Women of the OSS and SOE
A digital humanities project
Before the War
Based on a few reports, Vera's intelligence work began years before World War II started and years before she officially joined the SOE.
According to William Stevenson's Spymistress, she worked as a secretary-translator for William (Bill) Stephenson's steel company. Bill Stephenson was a Canadian businessman who became the head of British Security Coordination (BSC) in New York City. Sarah Helm's A Life in Secret says Vera served as a “foreign correspondent” with the Pallas Oil Company. Both agree that whatever job she had allowed her to travel and meet people.
During her travels around Europe during the 1930s, she reportedly used her contacts — such as the anti-Nazi German ambassador, Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg — to examine the growing Nazi threat in prewar Europe.
Map
After the War
By May 1945, the Nazis had surrendered and the war in Europe came to an end. Vera then dedicated herself to investigating what happened to SOE's missing agents. She made her first brief trip to Germany in December 1945.
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Despite the dissolution of the SOE in January 1946, Vera continued her investigative work and spent months in Germany holding interrogations, tracing the missing agents, and participating in war crime trials against Nazi soldiers. She continued investigations through 1947.
In 1948, Vera became an office manager for UNESCO's Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges. She became the head of the office after a few years and retired in 1961.
She was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1997 and died in a nursing home in 2000.
Timeline
A timeline of important moments throughout Vera's life.
Vera Atkins
Reported inspiration for Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny
Born Vera Maria Rosenberg in Galați, Romania, Vera enjoyed society life and spent much of her early life in Bucharest. She was born to Jewish parents and had four brothers. Her father hired people to teach her how to shoot guns and ride horses, and Vera spent some time at a secretarial college in London. Atkins, the name she would later use, was derived from her mother's maiden name.
In Romania, Vera came to know many diplomats and businessmen. One of those men was William (Bill) Stephenson, a Canadian businessman who rose up in the Secret Intelligence Service ranks. Another man she met was Leslie Humphreys, whom some sources say recruited her for SOE. Her contacts, knowledge of many languages, and her easy demeanor soon led to her becoming an intelligence officer for the SOE where she managed, trained, and organized scores of officers.
