Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story

Muslim Princess Noor Inayat Khan had that cool bravery possessed by very few. Life as a WW2 SOE agent in France was in many cases a one way ticket to torture and death at the hands of the Nazis. Yet these remarkable men and women freely volunteered. I had read about Noor in SOE cryptographer (and post war film writer) the brilliant Leo Mark's memoir, 'Between Silk and Cyanide'. Asca suffist, Noor was a pacifist and refused to take a weapon or the cyanide death pill to France because both conflicted with her moral code. I purchased a copy of her pre war book of childrens' stories for my granddaughters. This movie is a fitting tribute to this extraordinary young woman. A true hero.

This story of a brave and honorable young girl who wants to help out more for England in WWII.

The movie gives a great chronological snippets of her ancestors and their family unit with a spiritual undertone.

She is eventually recruited to work with the Special Forces as a wireless operator later reassigned to Paris where she outlives her predecessors by months when many were killed with six weeks.

The subtitles are okay but the fine print user any guest appearance narrative is too small.

Freshly presented for a fresh take on a WWII espionage.

This movie proves that there are still stories of individual bravery during WWII that are to be discovered. I bet the majority of viewers had never heard of Noor Inayat Khan.

Given her relatively short tenure as an undercover agent in occupied France, the length of the movie is quite right. It was also interesting to see her background, which would be unconventional even today.

What puzzled me, though, was that no torture has been mentioned. That wondered me, since all accounts agree that German intelligence used to be very inventive in extracting information from POWs. Also, the transport to Germany seemed to be very comfortable in comparison to reports of people being crammed like cattle in wagons without food or water.

Either way, this is a highly interesting story.

Although I appreciate this tribute to a unique , fascinating and heroic woman , the producers do not seem to have researched her story at all thoroughly . Examples abound . 1. The film indicates that until shortly before her capture she had avoided the Suresnes neighborhood in which she had grown up and would be recognized. In fact she visited the area regularly and transmitted frequently from a house there , convinced that no one in her old neighborhood would betray her despite that part of suburban Paris being heavily occupied by Germans and her childhood home taken over as a barracks. 2. Ernst Vogt who interrogated Noor while imprisoned at 84 Avenue Foch is portrayed as a stereoyped overweight arrogant cold-blooded Nazi type . When biographer Jean Overton Fuller met with him after the war she describes him as tall and extremely thin , and her account and other reliable sources indicate that for a German interrogator his relations with prisoners were unusually lacking in brutality and almost amiable - Vogt ( a Swiss-German civilian and not a member of the Nazi Party ) says that he had to remind Noor not to forget that he was her enemy and goes on to describe her as possibly the best human being he had met in his life ( he was imprisoned for 5 years by several countries before being cleared of all war crimes charges . ) 3. Noor's rooftop escape attempt at Avenue Foch has been described in considerable detail by John Starr , who participated in it. When Jean Fuller visited the site she found that a window Starr recounts being broken to enter a neighboring building had still not been repaired. She also found the remains of papers he had stashed in a flower pot. Enemy of the Reich portrays the escape incident in a routine , perfunctory manner suggesting little awareness of the actual story ( and there should be only 3 bars on the vents by which they climbed to the roof - a minor detail , but well documented so why not get it right ) . Not to belabor the subject , I thank the producers for this tribute to the immortal Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan , a.k.a. Nora Baker , Jeanne-Marie Renier & Madeleine, but wish they had found it possible to research and convey her story with greater depth and accuracy .

The story of Noor Inayat Khan is not a famous one. In fact, it is one of many incredible WWII stories of bravery. It wouldn't even be a special story, except for the fact who would have thought there was a real life WWII spy who was an Indian (well half-Indian) Muslim woman? THAT in and of itself is incredible. The documentary aspects were good. The parts that were acted out though (because of course they didn't have any footage) were kind of stiff and wooden. But the actress who played Noor Inayat Khan did a fantastic job.