Denise Bloch
| Denise Bloch | |
|---|---|
Denise Bloch
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Ambroise |
| Born |
21 January 1916 Paris, France |
| Died | 5 February 1945 (aged 29) Ravensbrück concentration camp |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom France
|
| Service/branch |
Women's Transport Service (FANY) Special Operations Executive, French Resistance |
| Years of service | 1942–1945/1943–1945 (SOE) |
| Unit |
Clergyman Detective |
| Awards |
King's Commendation for Brave Conduct Légion d'honneur Médaille de la Résistance Croix de Guerre |
Denise Madeleine Bloch (French pronunciation: [dəniz blɔʃ]; 21 January 1916 – 5 February 1945, Ravensbrück, Germany) was a French secret agent working with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War.
Born to a Jewish family (Jacques Henri Bloch and Suzanne Levi-Strauss) in Barrault, Paris, France in 1916, Bloch had three brothers. Before the war, she was a secretary at Citroën. As the family were Jewish, they were rounded up by the Gestapo in 1942 in occupied France.
Her job at Citroen was as secretary to Lieutenant Jean Maxime Aron (code name 'Joseph') who was also a Jewish Resistance leader in France.
Bloch was recruited in Lyon to work for the SOE. She began resistance work with SOE radio operator Brian Stonehouse until his arrest near the end of October that year.
Following Stonehouse's capture, she went into hiding until early 1943 when she was put in touch with SOE agents George Reginald Starr and Philippe de Vomécourt. She began working with them in the town of Agen, in the southern French department of Lot-et-Garonne. However, it was decided to send her to London and accompanied by another agent, she walked across the Pyrenees mountains making their way to Gibraltar and eventually London. There, SOE trained her as a wireless operator in preparation for a return to France.
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