Julienne Aisner

Julienne Marie Louise Aisner (née Simart; 30 December 1899 – 15 February 1947[1]), code named Clair, was an agent in France of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Julienne Aisner
Birth nameJulienne Marie Louise Simart
Nickname(s)JuJu
Born(1899-12-30)30 December 1899
Anglure, France
Died15 February 1947(1947-02-15) (aged 47)
Paris, France
Allegiance France
Service/branchSpecial Operations Executive, French Resistance
Years of service1943-1944
Unit"Farrier"
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsKing's Commendation for Brave Conduct (UK)
RelationsJean Besnard

Aisner worked with the Farrier network (or circuit), which was associated with the ill-fated Prosper network of Francis Suttill. She was recruited by alleged double agent Henri Dericourt.

Early life

Julieen Marie-Louise Simart was born in Anglure, near Troyes, France. Her father was a policeman. In 1924, she married Corporal M. Lauler of the USMC and the couple lived in Miami, Florida. They had one child, a son. Lauler died in an automobile wreck in 1927. In 1929 she and her son moved to Lebanon to join her parents, her father was working there. Later the family moved to Hanoi where she was an English teacher. She returned to France in 1931. She became a scriptwriter for a film company and married Robert Aisner in 1935. The couple lived in Auteuil, Yvelines and among their friends was pilot Henri Dericourt.[2]

When World War II began in 1939, her husband was called into the army and captured, but escaped and made his way to the United States where he would work as a technical adviser on the film Casablanca. In 1940 Aisner sent her son to the United States to live with relatives. She divorced Aisner in 1941. In May and June 1941 she was imprisoned for two months for slapping a German officer who had made "inappropriate comments" to her. In November 1942, she moved to Paris and became romantically involved with a lawyer, Jean Besnard.[3] She was described as "an exceedingly beautiful and attractive woman, small and full of energy."[4]

Special Operations Executive

Henri Déricourt, now working for SOE, showed up at Aisner's apartment in Paris in January 1943. He persuaded her to act as a courier for his network, called Farrier. The job of Dericourt was to find landing fields and arrange receptions or departures for SOE agents arriving by air.[5] Aisner assisted in Dericourt's first operation, the reception of agents landing in two Westland Lysander aircraft which came down in a farm field near Poitiers on the night of 17–18 March 1943.[6] Aisner's usual job was to find safe houses in Paris for arriving or departing SOE agents to live in and also to produce or obtain false identity documents for them to use.[7] Impressed with her work, Déricourt arranged for Aisner to go to England where she received SOE training, returning to France in a Lysander with female SOE operative Vera Leigh on the night of 14/15 May 1943. She was received on her return by fellow resister and her fiancee, Jean Besnard.[8]

In summer 1943, the Prosper network fell apart as the Germans infiltrated the network and arrested hundreds of people associated with the network, including Suttill. Dericourt and Aisner escaped being arrested and continued air operations with a steady flow of agents coming to France and returning to England. In August 1943, Aisner, with SOE approval, bought a small restaurant in Paris called the Cafe Mas which was used as a center for messages and contacts with agents. In March 1944, Aisner and Besnard began to suspect that the Germans were following them, and Besnard was warned that he was going to be arrested. The couple and radio operator André Watt fled to Troyes and were evacuated to London on 6 April.[9][10] Because of their association with Dericourt, suspected of being a double agent for the Germans, they were "quarantined" for a time and their loyalties questioned. Besnard denounced SOE's treatment of Aisner, describing her as a courageous and efficient agent. He found work at the BBC and she was employed in the Cinema section of the Ministry of Information. In October 1944, following the liberation of France from German control, they were allowed to return to France.[11]

Marriage and death

On 27 April 1944, Aisner and Besnard were married in Marylebone Registry Office, London.[12] Aisner died in Paris from cancer on 15 February 1947, aged 47.[13]

Awards

She was awarded the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct from the United Kingdom.[14]

1939–1945 Star France and Germany Star War Medal with King's Commendation for Brave Conduct
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References
  1. Archives of Anglure, archives of Paris
  2. Husson, Jean-Pierre (2013), from La Resistande en Marne, Academie de Reims, , accessed 16 March 2020
  3. Husson
  4. Escott, Beryl E. (2010), The Heroines of SOE, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, p. 87
  5. Foot, M. R. D. (1966), SOE in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 289
  6. Escott, p. 88
  7. Husson
  8. Escott, p. 88
  9. Escott, pp. 90-91
  10. Harrison, David M. (2013). "SOE French Section - Members List". soe_french.tripod.com. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  11. Husson
  12. FreeBMD entry. Also Jean Besnard SOE file, nationalarchives.gov.uk; accessed 29 August 2017.
  13. Jean-Pierre Husson, (in French) Une Marnaise agent du SOE, Julienne Aisner, cndp.fr; accessed 29 August 2017.
  14. Husson
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