THE COUNTESS
from Poetry Hosted by Steven Richardson
Krystyna Skarbek was a Polish beauty queen, a countess, and the longest-serving spy in Churchill's wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE). With a life expectancy of just six weeks, she managed to last seven years as a field agent, fighting against Nazi tyranny, only to be betrayed by her own trusted powers, the British. At the end of the Second World War, with a stroke of their metaphorical Judas pen, they turned her into a stateless refugee and leaked her name to Stalin's newly formed KGB. On the day she was due to fly out to be married and, alas, finally set free, she was murdered. She was the bravest of the brave, a true Femme Fatale of destiny.
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