美国国家公共电台 NPR 'A Woman Of No Importance' Finally Gets Her Due

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Virginia Hall is one of the most important American spies people have never heard of. Now more than 70 years after her World War II exploits, she's having a moment. Her long-hidden story is being told in several books and movies. Here's NPR's Greg Myre.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE¹: A great place to learn about Virginia Hall is, unfortunately, off-limits to the public - the CIA Museum inside the spy agency headquarters in Langley, Va.

JANELLE: One of the things that we're looking at is a case that's devoted² to Virginia Hall. She was the most highly decorated female civilian³ during World War II.

MYRE: Janelle, the museum's deputy director, shows us around. Like many who work at the CIA, she's not allowed to give her last name to the media. So why haven't we heard more about Hall? Janelle answers with a quote from Hall on her display.

JANELLE: It says, many of my friends were killed for talking too much.

MYRE: Yet finally, for no obvious reason, Hall's story is resonating outside the walls of the CIA. Three books have just come out. Two movies are in the works. British author Sonia Purnell wrote one of the books, called "A Woman Of No Importance."

SONIA PURNELL: Through a lot of her life - the early life - she was constantly rejected and belittled⁴.

MYRE: Hall was born to a wealthy Baltimore family in 1906 and was raised to marry into her own privileged circle. But she wanted adventure. She called herself capricious and cantankerous⁵. She liked to hunt. And she once went to school wearing a bracelet⁶ made of live snakes. In college, Hall studied in Paris and fell in love with France. She decided⁷ to become a diplomat⁸, says Purnell.

PURNELL: She wanted to be an ambassador. She got pushed back by the State Department. She applied⁹ several times.

MYRE: The diplomatic ranks were all but closed to women. Hall did land a clerical job at a U.S. consulate¹⁰ in Turkey. But while hunting birds, she accidentally shot herself in the foot. Gangrene set in, and her left leg was amputated below the knee. Recovery was long and painful as she learned to use a clunky, wooden leg. Yet it was also a turning point, says Craig Gralley, a retired¹¹ CIA officer who's written his own book on Hall called "Hall Of Mirrors."

CRAIG GRALLEY: She had been given a second chance at life and wasn't going to waste it. And her injury, in fact, might have bolstered¹² her or reawakened her resilience so that she was, in fact, able to do great things.

MYRE: When World War II erupted and Nazi¹³ Germany invaded France, Hall volunteered to drive an ambulance for the French. But France was soon overrun, forcing her to flee to Britain. A chance meeting with a spy put her in contact with British intelligence. After limited training, this one-legged American woman was among the first British spy sent into Nazi-occupied France. She posed as a reporter for The New York Post. Hall was a natural spy, keeping one step ahead of the German secret police - the Gestapo. Again, Craig Gralley.

GRALLEY: Virginia Hall, to a certain extent, was invisible. She was able to play on the chauvinism of the Gestapo at the time. And none of the Germans early in the war necessarily thought that a woman was capable of being a spy.

MYRE: Hall operated in the eastern city of Lyon. She stayed at a convent and persuaded nuns¹⁴ to help her. She befriended a female brothel owner and received information that French prostitutes gathered from German troops. Hall organized French Resistance fighters, giving them safe houses and intelligence. This didn't go unnoticed, says Sonia Purnell.

PURNELL: The Germans came to realize that they were after a limping lady.

MYRE: Hall constantly changed her appearance.

PURNELL: She could be four different women in the space of an afternoon with four different code names.

MYRE: The man in hot pursuit was the Gestapo's infamous¹⁵ Klaus Barbie, known as the Butcher of Lyon for the thousands his forces tortured and killed. Barbie ordered wanted posters of Hall that featured a drawing of her above the words, the enemy's most dangerous spy. The Nazis¹⁶ were on her trail in late 1942. Hall narrowly escaped to Spain, walking three days and 50 miles over the forbidding Pyrenees Mountains. While researching his book, Craig Gralley made part of that walk and found it exhausting.

GRALLEY: I could only imagine the kind of will and perseverance¹⁷ that Virginia Hall had by making this track not on a beautiful day but in the dead of winter and with a prosthetic leg that she had to drag behind her through snow.

