The Hotel on Place Vendome

by Tilar J. Mazzeo

  72 “Fight to get your troops ashore”: Ibid., 123.

  72 “the flat bottom of our boat hit”: Ibid.

  72 his rolls of films protected from the damp: Ibid., 120.

  72 He took 106 photographs of the combat: Ibid., 140, 125.

  72 “This is my last chance to return to the beach”: Ibid., 149.

  73 back on the beaches by the next morning: Ibid., 128, 132.

  73 “9.46 or so”: Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn, 257; also Martha Gellhorn, Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir (New York: Tarcher, 2001).

  73 “Pulling out of the harbor that night”: Martha Gellhorn, “The Wounded Come Home: Under the Sign of the Red Cross, the White Ship Returns to London with its Precious Freight,” Collier’s Weekly, August 5, 1944, 14–15, www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1944aug05-00014.

  73 “Badly spooked”: Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn, 258.

  6: The French Actress and Her Nazi Lover

  75 “It’s tough, collaboration is”: Vaughn, Sleeping with the Enemy, 157.

  76 Jean-Paul Sartre was in Paris: Alan Riding, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris (New York, Knopf, 2010), 336.

  77 “an enormous success”: Arletty, La Défense (1971; reprint, Paris: La Ramsay, 2007), 337.

  77 The lovers enjoyed long lunches: Ibid., 134.

  77 They were often seen around the capital: Ibid., 91.

  77 nothing more than a “Gauloise”: Demonpion, Arletty, 196.

  78 courageous resistant Drue Tartière: Drue Tartière, The House Near Paris: An American Woman’s Story of Traffic in Patriots (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946), 255.

  78 “food is power”: Antony Beevor, “An Ugly Carnival: How Thousands of French Women Were Treated after D-Day,” Guardian, June 4, 2009, www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/05/women-victims-d-day-landings-second-world-war.

  79 “who loved to take hostages and kill them”: Tartière, The House Near Paris 81; this is Otto von Stülpnagel, not his cousin Carl-Heinrich, who later held the same post. The name of the Dutch provocateur is not detailed in her memoir.

  79 Josée de Chambrun, the aristocratic daughter: Ibid., 235.

  79 Her movie-star salary that spring: Jean-Pierre Rioux, “Survivre,” in Résistants et collaborateurs, ed. François Bédarida (Paris: Seuil, 1985), 84–100, 90.

  79 steady air raid alerts in the city: Demonpion, Arletty, 260.

  79 Noël Coward: Dick Richards, The Wit of Noël Coward (London: Sphere Books, 1970), 105.

  80 “Paris decrees, France follow”: Demonpion, Arletty, 264.

  80 “a gangster”: Andrew Roberts, review of Antony Beevor, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, Telegraph, May 24, 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5360866/D-Day-The-Battle-for-Normandy-by-Antony-Beevor-review.html.

  80 the organized resistance would swell: As Robert Paxton has noted, “the résistance even at its peak . . . was never more than a slim 2% of the adult French population” (approximately 400,000 people). Robert Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944, rev. ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 294. He continues: “there were, no doubt, wider complicities, but even if one adds those willing to read underground newspapers, only some two million persons, or around 10% of the adult population.”

  81 “[t]he first German official I met”: Demonpion, Arletty, 262. Sacha Guitry, Quatre ans d’occupation (Paris: Éditions L’Elan, 1947); Gerhard Heller, Un Allemand à Paris, 1940–1944 (Paris: Éditions de Seuil, 1981).

  81 offered to arrange for her to go to Switzerland: Jérôme Dupuis, “Le beau nazi d’Arletty,” L’Express, October 2, 2008, www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/le-beau-nazi-d-arletty_823070.html.

  82 “With camp sleeping pills”: Sherwood, Georges Mandel and the Third Republic, 286.

  82 The orders had come from Ministry of Justice offices: Details here and throughout this chapter drawn especially from Bertrand Favreau, Georges Mandel, ou, La passion de la République 1885–1944 (Paris: Édition Fayard, 1996).

  83 the British prime minister could be heard: Sherwood, Georges Mandel and the Third Republic, 261.

  83 “We regret that the Jew Mandel”: Ibid., 290.

