Krystyna Skarbek

1. Lead

Krystyna Skarbek (1 May 1908 – 15 June 1952), known in Britain as Christine Granville, was a Polish-born agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War, and one of the most effective and longest-serving female agents of the conflict. Born in Warsaw, the daughter of a Polish count and a Jewish mother from a wealthy banking family, she was a skier, a horsewoman and a socialite in the Poland of the 1930s, and when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, she made her way to London, where she volunteered for the British secret service. She was recruited by the SOE in 1940, and she served, first, in Hungary and in Poland, where she carried out courier missions across the Tatra Mountains, smuggling microfilmed intelligence and money to the Polish underground, and then, from 1944, in France, where she worked as a courier and liaison officer for the French Resistance in the Vercors and in the Alpes-Maritimes, organising the supply of arms, liaising with the Maquis, and, on one famous occasion, securing the release of two captured SOE officers by threatening a Gestapo officer at gunpoint and by bribing him with a large sum of money. She was awarded the George Medal, the Order of the British Empire and the French Croix de Guerre, and she was, in the words of one historian, “the most remarkable woman agent of the war”.

Skarbek’s life after the war was a tragedy. She was not given British citizenship until 1947, she was not given a pension, and she was unable to find work, serving as a stewardess on ocean liners and as a shop assistant in London. On 15 June 1952, she was murdered in a London hotel by Dennis Muldowney, a steward who had become obsessed with her, a murder that shocked Britain and that ended the life of a woman who had risked her life for the Allied cause and who had been forgotten by the country she had served. Her story was, for many years, little known, and it was not until the publication of Clare Mulley’s biography, The Spy Who Loved, in 2012, that her life was told in full, and that she was recognised as one of the great agents of the Second World War, a woman whose courage, whose resourcefulness and whose charm made her one of the most effective secret agents of the conflict.

2. Key Facts

Born	1 May 1908, Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	15 June 1952 (aged 44), London, England (murdered)
Nationality	Polish-born; became a British citizen in 1947; known in Britain as Christine Granville
Role / Office	Agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE); courier and liaison officer in Hungary, Poland and France (1940–1944)
Known for	Courier missions across the Tatra Mountains (1940–1941); work with the French Resistance in the Vercors and the Alpes-Maritimes (1944); securing the release of two captured SOE officers at Digne (August 1944); the George Medal, OBE and Croix de Guerre
Spouse / Family	Jerzy Giżycki (married 1938, divorced 1946); daughter of Count Jerzy Skarbek and Stefania Goldfeder; no children
Military rank	Civilian agent (SOE); honorary rank of captain in the British Army; later a stewardess and shop assistant

3. Early Life and Education

Family and Childhood

Krystyna Skarbek was born on 1 May 1908 in Warsaw, the daughter of Count Jerzy Skarbek, a Polish aristocrat, and Stefania Goldfeder, who came from a wealthy Jewish banking family. She was the youngest of two children, and she grew up in a household that was, by her own account, cosmopolitan and cultured, a family that spoke Polish, French and German, and that moved between Warsaw, Paris and the family’s country estate at Trzepnica. Her father, who was a charming but improvident man, lost much of the family fortune, and Krystyna grew up in a world that was, in her own words, “a world of beauty and of debt”, a world in which the family maintained the appearances of aristocratic life although the money was running out. She was a beautiful and athletic girl, fond of skiing, of riding and of the outdoors, and she was, by the account of those who knew her, a girl of exceptional charm and of exceptional will, a combination that would define her life. She attended school in Warsaw, where she was a mediocre pupil, more interested in sport than in study, and she was, by her own admission, a girl who was bored by the classroom and who longed for adventure.

Warsaw and the Polish Aristocracy

Warsaw, the city in which Skarbek was born, was the capital of a Poland that had been partitioned and that had regained its independence only in 1918, and it was a city of contrasts: of aristocratic palaces and of working-class tenements, of Polish culture and of Jewish culture, of tradition and of modernity. Skarbek grew up in the world of the Polish aristocracy, a world of balls, of hunting and of country houses, and she absorbed its values: courage, honour, and a belief that Poland was a nation that had survived partition and that would survive again. She also absorbed the habit of the aristocracy: to be charming, to be resourceful, and to be unafraid, habits that would serve her well in the secret war. Her mother, who was Jewish, taught her the value of education and of culture, and her father, who was Polish, taught her the value of patriotism and of service to Poland, a combination that made her, in the words of one biographer, “a Polish patriot with a Jewish soul”.

