Victoria’s Read

Mona Louise Parsons
17 Feb 1901- 28 Nov 1976

I had steeled myself for this moment. I knew that all eyes were on me, expecting me to burst out in tears. I determined not to humble myself before any of them. As I left the courtroom, I put my heels together and bowed to the judge, the prosecutor, and my German counsel, who were standing together in a group. ‘Guten morgen, meine herren,’ I said.”     Mona Parson’s memories after hearing of her death sentence.

Mona Parsons was the only Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the German army. She didn’t need a uniform to fight for her rights.

Mona Louise Parsons was born in 1901 in Middleton, Nova Scotia. She was raised in Wolfville. She was the daughter of a businessman.

She enrolled in the Acadia Ladies’ Seminary. Parsons moved to New York City in 1929 to pursue an acting career. She worked at Ziegfield Follies, working as an actress and a chorus girl.

After many years of being a chorus girl, Mona took nursing training, and went to work in a doctor’s office on Park Avenue. Soon, she met Dutch millionaire Willem Leonhardt and they were married in 1937.

The couple moved to Holland and lived a life of freedom until the Nazis invaded in 1940. They joined a resistance unit that rescued Allied airmen but their involvement was short. A Nazi informer betrayed them to the Gestapo in 1941.

They were arrested. In 1945 Parsons was moved to Vechta Prison. There, she met Baroness Wendelien van Boetzelaer, whom she planned to escape when an opportunity came. They escaped during an Allied bombing.
The two women made their way by posing as German sisters. Parsons received a commendation for her effort from British Air Marshal Lord Tedder and US president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Even though she hadn’t Parsons and Leonhardt were reunited after the war, but he died in 1956.

Parsons returned to Nova Scotia in 1957, where she met with a childhood friend, Harry Foster. In June, 1959, Mona Parson and Harry Foster wed.

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