Are there any misunderstandings in history that were resolved in the 20th century?
Upvote:7
Edith Cavell Was A Spy After All
Edith Cavell was a British nurse in occupied Belgium during WWI. She was tolerated by the German occupiers as a nurse by helping wounded on both sides, even though it was technically in violation of German occupation law. But she was also smuggling Allied soldiers caught behind the lines out of the war zone via Holland.
Cavell was arrested by the Germans and charged with harboring Allied soldiers as well as accusations of using her status as a nurse to spy on the Germans. She confessed to harboring, not to the spying, and was swiftly executed. While there was discussion of pardoning her for her honesty and medical service, the Germans, generally, saw no problem with executing the enemy to protect their soldiers and state.
General Moritz Von Bissing, Military Governor of Belgium who signed the warrant for her execution, said...
This Cavell woman... had guilty knowledge of much of their [British espionage] work. Such a system of spying assails our very safety and we proceeded to stamp it out,"
This was used as Allied propaganda to show how barbaric the Germans were, "The Murder Of Edith Cavell". Cavell was held up as a selfless woman and nurse risking her life behind enemy lines to do her duty to save lives, even of the enemy. Allegations of spying were denied.
Just last year, Dame Stella Rimington, former Director General of MI5, asserted that Cavell was also a British spy. She, or at least her network, was passing along intelligence about German positions to the British.
We may never know how much Edith Cavell knew of the espionage carried out by her network. She was known to use secret messages, and we know that key members of her network were in touch with Allied intelligence agencies.
Her main objective was to get hidden Allied soldiers back to Britain but, contrary to the common perception of her, we have uncovered clear evidence that her organisation was involved in sending back secret intelligence to the Allies.
Upvote:9
Exploration of the Gobekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey from the 1960's to the 1990's revealed that monumental construction predates the development of agriculture, rather than the other way around (which was the previously prevailing viewpoint).
More post
- 📝 What happened to insurance companies after the 9/11 attacks?
- 📝 Why did Napoleon IV die fighting in the British Army?
- 📝 Why does the Navy’s army need its own air force (U.S. Marine Corps)?
- 📝 How many Axis troops fought on D-Day?
- 📝 Is this artwork (used in a video game) real?
- 📝 Are a fief and a vassal state the same thing?
- 📝 Why is the term "Ancestral Puebloans" used and not simply "Puebloans"?
- 📝 Is it true that there was no such thing as a Hispanic-owned bank in the continental USA until 1969?
- 📝 Homo Sapiens Sapiens: Are genetic studies to be trusted?
- 📝 What was the primary motivation for a historical figure like Xenophon to create an extensive collection of written material?
- 📝 In Viking combat, how much damage was done using the shield?
- 📝 Which cultures did *not* produce alcohol?
- 📝 When did the German people learn that they had a large, powerful military, in violation of the Versailles Treaty?
- 📝 During the American Civil War, were cavalry units issued horses?
- 📝 Meaning of 19th-century American parlour games
- 📝 When and why did war chariots stop being used?
- 📝 What is the meaning of people "looking elsewhere" on medieval paintings?
- 📝 Could equestrian prefects sit on sella curulis?
- 📝 Why was Napoleon so lenient to Austria?
- 📝 Which early Imperial Roman writer said this about grains?
- 📝 Why conceal the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus?
- 📝 Technical Pictures of Prussian Cannons
- 📝 Was Fascism tied to any Specific Ideology Before Nazism and Italy's Fascist Party?
- 📝 Who said "If I want the opinion of the middle classes, I'll ask Her Majesty"?
- 📝 What factors led to the US government issuing nutrition guidelines in 1916?
- 📝 How historically accurate is "Life is Beautiful" when it comes to Jewish extermination?
- 📝 Did the German ship SS Hansa (former Albert Ballin) continue her journey to the West after 30 January 1945?
- 📝 Gaulish logistics during Caesar's invasion
- 📝 Did Bamako exist as a major settlement of trade and culture during the Mali empire?
- 📝 What primary sources are there for Charles I's seizure of gold from the Tower mint?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Are there any misunderstandings in history that were resolved in the 20th century?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Are there any images within the time period of contemporary history (1945 to the present) that had different interpretations by historians?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Are there any historical sources that support the claim that ancient high-speed archers held multiple arrows in their hand?
- 📝 Are there any remaining existant texts that describe the styles and techniques of Medieval European swordsmanship?
- 📝 Are there any good sources on the history of the name for Kazakhstan?
- 📝 Are there any battles that have been extensively studied across the world?
- 📝 Were there any assassinations of high-profile Austrian officials before that of the Archduke Ferdinand?
- 📝 Are there any good records about the alleged 17th Century bucaneer Vincenzo Alessandri?
- 📝 During World War II, were there any parts of the Japanese overseas empire that was capable of local re-supply?
- 📝 Were there any Native American tribes that had more than a strategic alliance with the Confederates?
- 📝 Besides the Hebrews, were there any other ancient cults that used salt in animal sacrifices?
- 📝 Are there any universally accepted or non-Abrahamic based books in history that have mentions of longevity of prophets?
- 📝 Were there any natural disasters that decisively changed the result of a later election by killing the electorate of one side?
- 📝 Are there any old paintings (medieval period onwards) that actually depict the female genitalia rather than just leaving the pubic region empty?
- 📝 Are there any modern history examples of large scale conflicts where warfare technology provides a great advantage to the defender, except WWI?
- 📝 Were there any potential areas around Smolensk that Army Group Center might have found as defensible as the Rzhev line?
- 📝 Are there any communist countries that were model high functioning societies?
- 📝 Were there any generals in history who were willing to risk "half their army" in order win the war quickly?
- 📝 Were there any recorded instances of outlaws (people that were illegal out of their wanted place 100% of the time) in Nazi Germany?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?