Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War
Page 27
52. Charles-Roux in her biography: Chanel (London: Jonathan Cape, 1976), pp. 332–37. Despite a request, I was never able to obtain a copy of the letter.
53. During the early war years: ACS, Minister of the Interior, Political Police, April 21, 1941, report.
54. Her letter, “My Dear”: The Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, CHAR 2/255, Bate, letter, June 1935.
55. Vera, “suspected”: Italian National Archives, King’s Provincial Police Headquarters, November 12, 1943.
56. “The person [Vera Lombardi]”: Italian National Archives, King’s Provincial Police Headquarters, November 24, 1943.
57. “Passport applied for”: APP BA 1990. Chanel’s birth date is given incorrectly as ten years later—in 1893. I never discovered who issued Vera Lombardi’s passport used to travel to Paris and Madrid from Rome.
58. a direct order from the Paris Chief: Ibid.
59. “there was conclusive”: CHAR 20/198, Letter, Pierson Dixon to Rowan, September 30, 1944.
60. Walter Kutschmann: Goñi, The Real Odessa, p. 241.
61. “A week after Vera”: NARA, December 10, 1946, report. NARA, Schellenberg file, 65.
62. At Madrid: Documents including Chanel’s handwritten letter to Churchill uncovered at the British National Archives at Kew. Churchill’s private papers at Chartwell, and Count Joseph Ledebur’s testimony after the war, confirm what happened when Chanel arrived in Madrid in the winter of 1943–1944.
63. “with Schellenberg’s permission”: NARA, Schellenberg file, 65.
64. “On her arrival at that city”: Ibid.
65. “Peut être Randolph”: Randolph Churchill was a close friend to Chanel. Note from Hankey and Chanel letter from Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, Chartwell, CHAR 20/198 A.
66. Churchill was not in London: Information about Churchill’s illness, see Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, War Diaries, pp. 497–515.
67. Later, Chanel would travel: Les Archives du Monde, February 8–9, 2004, 81. Paragraph drawn from Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, p. 601.
68. The letter contained a plea: CHAR 20/198A. The envelope addressed to Lady Sankey is from Hôtel Ritz stationery—raising the possibility that Vera was staying at the hotel, presumably at Chanel’s expense. From the moment Vera was released from the Roman prison, she was penniless.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: COCO’S LUCK
1. “France Is a Battlefield Again”: Le Matin, June 7, 1944, front page.
2. It was a grim moment: CARAN, F/7/14939. Chanel’s name appears on a list in an F.F.I. report dated “27.12.43.”
3. On the English coast: Stephen E. Ambrose, The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, p. 419.
4. Whereas, in Berlin: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 1041.
5. Von Rundstedt was sacked: Ibid. For Rommel’s suicide and funeral, pp. 1078–80.
6. As Allied bombers struck: Paris-Soir, June 7, 1944, front page. Soot from burning documents: Centre historique des archives nationales, La France et la Belgique sous l’Occupation allemande 1940–1944, p. 46. Living at rue Cambon: Telephone interview with Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, February 12, 2010.
7. In Berlin: Until Germany surrendered a year later, Schellenberg never ceased trying to find a way out for himself and Himmler. They knew what fate was reserved for them at the hands of the Allies. See Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg, pp. 302, 327. Hal Vaughan, Doctor to the Resistance, p. 158.
8. With his partisan fighters: Cyril Eder, Les Comtesses de la Gestapo, p. 208.
9. “He had something”: CARAN Z/6/672 greffe 5559
10. Chanel’s friend: Lifar rehearsals, evacuation, and at Chanel’s apartment, see David Pryce-Jones, Paris in the Third Reich, p. 188.
11. “I couldn’t walk”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 185.
12. “Feelings of hatred”: Frederic Spotts, The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation, p. 254.
13. “Paris ravaged!”: Éric Roussel, Charles de Gaulle, p. 450; my translation.
14. To watch de Gaulle’s march: see Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Misia, p. 292.
15. Two weeks later: Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 345.
16. After the liberation: Pryce-Jones, Paris in the Third Reich, p. 206.
17. Among them: SSF.
18. During the occupation: Ibid.
19. After the war: Report of von Schoenebeck family, interviews by Sally Gordon-Mark, Griesser Haus, Hinterstoder, Austria, July 1–3, 2009.
20. A secret postwar French intelligence report: SSF.
21. She had not lived in hiding: Ibid.
22. To gain her release: Ibid. Among others who furnished a favorable reference was Catherine Jouhakoff, who furnished women’s lingerie to Catsy.
23. “Dincklage was an active”: Gabrielle Chanel’s name as originally written, mistakenly, on her birth certificate of 1883.
24. “Catsy’s friend”: Abetz’s telephone warning to Catsy von Schoenebeck was given to Catsy’s maid, Mme Bartuel, at her apartment at 77, rue de Longchamp, Paris.
