''The White Rabbit'' is a 1952 non-fiction book by Scottish writer

Bruce Marshall Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Cunningham Bruce Marshall, known as Bruce Marshall (24 June 1899 – 18 June 1987) was a prolific Scottish writer who wrote fiction and non-fiction books on a wide range of topics and genres. His first book, ''A Thief ...

. Its title comes from a nickname of F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas.

Synopsis

F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas was the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, called by the Germans "The White Rabbit" of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was given responsibilities by the British government in occupied

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

because he had lived in France during the interwar years and was fluent in French. ''The White Rabbit'' book review An assignment required Yeo-Thomas to be parachuted into France. Shortly after his arrival he was betrayed and captured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

at the Passy metro station in Paris. The

took him to their headquarters in the Avenue Foch, and he was subjected to brutal

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, including beatings, electrical shocks to the

genitals A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

, psychological gameplaying,

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary ...

, and repeated submersion in ice-cold water—to the point that artificial respiration was sometimes required. After the interrogations and torture, he was moved to

Fresnes prison Fresnes Prison ('' French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a smal ...

. After he made two failed attempts to

escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

he was transferred first to

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 c ...

prison and then to

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

. Within these various detention camps he attempted to organise resistance. Late in the war, he briefly escaped from Buchenwald and, on his recapture, was able to pass himself off as a French national and sent to Marienburg,

Stalag XX-B Marienburg Stalag XXB or Stalag 20B Marienburg Danzig was a German POW camp in World War II. Located near Marienburg, it was originally a hutted and tented camp with a double boundary fence and watchtowers. British, Poles and Serbs were held here ...

, a "better" camp, where the Nazis sent enlisted Frenchmen, instead of back to Buchenwald. It is reasonable to conclude that his chances of surviving the remainder of the war at Buchenwald were low. After the war he resumed his life in France.Marshall, B: ''The White Rabbit'' The Riverside Press (1952).

Notable people mentioned in the book

Phil Lamason Phillip John Lamason, (15 September 191819 May 2012) was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentrat ...

Christopher Burney Christopher Arthur Geoffrey Burney MBE (1917 – 18 December 1980) was an upper-class Englishman who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. Biography In 1941, Pierre de Vomécourt organized AUTOGYRO, one of the fi ...

Harry Peulevé Harry Peulevé LdH CdeG MdeR DSO MC (29 January 1916 – 18 March 1963) was a Special Operations Executive agent who undertook two missions in occupied France and escaped from Buchenwald concentration camp. Early life Henri Leonard Thoma ...

Stéphane Hessel Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013) was a diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, French Resistance member and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He be ...

* Alfred Balachowsky *

Hermann Pister Hermann Pister (21 February 1885 – 28 September 1948) was an SS Oberführer (Senior Colonel) and commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp from 21 January 1942 until April 1945. Early life Pister was the son of a financial secretary in Lübe ...

Karl-Otto Koch Karl-Otto Koch (; 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) of Nazi Germany who was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until A ...

Ilse Koch Ilse Koch (22 September 1906 – 1 September 1967) was a German war criminal who was an overseer at Nazi concentration camps run by her husband, commandant Karl-Otto Koch. Working at Buchenwald (1937–1941) and Majdanek (1941–1943), Koch ...

Pierre Brossolette Pierre Brossolette (25 June 1903 – 22 March 1944) was a French journalist, left-wing politician and major hero of the French Resistance in World War II. He ran an intelligence hub of Parisian resistance at the Rue de la Pompe, before servi ...

Eugen Kogon Eugen Kogon (2 February 1903 – 24 December 1987) was a historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor. A well-known Christian opponent of the Nazi Party, he was arrested more than once and spent six years at Buchenwald concentration camp. Kogon ...

Erwin Ding-Schuler Erwin Oskar Ding-Schuler (September 19, 1912 – August 11, 1945) was a German surgeon and an officer in the Waffen-SS who attained the rank of Sturmbannführer (Major). He is notable for having performed experiments on inmates of the Buchenwald ...

Jean Moulin Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months l ...

* Arthur Steele

Adaptations

The book was adapted for Australian radio in 1955 by

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were publ ...

. It was also adapted for British television in 1967.

References

1952 non-fiction books British biographies Books by Bruce Marshall Biographies adapted into films {{mil-bio-book-stub