  83 “You are to go immediately to the German embassy”: The historical record on this chain of information is contested; other versions report that Laval heard from Fernand de Brinon on July 8 and then summoned Joseph Darnand, who denied knowledge and referred him to Max Knipping. For Pierre Laval’s perspective on the death of Mandel and his wartime activities in general, often mediated through his daughter, see Yves Pourcher, Pierre Laval vu par sa fille (Paris: Cherche Midi, 2002); and Pierre Laval, The Diary of Pierre Laval (New York: Scribner’s, 1948).

  84 “the trustee in bankruptcy”: J. Kenneth Brody, The Trial of Pierre Laval: Defining Treason, Collaboration and Patriotism in World War II France (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 2010), 74.

  84 decrying his “policy of ‘neutrality’ ” and demanding fuller French support: The Diary of Pierre Laval, with a Preface by Josée Laval, Countess R. de Chambrun (New York: Scribner’s, 1948), 222.

  84 “capable of interceding effectively”: Sherwood, Georges Mandel and the Third Republic, 294.

  85 “Me, leave?”: Arletty, La Défense, 264.

  85 “She was already uneasy”: Ibid., 265.

  86 “My heart is French, but my ass is international”: Modris Eksteins, “When Marianne Met Fritz,” Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703377504575650590689790202.html.

  86 “What do you think is going to happen?”: Demonpion, Arletty, 265.

  7: The Jewish Bartender and the German Resistance

  88 Both general Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel: There were two generals von Stülpnagel in residence at the Ritz during the war: Otto von Stülpnagel and later his replacement and cousin Carl von Stülpnagel, who took over as the head military administrator of Paris—the MBF, or Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich.

  89 She was also working with the resistance: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 150–52, 180–84, 158–63, and passim.

  89 He had lived at the Hôtel Ritz full-time for several years: Watts, The Ritz, 118; Roulet, The Ritz, 103, 108.

  90 the “Desert Fox,” Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: Details on the conspirators and Operation Valkyrie drawn from several sources, here and throughout, including James P. Duffy and Vincent Ricci, Target Hitler: The Plots to Kill Hitler (New York: Praeger, 1992); Hans Speidel, Invasion 1944 (New York: Paperback Library, 1972); Hans Bernd Gisevius, Valkyrie: An Insider’s Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler (New York: Da Capo Press, 2008); and B. H. Liddell-Hart, The Rommel Papers (New York: Da Capo, 1982).

  90 Mademoiselle Blanche Rubenstein: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 137; Watts, The Ritz, 95.

  90 “One of my salesgirls told me”: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 142.

  90 René de Chambrun: On the history of Coco Chanel’s relations with her Jewish business partners, see Bruno Abescat and Yves Stavridès, “Derrière l’Empire Chanel . . . la Fabuleuse Histoire des Wertheimer,” L’Express, April 7, 2005, 16–30; July 11, 2005, 84–88; July 18, 2005, 82–86; July 25, 2005, 76–80; August 1, 2005, 74–78; August 8, 80–84, part 1, 29. I summarize this history in more detail in Tilar J. Mazzeo, The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate Story of the World’s Most Famous Perfume (New York: HarperCollins, 2012).

  91 He was still helping forge passports: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, file Paris 2463 (42), “Ritz-Hotel, deutschfeindliches Verhalten des leitenden Personals, 1943”; see also Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 136–37.

  91 Greep was also part of the resistance: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 150–52.

  91 She liked the ill-timed show of defiance: There are a number of questions surrounding the issue of Blanche Auzello’s arrests during the occupation, and some sources suggest that her arrest at Maxim’s bistro occurred during the summer of 1943. Most likely, however, she was arrested on more than two occasions, and these multiple arrests account for
the confusion in various reports.

  91 Some said a tipsy Blanche repeatedly demanded: According to the files in the Foreign Office in Berlin (Paris 2463 [42]), in the summer of 1943 the Germans investigated reports that the kitchen lights at the Hôtel Ritz had not been extinguished during an air raid alert. It seems clear that Blanche Auzello and other members of the hotel staff were interrogated as a result of this security breach. As Allan Mitchell writes, “In spite of regulations for a complete blackout of Paris by night, light was emanating from the Hôtel Ritz onto the Place Vendôme, illuminating the Ministry of Justice on the opposite side of the square. Investigation revealed that the director of the Ritz was married to a Jew, who was arrested one evening at Maxim’s for repeatedly demanding that the orchestra play ‘God Save the King.’” Allan Mitchell, Nazi Paris: The History of an Occupation 1940–1941 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 131. However, Blanche Auzello’s nephew, Samuel Marx, who met with his aunt after the war, reports that her arrest at Maxim’s occurred immediately following the D-Day landings at Normandy, and this does make sense of certain other anecdotal evidence. Thus, it is most likely that two separate events are being conflated. Blanche was also arrested and interrogated on at least one other occasion, as well, after a visit to the apartment of Lily Kharmayeff early in the war. As noted above, some of the confusion stems from the fact that Blanche was arrested during the occupation on at least two occasions. According to files in Berlin, she was arrested for asking for a rendition of “God Save the King” sometime before April 14, 1943, and interned on that occasion for three months (File NR 786/439, “Enemy Espionage in the Hotel Ritz”). The air raid in question took place on or around April 10, 1943.

