but it only made things worse. He sailed the next day and then Christine and her cousin took another long voyage to Australia.

Speaker: When she returned in April, Muldowney barged into the lobby of her hotel and berated her for ignoring him and not writing. She said she never wanted to see him again and told her doorman to never let him in.

Speaker: She and Anje traveled to Switzerland for a week-long vacation. While gone, Muldowney apparently quit his steward job, right took a job as a porter at the Reform Club right near Christine's home.

Speaker: Christine left for the cruise for South Africa in April, but decided that this was going to be her last one. Anje had previously made a an open proposal to her, and she decided that it was time to take him up on it.

Speaker: He had been the one constant presence in her life and her soulmate. She returned to London and had plans to fly to Belgium on June 15th. The flight got canceled because of engine failure and was rescheduled for the next day.

Speaker: She went to dinner with friends and returned home to her hotel at about 10 p.m. Muldowney was waiting for her across the street. He followed her into the hotel, yelling at her, demanding she return the letters he sent.

Speaker: "'She calmly said that she couldn't return them "'because she had burned him burned them and told him to leave her alone. "'He flew into a rage, pinned her against the wall, "'and pulled out a commando knife just like hers "'that he had had sheathed and hidden in the back of his pants. "'He stabbed her once in the chest with the five-inch blade. "'It pierced her heart and killed her within seconds.' A hotel porter ran in, pulled him off of her.

Speaker: He was taken into custody, admitted guilt without context, and was executed by hanging three months later at Pentonville Prison. Hundreds of people were present at Christine's funeral.

Speaker: She was a legend and a hero in life and death. She lived hard and fast. She laughed in the face of things that made grown men cry. She brought joy to so many, and through all her own hells, her spirit never faded and her strength never faltered.

Speaker: Her end was brutal and a sick twist of fate. The forever missed opportunity to finally settle down and live the rest of her life with Anje because of the stupid plane just makes it so much worse. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: After her tragic and untimely death, Christine's boys, they called themselves that, um the men that she had shared special relationships with and saved in more ways than one, collectively decided to try and protect her memory and her life from prying eyes and lies.

Speaker: They literally formed clubs. The, quote, panel to protect the memory of Christine Granville was one of them and started just after her death to prevent her from becoming a press sensation.

Speaker: That lasted briefly. She was absolutely too sensational to not be talked about. There are many stories that seem to have been exaggerated, but the enduring theme is... oh That she was an astonishing woman who was cornered by coming war and chose to step up.

Speaker: She served not only her own country and people, but all those who stood against the tides of the Nazis and Soviets. And so... That, Jeffrey, is the extraordinary tale of the aristocratic wild woman turned poor secretary turned businesswoman's wife who refused to settle or fit into a mold, who tamed wild stallions, skied through blizzards, shot guns, carried concealed blades,

Speaker: confidently confronted and manipulated Nazi leaders who helped save thousands of lives, who loved hard and was loved hard in return, who was unquestionably Winston Churchill's favorite spy.

Speaker: He said that himself. Christina Scarbeck became Christine Granville and lived a bold and exceptional life as a real-life female James Bond. God almighty, that was incredible.

Speaker: Worth wait? Yeah. That was good. yeah That was good. yeah That has everything we love. I know. Every element that we love. Yeah. I just wish she had met a better end, you know? Well, yeah.

Speaker: Definitely. But... like You killed her that way. What the fuck? She deserved so much better than that. And also to think that she was a waitress at one point.

Speaker: You know, that just made me think, wow, you never know... Like the waitress that comes to the table. Yo, she was the waitress that came to the table. Well, it's one of those things, right? It's like there's there's a... PTSD didn't exist back then, but like the shit that that she and her other SOE operatives and like the SIS, all of them, i mean the soldiers, yes, but also like the spies who were...

Speaker: like You live in this heightened state at all times for years. And then all of a sudden they're like, you come home later and everything's supposed to be normal. But then again, again, like that was the sad thing too, right? if She didn't have a home.

Speaker: Yeah, true. She, she would have been immediately executed if she had tried to go back to Poland, but there was nothing for her there. Her family was dead. Nothing. Damn. Yeah.

Speaker: I want to know more about on, on Jay, on Jay. Mm-hmm. I want to know more about the woman that she was intimidated by. I do. like There's a story there, too. gotta be. And then, like, I also want to know more, and this is true before this, about the Nuremberg trials. Oh, yeah, and yeah, yeah. And how those fuckers were given justice.

Speaker: Justice. Well, you know, we don't have a A system of justice justice. We have a legal system, but you know. Yeah. Wow, that was insane.

Speaker: Yeah. You could do like 10 stories from that one. I know. Yeah. That's why it was that was why i was a fucking novel. And that's just like scraping the surface, you know? i mean, there's so much more.

Speaker: The book about her is called The Spy Who Loved. ah That could be a modern day movie too. ah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, don't do any Polish resistance stories until later on. Okay. Okay.

Speaker: Because I got a couple for you. Oh, that was a way to break in your new house to the podcasting. How long it been? an hour and 40 minutes. Oh, fuck off. I'm sorry, everyone, but not really. No, no, no. That was such a good story. Okay.

Speaker: All right. Let's end it here. Let's end it now. What do we say? Alan, thank you. Alan, thank you. everything that you do for us. And Ashley. And Ashley. Just because. She's so busy lately. We love you guys. We love you. All of you. And thank you for listening. And we're here for a good time. Not a long time. Boom. Bye.