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Gabrielle Petit

The Death and Life of a Female Spy
in the First World War


by

Sophie De Schaepdrijver

This is the 2015 Paperback Edition (clean ex-Library)


 

Front cover and spine

Further images of this book are shown below

 
 
Publisher and place of publication   Dimensions in inches (to the nearest quarter-inch)
London: Bloomsbury Academic (An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)   6¼ inches wide x 9¼ inches tall
     
Edition   Length
2015   [xii] + 258 pages
     
Condition of covers    Internal condition
Paperback with original printed card covers. The covers are rubbed, particularly around the edges, but in reasonable condition otherwise. There is bumping to the head and tail of the spine and slight creasing on the corners.   This volume is ex-Library. A lending schedule on the front free end-paper has been removed (leaving a small remnant which is difficult to see in the image below) but also, before being removed, some of the ink has transferred to the front inside cover and this can be seen in the final image below. There is a further abraded patch at the base of the front free end-paper (from the removal of another label) and a remnant of a Library stamp. Finally, there is a plain white paper label on the inside rear cover. There are no other Library markings I can see and the volume almost appears unread.
     
Dust-jacket present?   Other comments
No   This Paperback Edition is ex-Library, though with no external markings and those few remaining confined to the front end-papers, leaving the contents very clean throughout.
     
Illustrations, maps, etc   Contents
Please see below for details   Please see below for details
     
Post & shipping information   Payment options
The packed weight is approximately 500 grams.


Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing.

   Payment options :
  • UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal
  • International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal

Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. 




Gabrielle Petit
The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War

Contents

 

Illustrations

Maps
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue: Exhumation


Part I Life


1 Disinheritance, 1893-1914

Early Childhood, 1893-1902

The Orphanage, 1902-1908

Adrift in the Belle Epoque, 1908-1911

Little Molenbeek, 1911-1914

2 Engagement, August 1914-August 1915

Mobilization

War
Suspicions
"Done Being Useless"

Departures

3 War Work, August 1915-February 1916

Roaming Agent

Reports
"External Transmission"

Counter-espionage

4 Confrontation, February 2-March 3, 1916

High Alert

Bureau A
Arrest and Questioning

The Trial

5 "Utterly Alone," March 3, 1916-November 11, 1918

Appeal
"I Can Do Anything If I Put My Mind To It"
"Never Mind, We'll See"
Rejection
Goodbyes
Execution
"Let Justice Run Its Course"

Reactions
Abeyance, 1916-1918


Part II Memory


6 Memory Agents, 1918-1919

Unearthing Civilian Heroism
Democratic Breakthrough—To a Point
The Waning of "Brave Little Belgium"
One National Figure
Narrating a Legend
A Fight Over a Grave
The Funeral as Performance
The Funeral as Lesson
Deepening Fervor

7 National Heroine, 1919-1923

Variations on a Theme, 1919-1921

The Archive, 1919-1921

The Biography, 1922

The Monument, 1923

Counterheroes, 1919-1923

8 Palimpsest, 1924-2007

Interwar Emblem, 1924-1940

Face of the Resistance, 1940-1949

Last Efforts, 1964-1966

Retreat, 1986-2007

 

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

 


Illustrations


 1. Petit as a child, n.d.
2. Petit in June 1914
3. Petit in the winter of 1915-1916
4. Petit's funeral, May 29, 1919
5. Petit's cell,1919
6. Marguerite Blanckaert's speech in front of Petit's monument, 1936


Maps

 

1. Gathering Intelligence Behind the Front, August 1915 to January 1916
2. Petit in Brussels



Biographical Information

 

Petit was born on 20 February 1893 in Tournai to working-class parents. She was raised in a Catholic boarding school in Brugelette following her mother's early death. At the outbreak of the First World War, she was living in Brussels as a saleswoman. She immediately volunteered to serve with the Belgian Red Cross.

Petit's espionage activities began in 1914, when she helped her wounded soldier fiancé, Maurice Gobert, cross the border into the neutral Netherlands to reunite with his regiment. She passed along to British Intelligence information about the Imperial German Army acquired during the trip. The British soon hired her, gave her brief training, and sent her to spy on the enemy. She proceeded to collect information about enemy troop movements using a number of false identities. She was also an active distributor of the clandestine newspaper La Libre Belgique and assisted the underground mail service "Mot du Soldat". She helped several more young men across the Dutch border.

