02766cam a2200361 i 4500 389867707 TxAuBib 20190927120000.0 190214s2019||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2019002112 9781524747336 28.95 1524747335 28.95 eng rda TxAuBib rda Finn, Peter. A Guest of the Reich [BOOK] : the story of American heiress Gertrude Legendre's dramatic captivity and escape from Nazi Germany / Peter Finn. New York : Pantheon Books, 2019. viii, 240 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Maps on endpapers. Includes bibliographical references and index. The dramatic story of a South Carolina heiress who joined the OSS and became the first American woman in uniform taken prisoner on the Western front-until her escape from Nazi Germany. Gertrude “Gertie” Legendre was a big-game hunter from a wealthy industrial family who lived a charmed life in Jazz Age America. Her adventurous spirit made her the inspiration for the Broadway play Holiday, which became a film starring Katharine Hepburn. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Legendre, by then married and a mother of two, joined the OSS, the wartime spy organization that preceded the CIA. First in Washington and then in London, some of the most closely-held United States government secrets passed through her hands. In A Guest of the Reich, Peter Finn tells the gripping story of how in 1944, while on leave in liberated Paris, Legendre was captured by the Germans after accidentally crossing the front lines. Subjected to repeated interrogations, including by the Gestapo, Legendre entered a daring game of lies with her captors. The Nazis treated her as a “special prisoner” of the SS and moved her from city to city throughout Germany, where she witnessed the collapse of Hitler's Reich as no other American did. After six months in captivity, Legendre escaped into Switzerland. Provided by publisher. 20190927. Legendre, Gertrude Sanford 1902-2000. United States Office of Strategic Services History. Women spies United States Biography. World War, 1939-1945 Secret service United States. World War, 1939-1945 Germany Prisoners and prisons. Socialites United States Biography. Women prisoners of war Germany Biography. Biographies.