World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseYolande Elsa Maria Unternahrer was born in Paris, France into a Swiss family. Her family moved to London, England, United Kingdom when she was young, thus allowing her to learn English fluently, adding to her repertoire of French and German. She joined the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force when WW2 began and was trained as a wireless operator, which, combined with her language skills, made her a good candidate for infiltration into German-occupied France. Unternahrer joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Feb 1943. Later in that year, she married Sergeant Jaap Beekman of the Dutch Army and changed her surname to that of her husband's. She was sent into France during the night of 17 to 18 Sep 1943 via a Lysander aircraft of No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron of the British Royal Air Force. She joined the "Musician" network at Saint-Quentin, France under the command of Gustave Biéler, operating under the codename of "Mariette" and the alias of "Yvonne". In addition to operating the radio, she also helped with the distribution of materials dropped by Allied aircraft. She was arrested by German Gestapo agents at a cafe called Café Moulin Brulé in Jan 1944. She was subsequently transferred to the Fresnes prison in Paris, a prison in Karlsruhe in Germany, and finally the Dachau Concentration Camp in southern Germany. She was tortured for information in each of the places of imprisonment, but according to survivors who had met her, Beekman never gave in. She was executed by gunfire through the back of the head in a courtyard at Dachau on 13 Sep 1944. Her body was cremated and the ashes scattered. She was awarded the French Croix de Guerre posthumously.

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