The Guardian

Noor Inayat Khan: how British spy's love for blue betrayed her

A new book reveals 29-year-old was captured by the Gestapo in 1943 after her clothing gave her away
Noor Inayat Khan became the first female radio operator to be sent to Nazi-occupied France. Photograph: Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)/PA

She was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, who gave her life as a British agent fighting with the French resistance and for the cause of freedom. Now, 76 years after 29-year-old Noor Inayat Khan was captured by the Gestapo and executed in the Dachau concentration camp, a previously-unpublished account reveals that it was her love of the colour blue

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