   vera atkins, cbe (nÃ©e rosenberg; 16 june 1908 â 24 june 2000) was a romanian-born british intelligence officer who worked in the french section of the special operations executive from 1941 to 1945 during world war ii. ==early life== atkins was born vera-may rosenberg in galaÈi, romania, to max rosenberg (d. 1932), a german jewish father, and his british jewish wife, zeffro hilda, known as hilda, (d. 1947).revealed: the secret female army that spied for britain the independent, 11 may 2003 she had four brothers. she briefly attended the sorbonne in paris to study modern languages and a finishing school at lausanne, where she indulged her passion for skiing, before training at a secretarial college in london. atkins' father, a wealthy businessman on the danube delta, went bankrupt in 1932 and died a year later. atkins remained with her mother in romania until emigrating to britain in 1937, a move made in response to the threatening political situation in europe and the growing extremism and antisemitism in romania. during her somewhat-gilded youth in romania, where she lived on the large estate bought by her father at crasna (now in ukraine), atkins enjoyed the cosmopolitan society of bucharest where she became close to the anti-nazi german ambassador, friedrich werner von der schulenburg (executed after 1944 july plot). later she became involved with a young british pilot, dick ketton-cremer, whom she had met in egypt, and to whom she may have been briefly engaged. he was killed in action in the battle of crete on 23 may 1941, and. she was never to marry, and lived in a flat with her mother while working for soe and until 1947 when hilda died. while in romania, atkins came to know several diplomats who were members of british intelligence, some of whom were later to support her application for british nationality, and to whom in view of her a
1908_births 2000_deaths Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire Commandeurs_of_the_LA(c)gion_d\'honneur English_Jews English_people_of_Romanian_descent People_from_Bucharest People_from_GalaAPSi Recipients_of_the_Croix_de_Guerre_1939a1945_(France) Romanian_Jews Special_Operations_Executive_personnel University_of_Paris_alumni Women\'s_Auxiliary_Air_Force_officers