September 13, 1944: Noor Inayat Khan is executed by the Nazis. "Noor" is Arabic for "light." The Nazis were intent on plunging the world into darkness. Noor Inayat Khan did what she could to keep the light of freedom burning.
She was born on January 1, 1914 in Moscow, the daughter of an Indian Muslim father and an American mother. They raised her in London, and she became a writer. After her father's death, her mother moved her children to Paris.
When the Nazis invaded France during World War II, the Khans escaped to Bordeaux, and then back to Britain. She wrote, "I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war. If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians."
In November 1940, Noor joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and was sent to be trained as a wireless operator. In February 1943, she was ordered to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, for special training as a wireless operator in occupied territory. She was the first woman to be sent over in such a capacity, as all the woman agents before her had been sent as couriers. Having had previous wireless telegraphy training, Noor had an edge on those who were just beginning their radio training, and was considered both fast and accurate.
Codenamed "Madeleine," she operated in occupied France from June 17 to October 13, 1943, receiving and sending signals from other Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents. But she was arrested by the Nazis in Paris. She told them nothing, and an escape on November 25 was followed by a quick recapture, and transportation to Germany. Still, she told them nothing, and was kept in solitary confinement.
On September 12, 1944, she was taken to the Dachau concentration camp, outside Munich, along with 3 French agents Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment and Éliane Plewman. At dawn the next day, each of them fell victim to a firing squad. Khan was 30 years old, Beekman was 33, and Damermemt and Plewman were both 26.
Khan was survived by her mother, her brother, and her 2 sisters. She never married or had children. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross "for acts of the greatest heroism or for most conspicuous courage in circumstance of extreme danger" by Britain, and the Croix de Guerre by France. In 2012, she was honored with a bronze bust in Gordon Square Gardens, near her former home in Bloomsbury, West London.
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September 13, 1944 was a Wednesday. Only 4 baseball games were scheduled for that day, 2 doubleheaders. At Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 4-1; while the Chicago Cubs won the 2nd game, 3-2. While at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the Pittsburgh Pirates swept the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 and 10-5.
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