25. The Schoenebeck family: Interview with Schoenebeck family, Sally Gordon-Mark, Hinterstoder, Austria, July 3, 2009. 186 Since 1942: CARAN F/7/14939.
26. Now, in the first week: Chanel was suspected by French intelligence services of supplying “intelligence for the enemy.” APP BA 1990. Letter from CARAN junior archivist to Sally Gordon-Mark, Paris, July 2, 2008.
27. Chanel’s biographers report: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 186; Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, p. 148; Axel Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 262.
28. “Churchill had me freed”: Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, telephone interview with author, November 8, 2009.
29. “protect Chanel”: Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 178. Edmonde Charles-Roux confirmed Duff Cooper’s intervention. Edmonde Charles-Roux, telephone interview with author, Paris, January 12, 2010.
30. Chanel’s maid Germaine: Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, telephone interview with author, February 12, 2010. Labrunie reconfirmed that Chanel’s maid, Germaine, had told her of Ambassador Cooper’s message from Westminster.
31. “had Chanel been made to stand trial”: Charles Higham, The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life, pp. 359–62.
32. “By one of those”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 263.
33. Chanel made frequent trips: Gold and Fizdale, Misia, pp. 300–1.
34. “When Madame Lombardi”: Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, CHAR 20/198A, letter from P.N. Loxley, December 28, 1944.
35. “December 1941”: This date is an error. Lombardi didn’t get to Paris until late October 1943.
36. “from the outset”: CHAR 20/198 letter, Pierson Dixon to Rowan, September 30, 1944.
37. “Allied Forces Headquarters”: Telegram, Foreign Office to Madrid, D. 3:10. p.m. January 4, 1945. CHAR 20/198.
38. “I have shown the Prime Minister”: See January 8, 1945, Top Secret to Colonel Hill-Dillon. CHAR 20/198.
39. “My Dear Winston”: CHAR 20/198.
40. General Schellenberg: SS General Schellenberg took over the Abwehr after the arrest of Admiral Canaris for treason in 1945.
41. According to the Swiss Aliens Police: Swiss Federal Archives, letter of the United-Silk Weaving Mill Ltd., Kreefeld, Berlin, November 21, 1944, to Swiss Legation, Bern. Translation by Michael Foedrowitz.
42. The Swiss authorities saw: Résumé of Dincklage matters, Swiss National Archives, JAEGGI, November 1950, and Bern, January 15, 1950.
43. “the special French court”: Letter from CARAN senior archivist to Sally Gordon-Mark, Paris, July 2, 2008.
44. Nevertheless, court mandates: CARAN Z/6/672 greffe 5559.
45. “Spatz … was her living hell”: “Derrière l’empire Chanel,” Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, pp. 646–48; my translation. 194 Pierre Reverdy knew of Chanel’s: Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, p. 649; my translati
on.
46. The interrogation: For various reasons, Vaufreland was freed and rearrested during this five-year period. The jury was selected because they had no record of collaboration with the enemy. The procedures of trial for collaborators with the Nazi regime during the occupation were decided by General Charles de Gaulle’s provisional government in September 1944.
47. Her interrogation by Leclercq: Memorandum prepared by Jules-Marc Baudel, Esq., who analyzed French legal documents to assist the author.
48. “Chanel began by telling”: Testimony of Gabrielle Chanel, June 4, 1948, Cour de Justice, Paris, before Judge Fernand Paul Leclercq. CARAN Z/6/672 greffe 5559.
49. There is no record: Cyril Eder, Les Comtesses de la Gestapo, p. 204
50. “Before the war”: CARAN Z/6/672 greffe 5559, Testimony of André Palasse, forty-two years old, nephew of Chanel, before Judge Roger Serre on November 20, 1947.
51. six years in prison: Ibid.
52. “The answers Mademoiselle Chanel gave”: Ibid.
53. “The days of the German occupation”: Based on numerous statements made to the author in 1953 and later.
54. Hans Schillinger, a friend: Axel Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 264.
55. Suddenly the two men: Interview with Volkmar von Arnim by Michael Foederwitz, Schinkel, Germany, August 11, 2008. Also BNA Foreign Office file.
56. He was found to be carrying: BNA Foreign Office file. Beglaubigte Abschrift (authenticated transcript), Certificate, signed Capt. A. H. Haynes, December 3, 1945.
57. He and Schillinger were arrested: BNA, March 16, 1948, War Office letter. To a Mrs. Pollack.
58. During questioning: BNA. Letter from Major General to German Internal Affairs Department, Foreign Office, London, November 13, 1947.
59. “Mademoiselle Chanel has stated”: Great Britain, Zonal Executive Offices, B.A.O.R. 1, Letter from Major General to Foreign Office, London, Feb. 25, 1948.
CHAPTER TWELVE: COMEBACK COCO
1. “I have never known failure”: Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 174. 204 An aging Chanel: Valentine Lawford, Horst, p. 192.
2. However, there were rumors: Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, telephone interview with author, September 9, 2010.