Education and First Service

Skarbek’s education was unconventional, and she never completed a university degree. She studied at a school in Warsaw, and she then spent a year in Paris, where she studied art and where she learned to speak French fluently, a skill that would prove invaluable in her later work in France. She married, in 1930, Karol Gettlich, a businessman, a marriage that ended in divorce, and in 1938 she married Jerzy Giżycki, a Polish diplomat and writer, with whom she travelled to Ethiopia, where Giżycki was the Polish consul, and where Skarbek, who was already a skilled skier and horsewoman, learned to ride and to shoot. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Skarbek and Giżycki were in Ethiopia, and they made their way, via Egypt and the Mediterranean, to London, where Skarbek, who spoke fluent French, German and Polish, volunteered for the British secret service. She was interviewed by the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, which had been created in 1940 to “set Europe ablaze”, and she was recruited as an agent, one of the first women to be recruited by the SOE, and one of the few who would serve for the whole of the war.

4. Rise to Prominence

The Tatra Courier Missions

Skarbek’s rise to prominence began in 1940, when she was sent, with her husband Jerzy Giżycki, to Hungary, where she worked as a courier for the Polish underground, carrying microfilmed intelligence and money across the Tatra Mountains, the range that separates Poland from Hungary and Slovakia, and that was, in 1940–1941, one of the main escape routes from occupied Poland. The missions were dangerous: the Tatras are high and treacherous, the border was patrolled by German and Hungarian police, and a courier who was caught would be shot or sent to a concentration camp. Skarbek, who was a skilled skier and a fearless climber, made the crossing several times, in winter and in summer, carrying intelligence that was vital to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and she became known to the Polish underground as a courier of exceptional courage and reliability. In 1941, after the Hungarian government, under German pressure, began to arrest Polish couriers, Skarbek and Giżycki were forced to flee Hungary, and they made their way, via Turkey and the Middle East, to Cairo, where Skarbek was recruited by the SOE for service in France.

Recruitment by the SOE

Skarbek’s recruitment by the SOE was the result of her reputation as a courier, and of her linguistic skills: she spoke Polish, French, German and English, and she was, in the words of her SOE file, “a woman of exceptional courage and resourcefulness”. She was trained by the SOE in Scotland and in England, where she learned the skills of the secret agent: wireless telegraphy, sabotage, unarmed combat, and the use of a pistol, and she was, in the words of her instructors, “one of the best students we have ever had”. In 1944, after two years of waiting, she was finally sent to France, where she was to work as a courier and liaison officer for the French Resistance, a role that required her to travel between the Maquis groups, to carry messages and money, and to liaise with the SOE officers who were organising the Resistance. She was dropped by parachute into France on the night of 6–7 July 1944, a month after the Allied landings in Normandy, and she landed in the Vercors, the mountainous region in south-eastern France where the Resistance was strongest, and where she would spend the next two months in one of the most dangerous assignments of the war.

5. Krystyna Skarbek’s Role in World War II

The Vercors and the Alpes-Maritimes

In France, Skarbek worked as a courier and liaison officer for the SOE, first in the Vercors, where she liaised between the Maquis groups and the SOE officers, and then in the Alpes-Maritimes, the region around Nice, where she worked with the Resistance in the mountains above the Mediterranean. Her work was dangerous: she travelled by bicycle and on foot, carrying messages and money, and she was constantly at risk of arrest by the Gestapo and by the Milice, the French collaborationist police. She was a skilled and resourceful agent, who used her charm, her linguistic skills and her knowledge of France to pass checkpoints, to talk her way out of danger, and to organise the supply of arms to the Maquis. In August 1944, after the Allied landings in the south of France, Operation Dragoon, she played a part in the liberation of the Alpes-Maritimes, liaising between the advancing American forces and the Resistance, and helping to ensure that the Resistance did not attack the Germans prematurely, a mistake that had led to the destruction of the Vercors Maquis in July 1944.

The Vercors Tragedy

The Vercors, where Skarbek first worked in France, was the scene of one of the great tragedies of the French Resistance. In July 1944, the Maquis of the Vercors, who had proclaimed a Free Republic, were attacked by German forces, including SS troops and paratroopers, and were destroyed, with more than 600 Maquisards killed. Skarbek, who had arrived in the Vercors on 6–7 July, was present during the battle, and she witnessed the destruction of the Maquis, an experience that left a deep impression on her and that taught her the dangers of a premature uprising. She later wrote that the Vercors was “a lesson in the folly of rising too soon”, and she applied that lesson in the Alpes-Maritimes, where she advised the Resistance to wait for the Allied landings before rising, advice that saved many lives and that contributed to the successful liberation of the region in August 1944.

