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| Actress Audrey Hepburn | Photo: AP |
Many people don't know about a chapter in the life of Oscar-winning actress Audrey Hepburn. She also worked as a spy during World War II. The actress used to perform ballets to raise money for the Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupation. At the time, she was just a teenager.
Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar five times. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1953 for her performance in the film Roman Holiday. She became an icon of the film and fashion world in the 1950s and 60s. There was also a chapter in the life of this actress who won the hearts of countless people worldwide that many people do not know.
In BBC Radio 4's 'History's Youngest Heroes' podcast, Nicola Coughlan tells the stories of young people from history who have changed the world. Audrey Hepburn is also included in the list of extraordinary stories of rebellion, risk, and youthful energy.
Much information about Audrey Hepburn and her life during World War II is known from the book Dutch Girl by Robert Matzen. In an interview for the History's Youngest Heroes podcast, Audrey Hepburn's youngest son, Luca Dotti, told the author, "She was very sociable. She would laugh, she would play, she would act. My grandfather used to jokingly call her Monkey Puzzle."
Intelligence
Audrey Hepburn's uncle, Count Otto van Limburg Sterrum, was a staunch opponent of the Nazis. In 1942, a resistance group attempted to blow up a German train near Rotterdam. Count Limburg Sterrum was arrested despite not being involved in the incident. Nazi agents captured him and four others, took them into the woods, shot them, and buried their bodies. Audrey Hepburn loved her uncle as if he were her father. The murder left a deep mark on her heart.
When Audrey Hepburn was 15 years old, she was given a condition. She had to join the Nazi artists' union 'Kulterkammer' or she was told to give up dancing in public. Although it was a very favorite thing, she decided to give up public dance performances.
However, she did not actually give up dancing. She did it secretly. At the secretly organized ballet performances, the piano was played softly. No one could clap. Finally, the money collected from the performances was used for the activities of the resistance forces formed against the Nazis.
In the spring of 1944, Audrey Hepburn began working as an assistant to a doctor named Hendrik Visser Hooft, who was a member of the resistance. The incident took place on September 17, 1944. Hepburn was in the church at the time.
At that time, the loud sound of an engine was suddenly heard. By then, 'Operation Market Garden' had begun, which was an Allied plan to capture nine bridges spanning the Rhine River. Allied airmen who were heading to Germany were forced to make an emergency landing in the Netherlands. At that time, Dr. Hooft used Audrey Hepburn to send messages to them.
Audrey Hepburn was sent into the forest by Dr. Hooft to meet a British paratrooper. Audrey hid the coded message in her socks. As she emerged from the forest after the meeting, she noticed Dutch police approaching her. Seeing this, she suddenly leaned over and began picking wildflowers. Then, in a seductive manner, she handed them to the police officers. Impressed by Hepburn, they stopped questioning her. From then on, she often carried messages for the resistance forces that were formed against the Nazis.
Audrey Hepburn, who was a philanthropist and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, died in 1993.