This brave, brilliant badass is Violette Szabó, French-born WWII-era undercover agent and resistance fighter. Kind of an unorthodox history crush here — more modern than most of mine, with a definitely tragic end to her life, and while gorgeous, it’s her bravery that I most adore. She became an SEO agent shortly after her husband’s death in battle, telling a fellow recruit “My husband has been killed by the Germans and I’m going to get my own back.” There was some concern that she wouldn’t be suitable for the job, as among other things she spoke French with an English accent, but she led French resistance groups in missions to sabotage German transportation and communication. She was captured in June 1944, after fighting until she was entirely out of ammo. She was interrogated and tortured, but gave up no information. Later she was taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was executed on February 5th, 1945.

She was the second woman awarded the George Cross, as well as the Médaille de la Résistance and Croix de Guerre. In the citation for the George Cross awarded her, it was said “Violette Szabo was continuously and atrociously tortured, but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value”.