Night and fog

A British prisoner witnessed their arrival - his sketches were the only record of the moment the girls met their end.

After decades in obscurity, light was finally shed on the stories of these four women. More than 30 years after they died, a plaque in their honour was placed at the Natzweiler crematorium in Alsace.

John Harris, from Stalbridge, is one of the British delegation which visits the monument at Natzweiler each year to commemorate their lives.

John, a retired Army major, said: "One of the worst things about war is that people just disappear. These girls - no-one knew who they were or where they'd gone.

"We're just trying to put that right, seeing justice done."

Scraps of information pieced together over years finally led to the identification of all four girls.

John, 65, said: "That day at Natzweiler, the Gestapo made the women disappear into the 'nach und nebel' or 'night and fog'. They were lethally injected and then incinerated. If it wasn't for the sketches of Brian Stonehouse, we might never have known."

Vera Leigh, Andre Borrel, Diana Rowden and Sonya Olschanezky were agents for the British spy network, the Special Operations Executive.

They were resistance fighters engaged in sabotage and espionage operations, as well as helping Allied airmen shot down over France escape back to Britain.

"The camp is now a monument to all those who died. I attend the remembrance ceremony every June with three men who fought through the war. It's very moving" said John.

"This year the French are building a museum at Natzweiler. It will be the European Centre for the Resistance.

"Jacques Chirac will open it on November 3rd - his mother was held at the camp."

This year the remembrance ceremony will be held on June 25 and 26.

John will stand with hundreds of others, holding a flame in the dusk beneath the vast monument to the thousands who suffered and died at Natzweiler.

First published: May 11