Digne: The Rescue of the SOE Officers

Skarbek’s most famous action took place at Digne, in the Alpes-Maritimes, in August 1944, when two SOE officers, Major Francis Cammaerts and Captain Xan Fielding, were arrested by the Gestapo and were about to be executed. Skarbek, who learned of their arrest, went to Digne, where she presented herself to the Gestapo officer in charge, a man named Schenck, and told him that she was the niece of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, that the Allies were about to liberate the town, and that if he executed the prisoners, he would be held responsible and would be shot. She then offered him a bribe of two million francs, a large sum that she had obtained from the SOE, and she threatened him with her pistol, which she held in her handbag. Schenck, who was frightened by her threats and tempted by the money, agreed to release the prisoners, and Cammaerts and Fielding were freed, an action that has been described as one of the most daring rescues of the war, and that made Skarbek famous in the SOE. The story, which was told by Cammaerts himself after the war, has been questioned by some historians, who have suggested that Skarbek exaggerated her role, but the essential facts — that she went to Digne, that she threatened Schenck, and that the prisoners were released — are not in doubt.

The End of the War in France

After the liberation of the Alpes-Maritimes in August 1944, Skarbek continued to work for the SOE in France, liaising with the Resistance and with the advancing Allied forces, until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. She was awarded the George Medal in 1945, the Order of the British Empire in 1947, and the French Croix de Guerre, in recognition of her service, and she was, in the words of her SOE file, “one of the most effective agents we have ever had”. She was also, in the words of one historian, “a woman who had risked her life for the Allied cause and who had been forgotten by the country she had served”, a description that captures both her achievement and her fate. She left France in 1945, and she returned to London, where she would spend the last seven years of her life in poverty and in obscurity, a fate that stands in stark contrast to the heroism of her wartime service.

6. Key Decisions

Decisions in the Secret War

Volunteering for the SOE (1940). Skarbek’s decision to volunteer for the British secret service, after making her way from Poland to London, was the decisive choice of her life. It took her from a life of privilege in Poland to a life of danger in the secret war, and it gave her the opportunity to serve the Allied cause in a way that few women of her generation could.

Crossing the Tatras (1940–1941). Her decision to carry out courier missions across the Tatra Mountains, in winter and in summer, was a decision to risk her life for the Polish underground, and it was a decision that she made several times, each time knowing that she might be caught and killed. The missions were vital to the Polish government-in-exile, and they established her reputation as a courier of exceptional courage.

Going to Digne (August 1944). Her decision to go to Digne, to threaten the Gestapo officer Schenck, and to bribe him with two million francs, was a decision that saved the lives of two SOE officers, and it was a decision that required courage, resourcefulness and a willingness to take a risk that few agents would take. The decision made her famous in the SOE, and it remains the most celebrated episode of her career.

Decisions After the War

Remaining in Britain (1945–1952). Skarbek’s decision to remain in Britain after the war, rather than to return to Poland, which was now under Communist rule, was a decision to live in exile, and it was a decision that left her without a home, without a pension, and without work. She remained in Britain because she had no home to return to, and because she believed that Britain, the country she had served, would look after her, a belief that proved to be unfounded.

Working as a stewardess (1948–1952). Her decision to work as a stewardess on ocean liners, and later as a shop assistant in London, was a decision to support herself in the only way she could, and it was a decision that reflected the poverty and the obscurity of her post-war life. The decision also led to her death, because it was as a stewardess that she met Dennis Muldowney, the man who would murder her.

7. Controversies

The Digne Rescue: Fact or Exaggeration?

The most famous controversy about Skarbek concerns the rescue at Digne in August 1944, and whether she exaggerated her role in it. The story, as told by Francis Cammaerts after the war, is that Skarbek went to Digne, threatened the Gestapo officer Schenck, offered him a bribe of two million francs, and secured the release of Cammaerts and Fielding. Some historians have questioned the story, arguing that Skarbek’s account, which was based on her own testimony, was exaggerated, and that the release of the prisoners was due, in part, to the intervention of other officers, and to the fact that the Germans were about to retreat from Digne in any case. Other historians have defended the story, arguing that Cammaerts, who was present, confirmed it, and that Skarbek’s courage and resourcefulness were well documented in her SOE file. The controversy continues, but the essential facts — that Skarbek went to Digne, that she threatened Schenck, and that the prisoners were released — are not in doubt, and the debate is about the details, not about the fact of the rescue itself.