Petit was ultimately befriended and exposed by a German agent (who had posed as Dutch) working for Colonel Walter Nicolai and the Abteilung III b counterintelligence service. She was arrested by the German military police in February 1916, imprisoned at Saint-Gilles Prison in Brussels, tried, and convicted of espionage in wartime under German military law, with the death penalty imposed on 1 March. During her trial, Petit refused to reveal the identities of her fellow agents, despite repeated offers of amnesty. Among such agents, Germaine Gabrielle Anna Scaron, aged 23, daughter of a local magistrate, and a close friend of Petit, was arrested with her on similar charges, imprisoned but spared and, despite the opposition of German military, released later for lack of sufficient evidence, which Petit had refused to divulge.

On 1 April 1916, Gabrielle Petit was, at the insistence of German military, shot by a firing squad at the Tir national execution field in Schaerbeek. Her body was buried on the grounds there.



Gabrielle Petit
The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War

From the rear cover:

 

"An excellent study of the life and afterlife of a young woman turned spy turned martyr turned icon of sacrifice. It is a fine and powerful addition to the growing literature on the cultural history of the Great War."

JAY WINTER, Charles J. Stills Professor of History, Yale University, USA

"A rich and fascinating account of the making of a daring female spy, her execution by German occupation authorities in 1916 and her subsequent memorialization by Belgian civil society. In a marvellous social history Sophie De Schaepdrijver has not only pieced together Petit's obscure early life and her shadowy resistance work, but also demonstrates with panache how the history of memory should be written -with deep context, scrupulous analysis, sharp cultural sensitivity, and lucid style."

 

ISABEL VIRGINIA HULL, John Stambaugh Professor of History, Cornell University, USA

"An unusual story, beautifully told, of a young woman who spied for the Allies, was captured by the Germans, and executed. Using biography to unlock the multiple histories of the war, this is nothing short of a triumph of modern historiography. A must-read for all those interested in the First World War."

ALAN KRAMER, Professor of European History, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

 


In central Brussels stands a statue of a young woman. Built in 1923, it is the first monument to a working-class woman in European history. Her name was Gabrielle Petit. History has forgotten Petit, an ambitious and patriotic Belgian, executed by firing squad in 1916 for her role as an intelligence agent for the British Army. After the First World War she was celebrated as an example of stern endeavour, but a hundred years later her memory has faded.

In the first part of this historical biography Sophie De Schaepdrijver uses Petit's life to explore gender, class, and heroism in the context of occupied Europe. Petit's experiences reveal the reality of civilian engagement under military occupation and the emergence of modern espionage. The second part of the book focuses on the legacy and cultural memory of Petit and the First World War. By analyzing Petit's representation in ceremony, discourse, and popular culture De Schaepdrijver expands our understanding of remembrance across the twentieth century.

 


SOPHIE DE SCHAEPDRIJVER is Associate Professor of History at Penn State University, USA. She is an award-winning historian of the social and cultural history of the First World War.
 



Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour.

In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This volume is ex-Library. A lending schedule on the front free end-paper has been removed (leaving a small remnant which is difficult to see in the image below) but also, before being removed, some of the ink has transferred to the front inside cover and this can be seen in the final image below. There is a further abraded patch at the base of the front free end-paper (from the removal of another label) and a remnant of a Library stamp.



U.K. buyers:

To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the postage figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from postage and packaging. Postage can be combined for multiple purchases.

 

Packed weight of this item : approximately 500 grams

 

Postage and payment options to U.K. addresses:

  • Details of the various postage options can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above).

  • Payment can be made by: debit card, credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex), cheque (payable to "G Miller", please), or PayPal.

  • Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.

  • Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (postage, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.



International buyers:

To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from shipping and handling.

Shipping can usually be combined for multiple purchases (to a maximum of 5 kilograms in any one parcel with the exception of Canada, where the limit is 2 kilograms).

 

Packed weight of this item : approximately 500 grams

 

International Shipping options:

Details of the postage options to various  countries (via Air Mail) can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above) and then selecting your country of residence from the drop-down list. For destinations not shown or other requirements, please contact me before buying.

 

Due to the extreme length of time now taken for deliveries, surface mail is no longer a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items. I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule.

Payment options for international buyers:

  • Payment can be made by: credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. I can also accept a cheque in GBP [British Pounds Sterling] but only if drawn on a major British bank.

  • Regretfully, due to extremely high conversion charges, I CANNOT accept foreign currency : all payments must be made in GBP [British Pounds Sterling]. This can be accomplished easily using a credit card, which I am able to accept as I have a separate, well-established business, or PayPal.

  • Please contact me with your name and address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.

  • Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (shipping, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.

Prospective international buyers should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or pay by PayPal within 7 days from the end of the listing (or inform me that they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). Thank you.



(please note that the book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this listing)

Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height.

Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.




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