52 pages • 1 hour read
Ariel LawhonCode Name Hélène
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The Maquis and the French Resistance
Code Name Hélène takes place in France and the United Kingdom during World War II. In 1940, the Germans invaded France as part of their attempt at territorial expansion. The invasion created factions in French society. Some French leaders and citizens collaborated with the German invaders for a variety of reasons, including antisemitism and anti-Sovietism. The French government that collaborated with the Germans after the invasion is known as the Vichy regime and was led by Nazi collaborator Marshal Phillipe Pétain (News Wires. “Macron Stokes Anger With Plan to Honour Nazi Collaborator Pétain.” France 24, 2018). Those in the French government who opposed the invasion, led by Charles de Gaulle, fled to London and established a government in exile there. The Vichy regime was authoritarian and attempted to press French men into forced labor for German factories. Many French laborers went into hiding and formed militia groups to resist the German invaders and their French supporters.
One such group in the Resistance against the Nazis, the Maquis (pronounced [mah-kee]), formed in the mountainous region of Auvergne in central France. Maquis means “scrubland” or “bush,” a reference to the forested wildness that these militiamen used as their hideout and headquarters. Despite the British monarchy’s support of the Nazi regime (e.g., “Historians Believe the Duke of Windsor Actively Collaborated With the Nazis During the Second World War.” CBC, 2022), British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to assist the French Resistance in their efforts to oust the Germans. He established the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940, which engaged in espionage and sabotage of German forces and supported anti-German militias in occupied nations, including the Maquis in France. The SOE was so clandestine that many didn’t even know of its existence until the war was over.
A member of the SOE, Nancy Wake was one of the many women who joined the Resistance. In her role as a smuggler and later chef de parachutage embedded with the Maquis, she coordinated the transfer of intelligence and material support, such as weapons, clothes, and cash, between Britain and the French Resistance. Her team also provided tactical support to the militia. The Maquis, despite being united against the German invasion, had many internal factions; there was no overall command structure, and leaders within the group commanded their units of militiamen. In the novel, this is demonstrated through the tensions between Nancy and the Maquis leaders Gaspard and Judex.
Historical Context: Nancy Wake: Fact and Fiction
Lawhon’s novel is based on the real-life activities of Nancy Wake during World War II. To construct her narrative of Wake’s life, Lawhon relies on archival material, biographies of Wake by historians, and Wake’s memoir, The White Mouse (1985). However, as Lawhon emphasizes, “Code Name Hélène is a work of fiction. It is not a biography […] I have altered, condensed, and/or changed some details of Nancy’s life to fit my needs in this particular novel” (442). Many of the changes Lawhon made apply to the timeline of Nancy’s activities. For example, in the novel, Nancy goes to Vienna with her colleague, the photographer Frank Gilmore, in 1936. There, she witnesses the horrors of the Brownshirts’ attacks on Jewish people and businesses. In reality, this visit took place in 1934. In another example, Nancy’s training with the SOE has been condensed and many details have been left out. However, these changes are relatively minor, and Lawhon portrays to the best of historical knowledge the important events of Nancy’s life. In places where different sources have different accounts of events, Lawhon relies on Nancy’s descriptions, noting that, “It was her life, and I believe that she knows what happened” (441). A full account of Lawhon’s sources, the changes she made, and the historical facts about Wake’s life can be found in the Author’s Note at the end of the novel.
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