The Question of the Bribe

A related controversy concerns the bribe of two million francs that Skarbek is said to have offered to Schenck, and whether the money was provided by the SOE or by Skarbek herself. The SOE file records that Skarbek was given a large sum of money for her work in France, and that she used it to bribe German officers, a practice that was common in the SOE, where agents were given money to buy information and to secure the release of prisoners. The controversy over the bribe is therefore also a controversy over the methods of the SOE, and over the question of whether bribery, which is a crime in peacetime, is justified in wartime, when it can save lives. The debate continues, but the consensus is that the bribe was real, that it was provided by the SOE, and that it was a legitimate use of SOE funds in wartime.

The Post-War Neglect

A second controversy concerns the treatment of Skarbek after the war, and whether the British government neglected her. Skarbek was not given British citizenship until 1947, she was not given a pension, and she was unable to find work, serving as a stewardess and as a shop assistant in London. Her defenders argue that the British government, which had used her in the war, abandoned her in peace, and that her poverty and her murder were the result of that neglect; her critics argue that the SOE was disbanded after the war, that many agents were left without pensions, and that Skarbek’s fate was not unique, but was shared by many other agents, male and female, who were forgotten after the war. The controversy continues, and it is a reminder that the treatment of secret agents after a war is a moral question, and that the country that uses them has a duty to look after them when the war is over.

8. Later Life and Death

Poverty and Obscurity in London

Skarbek’s later life was spent in London, in poverty and in obscurity, a fate that stands in stark contrast to the heroism of her wartime service. After the war, she was not given a pension, she was not given British citizenship until 1947, and she was unable to find work that matched her abilities. She worked as a stewardess on the ocean liners of the Union-Castle Line, travelling between Britain and South Africa, and later as a shop assistant in a London department store, jobs that were, in the words of one biographer, “a humiliation for a woman who had been one of the most effective agents of the war”. She lived in a series of small flats in London, she had little money, and she was, in the words of her friends, “a lonely and unhappy woman”, who drank too much and who was haunted by the memories of the war. She applied, several times, for a pension and for help from the British government, and she was, on each occasion, refused, on the grounds that she had not served in the armed forces and was therefore not entitled to a pension.

Murder in London

On 15 June 1952, Skarbek was murdered in the Shelbourne Hotel in Earls Court, London, by Dennis Muldowney, a steward on the ocean liners who had become obsessed with her and who had proposed marriage to her, a proposal that she had refused. Muldowney, who had followed her to London, stabbed her in the hotel, and she died of her wounds, aged forty-four. He was arrested, tried, and hanged for her murder, and the trial, which was reported in the British press, revealed the poverty and the obscurity of Skarbek’s post-war life, and shocked the British public, which had not known of her wartime service. She was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green in London, and her grave, which was unmarked for many years, has since been marked with a headstone that bears her name, Christine Granville, and the date of her death. Her murder was, in the words of one historian, “a tragic end to a heroic life”, and it remains one of the most shocking episodes in the history of the SOE.

9. Legacy of Krystyna Skarbek

The Spy Who Loved

Skarbek’s lasting legacy is the biography that told her story, Clare Mulley’s The Spy Who Loved, published in 2012, a book that brought her life to the attention of a wide audience and that established her reputation as one of the great agents of the Second World War. The book, which was based on Skarbek’s SOE file, which had been declassified, and on interviews with her friends and family, told the story of her life in full, from her childhood in Warsaw to her murder in London, and it presented her as a woman of exceptional courage, resourcefulness and charm, a woman who had risked her life for the Allied cause and who had been forgotten by the country she had served. The book was a success, and it led to a renewed interest in Skarbek’s life, to exhibitions, to documentaries, and to the recognition of her as one of the most remarkable women of the war. Her legacy is, in that sense, a literary one: she is remembered because her story was told, and her story was told because it was, in the words of one reviewer, “a story that deserved to be told”.

A Pioneer for Women in Secret Service

Skarbek’s legacy is also as a pioneer for women in the secret service, a woman who showed that women could be as effective as men in the secret war, and who paved the way for the women who followed her. She was one of the first women to be recruited by the SOE, and one of the few who served for the whole of the war, and her success demonstrated that women, who could pass checkpoints more easily than men, who could use their charm to talk their way out of danger, and who were, in the words of one SOE officer, “less likely to be suspected”, were valuable agents. Her career has been cited by historians of the SOE as an example of the importance of women in the secret war, and her name has been given to awards and to scholarships for women in intelligence, a recognition that she would have welcomed, and that reflects the changing attitudes to women in the secret service since the war.

