Yolande Beekman

Yolande Elsa Maria Beekman [Born Jan 7th 1911 - Died Sept 13th 1944] was a British secret agent in WW II, who served in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force and the SOE. She had a Swiss father and English mother in Paris. As a child, she grew up in London and Paris and was fluent in English, German, and French.

After enlisting in the RAF Signals Wing, she transferred and trained to be an SOE Agent and then flew into occupied France on the night of Sept 17/18 1943, in a Lysander. Whilst in training she met and married a Dutch Sergeant, Jaap Beekman, with whom she was on the W/O training course. After arriving in France, Beekman operated the wireless for Gustave Biéler, the Canadian in charge of the Musician circuit [the SOE named the clandestine networks circuits] at Saint-Quentin in Aisne departement, using the codenames "Mariette" and "Kilt" (wireless codename), and the alias "Yvonne."
The Germans, using radio detection equipment, traced her radio signal and Beekman along with Bieler were arrested, Bieler was executed on September 5th 1944. While in prison Beekman was brutalised and tortured, Yolanda Beekman was executed at Dachau concentration camp, with fellow agents, Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan, and Eliane Plewman. on September 13th 1944. They were executed by Wilhelm Ruppert, who after the war was tried, found guilty and hanged in May 1946.