MYRE: Hall was safe, but she grew restless and wanted to return to France. The British refused, fearing it was too dangerous. However, the Americans were ramping¹⁸ up their own intelligence service - the Office of Strategic Services. They needed Hall. Yet the Nazis were everywhere, making it even more difficult for her to operate, says Sonia Purnell.

PURNELL: She got some makeup¹⁹ artist to teach her how to draw in wrinkles on her face. She also got a fierce - a rather sort of scary London dentist to grind down her lovely, white, American teeth so that she looked like a French milkmaid.

MYRE: Hall's second tour in France was even more successful than the first. She called in air drops for the resistance fighters, who blew up bridges and sabotaged²⁰ trains. They reclaimed²¹ villages well before Allied²² troops advanced that deep into France. Hall's network consisted of some 1,500 people, including a French-American soldier who later became her husband. Hall's niece, Lorna Catling, is now 89. She recalls meeting her aunt after the war.

LORNA CATLING: She came home in 1946, when I was 16. She was pale and had white hair and crappy clothes.

MYRE: And what did Hall say about the war?

CATLING: She never talked about it.

MYRE: President Harry²³ Truman wanted to honor Hall at the White House. Hall declined, saying she wanted to remain undercover. She did receive the Distinguished²⁴ Service Cross, the only one given to a civilian woman in World War II. No outsiders attended the ceremony except Hall's mother. Craig Gralley puts it this way.

GRALLEY: I do think that she became America's greatest spy of World War II.

MYRE: Hall then joined the newly formed CIA and worked there 15 years, mostly at headquarters. They were not her happiest days. She missed the adrenaline of war. Here's Randy, a CIA historian. And we can only use his first name

RANDY: Because as you get higher in rank, now it's all about money and personnel and plans and policy and, you know, that sort of bureaucratic²⁵ stuff.

MYRE: And she faced discrimination as a woman.

RANDY: Was she treated properly? Well, in today's standards, absolutely not.

MYRE: Hall retired in 1966 and never spoke²⁶ publicly. She died in 1982, her story still confined to the intelligence community. Now the books are on the shelves. The movies are coming. And at the CIA, recruits train in a building called The Virginia Hall Expeditionary Center.

Greg Myre, NPR News, Langley, Va.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

4 belittled   

使显得微小，轻视，贬低( belittle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She felt her husband constantly belittled her achievements. 她觉得她的丈夫时常贬低她的成就。
• A poor but honest man is not to be belittled. 穷而诚实的人是不该让人小看的。

5 cantankerous   

adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的

参考例句：

• He met a crabbed,cantankerous director.他碰上了一位坏脾气、爱争吵的主管。
• The cantankerous bus driver rouse on the children for singing.那个坏脾气的公共汽车司机因为孩子们唱歌而骂他们。

6 bracelet   

n.手镯，臂镯

参考例句：

• The jeweler charges lots of money to set diamonds in a bracelet.珠宝匠要很多钱才肯把钻石镶在手镯上。
• She left her gold bracelet as a pledge.她留下她的金手镯作抵押品。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。

11 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

12 bolstered   

v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• He bolstered his plea with new evidence. 他举出新的证据来支持他的抗辩。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The data must be bolstered by inferences and indirect estimates of varying degrees of reliability. 这些资料必须借助于推理及可靠程度不同的间接估计。 来自辞典例句

13 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

14 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

15 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

16 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

18 ramping   

土堤斜坡( ramp的现在分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• The children love ramping about in the garden. 孩子们喜欢在花园里追逐嬉戏，闹着玩。
• Have you ever seen a lion ramping around? 你看到过狮子暴跳吗？

19 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

20 sabotaged   

阴谋破坏（某事物）( sabotage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The main pipeline supplying water was sabotaged by rebels. 供水主管道被叛乱分子蓄意破坏了。
• They had no competition because competitors found their trucks burned and sabotaged. 他们之所以没有竞争对象，那是因为竞争对象老是发现自己的卡车遭火烧或被破坏。 来自教父部分

21 reclaimed   

adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救

参考例句：

• Many sufferers have been reclaimed from a dependence on alcohol. 许多嗜酒成癖的受害者已经被挽救过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They reclaimed him from his evil ways. 他们把他从邪恶中挽救出来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

22 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

23 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

24 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

25 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

26 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。