10. Assessment by Historians

The Agent and the Woman

Historians assess Skarbek as one of the most effective agents of the Second World War, and the assessment rests on the combination of her courage, her resourcefulness and her linguistic skills. She was a courier who crossed the Tatras several times, a liaison officer who worked with the Resistance in France, and a woman who, at Digne, secured the release of two captured officers by threatening a Gestapo officer at gunpoint. Her SOE file, which was declassified in 2003, describes her as “a woman of exceptional courage and resourcefulness”, and her instructors described her as “one of the best students we have ever had”. Historians also note her limitations: she was not a wireless operator, she was not a saboteur, and her success was due, in part, to her charm and to her ability to talk her way out of danger, rather than to technical skill. The consensus is that she was an exceptional agent, and that her career deserves to be remembered alongside those of the best-known male agents of the war.

The Tragedy of the Post-War Years

The assessment of Skarbek as a woman is inseparable from the tragedy of her post-war life, and historians have debated whether her fate was the result of neglect by the British government, or of her own choices. Her defenders argue that she was abandoned by the country she had served, that she was not given a pension, and that her poverty and her murder were the result of that neglect; her critics argue that she was a difficult woman, who drank too much, who was unable to settle down, and who was, in the words of one biographer, “her own worst enemy”. The debate continues, but the consensus is that Skarbek’s post-war life was a tragedy, and that it reflects the fate of many secret agents, male and female, who were forgotten after the war, and who were left to fend for themselves in a world that had no place for them. Her story is, in that sense, a cautionary tale, and it is a tale that remains relevant whenever secret agents are recruited for a war, and then abandoned when the war is over.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Krystyna Skarbek?
Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952), known in Britain as Christine Granville, was a Polish-born agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War. She served as a courier in Hungary and Poland and as a liaison officer in France, and she was one of the most effective and longest-serving female agents of the war.

What did Skarbek do in the war?
She carried out courier missions across the Tatra Mountains in 1940–1941, smuggling microfilmed intelligence and money to the Polish underground, and in 1944 she worked as a courier and liaison officer for the French Resistance in the Vercors and the Alpes-Maritimes. At Digne in August 1944 she secured the release of two captured SOE officers, Francis Cammaerts and Xan Fielding, by threatening a Gestapo officer and bribing him.

What happened at Digne?
At Digne in August 1944, Skarbek went to the Gestapo officer in charge, told him that she was the niece of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, threatened him with her pistol, and offered him a bribe of two million francs. The officer agreed to release Cammaerts and Fielding, who were about to be executed. The story has been questioned by some historians, but the essential facts are not in doubt.

What awards did Skarbek receive?
She was awarded the George Medal in 1945, the Order of the British Empire in 1947, and the French Croix de Guerre, in recognition of her service with the SOE in Poland, Hungary and France.

How did Skarbek die?
She was murdered in London on 15 June 1952, aged 44, by Dennis Muldowney, a steward who had become obsessed with her. He stabbed her in the Shelbourne Hotel in Earls Court, London, and he was tried and hanged for her murder.

Why was Skarbek forgotten after the war?
She was not given British citizenship until 1947, she was not given a pension, and she was unable to find work, serving as a stewardess and as a shop assistant in London. Her story was little known until the publication of Clare Mulley’s biography, The Spy Who Loved, in 2012.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Krystyna Skarbek” — consolidated biography: birth 1 May 1908, death 15 June 1952, SOE agent, Tatra courier missions, Digne, murder by Dennis Muldowney.
2. Clare Mulley, The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville (2012) — biography; the Tatra missions, the work in France, Digne, the post-war years and the murder.
3. Francis Cammaerts, The SOE in France and the SOE files (declassified 2003) — the work in the Vercors and the Alpes-Maritimes, the rescue at Digne.
4. M. R. D. Foot, SOE in France (1966) — the Special Operations Executive in France, the Resistance, and the role of women agents.
5. Sarah Helm, A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII (2005) — the SOE, women agents, and the post-war fate of agents.
6. Xan Fielding, Hide and Seek (1954) — the SOE in France, Digne, and the rescue of Cammaerts and Fielding.