11. Hiding in a Nazi Brothel
On another occasion, Odette Sansom was acting as a courier between SOE and a French Resistance bigwig in another city, but the task dragged on, and she missed the last train back home. All hotels were booked, and the last thing she wanted was to get arrested for violating curfew, and risk a search that might reveal incriminating documents. So Odette hid in a whorehouse that catered exclusively to German soldiers, run by a madam sympathetic to the Resistance.
It was as safe a hideout as any, because such an establishment was the last place the authorities would expect to find an anti-Nazi. However, on that particular night, the whorehouse was raided by German military police searching for a deserter. The quick-thinking madam kept them from entering Odette’s room, by claiming it housed her niece, who was infected with smallpox.