  92 Her nephew later remembered: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 183; Watts, The Ritz, 95.

  92 Perhaps she and Blanche first met on the set: Blanche starred in two early films with Van Daële and directed by Protazanov during her early years in Paris, and she also knew both Jean Cocteau and the aristocratic Vincent de Noailles (in film financing) from the early 1920s; Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 26–30.

  92 hid Lily and a wounded communist fighter named Vincenzo: Ibid., 175.

  93 It was Marie-Louise Ritz: Ibid., 170.

  93 “every damned thing”: Watts, The Ritz, 81.

  93 if she cracked now: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 185; Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 (42).

  93 Both Frank and the hotel’s doorman: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 (42).

  93 “potato”: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 149.

  93 When his counterpart at the Georges V refused: Ibid., 140–49.

  94 And the Austrian-born Frank had been their secret mailbox: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 (42).

  94 Hauptmann Wiegand, had his quarters: National Archives, London, HS7/139, “Agents and Suspects, Paris.”

  94 the buxom German socialite named Inga Haag: Jonathan Fryer, “Inga Haag Obituary: German Socialite and Spy Who Conspired to Overthrow Hitler,” Guardian, January 13, 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/13/inga-haag-obituary.

  94 came to swill Frank’s signature cocktails: Ibid.

  95 Pierre André was able to make a dramatic escape: Roulet, The Ritz, 118.

  95 Frank had passed messages for Inga and her friends: Ibid.; Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 (42).

  95 No one knew precisely what: On the vexed question of Coco Chanel’s wartime activities and different perspectives on her relationship with Walter Schellenberg, see Picardie, Coco Chanel; Vaughn, Sleeping with the Enemy; Walter Schellenberg, The Labyrinth, trans. Louis Hagen (New York: Da Capo, 2000).

  98 “if the pig were dead”: Guido Knopp, Die Wehrmacht: Eine Bilanz (München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2007), 251.

  99 “Stauffenberg just called”: Duffy and Ricci, Target Hitler, 191.

  100 tell Hitler and Himmler that it was a joint exercise: Ibid., 197.

  8: The American Wife and the Swiss Director

  104 The young lieutenant colonel’s Martin Marauder: Henry C. Woodrum, Walkout (n.p.: iUniverse, 2010), 19ff.

  104 “tourists were German soldiers”: Ibid., 249.

  105 “taking their cue from Göring”: Irving, Göring, 430.

  105 What annoyed Hans Elminger: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 193.

  105 “One more move in this direction, Göring”: Irving, Göring, 244.

  105 “let’s hope it’s all over quickly”: Ibid., 450.

  106 “unofficial ‘king’ of the Paris art world”: “OSS (USS [sic] Office of Strategic Services) Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports, 1945–1946, and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index,” www.lootedart.com/MVI3RM469661_print;Y.

  106 “Anyone who sees and paints”: Attributed to Dorothy Thompson, January 3, 1944.

  107 “the staff having effected”: “Post-War Reports: Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France: C.I.R. No.1 15 August 1945,” Commission for Looted Art in Europe, www.lootedart.com/MN51H4593121.

  107 Süss, suggesting the possibility of German-Jewish heritage: Reinhard Heydrich, arguably the most vicious and determinedly anti-Semitic of all the elite Nazi leadership, had a family history connected with the name of Süss, and he was widely rumored to have a secret Jewish ancestry, in large part on this basis of this family name. See Robert Gerwarth, Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 61ff.

  107 a Swiss citizen, from the city of Brunnen, and worked at the Ritz: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 [42].

  107 “Suess. Paris, Hôtel Ritz”: “OSS Red Flag Names List and Index.”

