TorturedbytheNazis,thespyhero
IN APRIL 1942, a British submarine surfaced near the coast of Vichy France.
Its mission: to infiltrate agents from the Special Operations Executive (SOE) into the region as spies.
One of the operatives who landed on French soil that night was Eugene Zoltan.
Trained at SOE centres in Britain, his mission was to serve as a wireless operator near the city of Lyon. In that role he would transmit and receive coded messages, as well as helping other agents enter enemy territory and aiding those attempting to escape the Germans or their Vichy subordinates.
But Eugene Zoltan was a cover name, issued to him by the SOE. His real name was Edward Zeff, and he was a 28-year old Brighton-born Jew.
His subsequent story — of betrayal, torture, incarceration and survival — was not fully revealed until 2005, when the UK government released the files on his wartime service.
Now, more than 70 years after he began operating on hostile soil, his sacrifice for his country is due to be honoured with a memorial plaque in the city of his birth.
Captain Zeff will be one of four membersof theSOErecognisedbythecharity SecretWW2atanunveilingceremonyto take place on November 12.
The organisation is dedicated to educating the public about covert operations, in particular those carried out in Occupied France during the war.
Paul McCue, an SOE historian, is one of the charity’s trustees. He said: “Edward Zeff, little-known until now, has long deserved to have his story told.
“Despite scant knowledge of soldiering and no experience of clandestine warfare, he volunteered to work as a secret agent in enemy-held France in one of the most dangerous roles possible — that of radio operator.” AsdescribedinMrMcCue’snewbook,
due to be published next week, Capt Zeff led a heroic — but ultimately tragic — life.
Christine Miller is married to Don Miller, Capt Zeff’s great-nephew. Her research played a key part in telling the story of the Jewish SOE officer.
“My husband’s mother and her sister, Lisa, used to speak of him.
“Lisa had lived in France and it was there that Edward helped her settle, in Paris, in the late 1950s.
“She spent quite a bit of time with him there after the war.
“When he was in oneof hisdarkmoods, hewouldtellhersome of the things that had happened to him.
“When his f i l es were released around 10 years ago I went through all of them.”
The documents revealed the full nature of some of those experiences, including incidents which left Capt Zeff with physical and mental damage.
Although he was born in Britain, he had moved to France in the 1920s to join his brother, who had started a tailoring businessinParis.In1930hehadmarried a French Jewish woman called Reine Sevilla.
Capt Zeff had returned to Britain when the Germans invaded France in 1940 and, with his fluent French, was soon chosen to be part of the SOE’s French section, leading to his role in infiltrating it in 1942.
During almost a year in Vichy France, he managed to narrowlyescapecapture on a couple of occasions but the net was closing in.
Aware the Germans were close to apprehending him, the SOE had arrangedforCaptain Zeff to be spirited out of France via the mountain passes of thePyrenees.However,heandhisgroup were betrayed by one of their guides.
Arrested, he was initially held in a prison in the south of France but was then transferred to Fresnes prison near Paris.