  108 Operating under the cover name “Colonel Renard”: Marty, unpublished manuscript, citing Cyril Eder, Les Comtesses de la Gestapo (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2006), 54.

  108 “fanatic enemy of Germany”: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 [42].

  108 “urgently suspected”: Ibid.

  108 “wedged between false ceilings and corridors”: Roulet, The Ritz, 151.

  109 “as far as we could observe”: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 [42].

  109 “one of the most influential”: Ibid.

  109 Hans von Pfyffer and Marie-Louise Ritz shared: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 48.

  110 “[I]n the interest of the reputation”: Foreign Office Archives, Berlin, Paris 2463 [42].

  110 Those on the watch in Paris deeply suspected: Mitchell, Nazi Paris, 131.

  111 “When women went to the Gestapo headquarters”: Steegmuller, Cocteau, 444–45.

  111 Those lucky enough to survive: Woodrum, Walkout, 156.

  111 “I am afraid”: “France opens doors of Gestapo’s Paris headquarters to public for first time,” Taipei Times, September 19, 2005, www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/09/19/2003272328/2; see also the film http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gestapo-torture-chamber.

  111 “I was sure I’d never get out of there alive”: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 187.

  112 “Let the damned French take care of her”: Ibid., 189.

  113 “Le Boche est fini!”: Ibid., 194.

  113 “I had a hate for Germans”: Ibid.,187.

  9: The German General and the Fate of Paris

  115 “Ever since our enemies”: “World War II: The Liberation of Paris,” World War II, June 12, 2006, www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-the-liberation-of-paris.htm.

  117 “destructive measure”: Mitchell, Nazi Paris, 149.

  118 Ambassador Otto Abetz sent: “Dietrich von Choltitz,” www.choltitz.de. The German-language site is not neutral and is intended as a defense of the general during the occupation of Paris and managed by his son; however, it provides copies and transcripts of historical materials related to these questions. The extent to which General von Choltitz can be credited with saving Paris from destruction is a subject of historical controversy, and perspectives on it differ significantly in France and in Germany. Von Choltitz and his family claimed after the war that the general defied Adolf Hitler in an act
of heroism and ethical rebellion. However, many of those who lived in occupied France during those final weeks in August saw the general as a vicious Nazi, who ordered mass executions, attempted to starve the population of Paris, and disobeyed Hitler only as a calculated effort at self-protection when it became clear that success was impossible. This position is supported, generally, by the archival records and by the firsthand testimony of both Raoul Nordling and Pierre Taittinger; see, for example, Pierre Taittinger, Et Paris Ne Fut Pas Détruit (Paris: Temoignages Contemporains Élan, 1948).

  119 “not more than 24–48 hours left”: “Dietrich von Choltitz,” www.choltitz.de.

  119 Dietrich von Choltitz moved out: Watts, The Ritz, 148; Roulet, The Ritz, 121.

  120 “If von Choltitz was to deliver the city”: Omar Bradley, A Soldier’s Story (New York: Random House, 1999), 392; Bradley to OCMH, January 7, 1955, OCMH Files.

  120 “stumbled reluctantly”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 392.

  121 de Gaulle had already made it clear to Philippe Leclerc: General de Gaulle to M. Luizet, 2230, August 23, 1944; see Adrian Dansette, Histoire de la libération de Paris (1946; reprint, Paris: Perrin, 1994), 329–30.

  121 “To hell with prestige”: Bradley, A Soldier’s Story, 392.

  10: The Press Corps and the Race to Paris

  123 “I had a funny choke in my throat”: Stephen Ambrose, “Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army From the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany,” CNN, August 5, 1998, www.cnn.com/books/beginnings/9808/citizen.soldier.

  124 “The road to Paris was calling”: Kershaw, Blood and Champagne, 178.

  125 “the best, the nearest in every way”: Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn, 170.

  125 Martha struggling with depression that spring: Ibid., 254.

  125 “I was a young freelance photographer”: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 128–29.

  125 “was having a good war for a photographer”: Ibid., 176–77; Beevor, “An Ugly Carnival,” 140.

  126 He had a certain lieutenant “Stevie” Stevenson: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 177.

  126 His right-hand man: Michael Taylor, “Liberating France Hemingway’s Way: Following Author’s 1944 Reclaiming of the Ritz Hotel,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 22, 2004, www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Liberating-France-Hemingway-s-way-Following-2731590.php#ixzz24qFzKEty.