3. When Chanel saw a draft: Paul Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 178.
4. “was not to her taste”: Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 179.
5. “in these three hundred”: Ibid.
6. “Chanel had a childhood fear”: Ibid.
7. In June 1951: ECR, Chanel, pp. 357–58. Wistrich, Who’s Who in Nazi Germany, p. 222.
8. “Dr. Lang and his wife”: Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, p. 284, drawn from Dr. Lang’s memoirs.
9. “Madame Chanel offered us”: Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 380.
10. “They spent time together”: Pierre Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 189–90.
11. Asked to describe her mood: Ibid.
12. Chanel hardly spoke of fashion: Ibid.
13. “Chanel was somewhat lost: Lawford, Horst, pp. 322–24.
14. In the spring of 1947: Bruno Abescat and Yves Stavridès, “Derrière l’empire Chanel,” L’Express,
15. “Now, I’m rich”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 193.
16. “every thirty seconds”: “Chanel No. 5 Perfume History,” Dulcinea Norton-Smith, http://www.suite101.com/content/icons-chanel-no-5-perfume-a44263, February 11, 2008.
17. “I cannot stand lawyers”: Claude Delay, Chanel solitaire, p. 242.
18. A transcript of the BBC interview: René de Chambrun lived to be ninety-two, and died in 2002. The BBC documentary Reputations was last broadcast on BBC 4 on January 29, 2009. Date of first broadcast unknown.
19. In the fall of 1953: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 204–9.
20. A reporter from the major French daily: Ibid., p. 209.
21. “Her dresses were good”: As quoted by Charles-Roux in Le Figaro Madame: conversation Edmonde Charles-Roux et Audrey Tautou, May 11, 2009.
22. “likened to a herd of geese”: Edmonde Charles-Roux, interview with author, Paris, April 21, 2009.
23. “You know, I want to”: Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 367.
24. “[Chanel] has influenced”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, pp. 210–11.
25. Marlene Dietrich came: Ibid., p. 212.
26. The company was broke: Ibid., p. 207.
27. In the spring of 1954: Ibid., p. 217. Also Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 350.
28. “[Chanel’s] return”: “Ease and Casualness Abound in Chanel’s Autumn Showing,” New York Times, October 6, 1954.
29. As befitting a fashion queen: Marcus, Minding the Store.
30. The reporter found her: Lillian Ross, “The Strong Ones,” The New Yorker, September 28, 1957.
31. “I left Paris”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 315.
32. “almost love at first sight”: Lilou Marquand, Chanel m’a dit, p. 125.
33. To reward his loyalty: Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, pp. 256–57.
34. Forgetting the thirty years: Marquand, Chanel m’a dit, p. 127.
35. “In the last moment of her life”: Janet Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 160.
36. “No matter the age”: Delay, Chanel solitaire, pp. 252–53.
37. “enduring allure”: Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 165. Photographs: ibid.; Edmonde Charles-Roux photo collection, Le Temps Chanel, p. 330; Lawford, Horst, p. 154.
38. “In my day”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 263.
39. “Well, that’s how one dies”: Ibid. Also Isabelle Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: Un parfum de mystère, p. 161.
40. On the third Wednesday: Bruno Dethomas, Le Monde, March 23, 1973, found in Le Monde, Les Grands Procès: 1944–2010, pp. 211–13.
41. His claim was contested: Ibid.
42. Still, Mironnet’s claim was supported: Ibid.
43. Lilou claimed that Chanel: Ibid.
44. When the document was exhibited: Ibid.
45. How did it all end: Telephone conversation with Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, March 26, 2010. 218 Dincklage was cremated: German memo from Florian M. Beierl to the author, November 2009, and in a memo to me from Michael Foedrowitz, my research assistant in Berlin, April 3, 2010.
EPILOGUE
1. “From this century”: Charles-Louis Foulon, André Malraux et le rayonnement culturel de la France, p. 99; Michel Guerrin, “André Malraux, la culture en solitaire,” Le Monde, June 25, 2010.
2. “She looks at you tenderly”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 260.
3. “Spatz was her damnation”: Edmonde Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, p. 648; my translation.
4. “Dear Coco”: Reverdy poem reprinted in ibid., p. 649; my translation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARCHIVES
Archives de la ville de Sanary-sur-Mer, France:
Series 12: Police générale étrangers, réfugiés
Archives départementales du Var, France:
158 W 848
Archives de la Préfecture de Police, Paris, France:
Series BA: 1745, 1846, 1990, 2140, 2141, 2176, 2369, 2430
Series DB: 540
Series GA: D2, R8, L12, P8, S6, T2
July 29, 2009, letter from Commissaire divisionnaire françoise Gicquel, Cabinet du Préfet, Service des archives et du musée
Bibliothèque nationale de France:
“Paris-Var-Méditerranée,” 1935–36, 1938, JO-55926
Bundesarchiv, Berlin: SS files, federal archives
Central Archives of the State Archives, Archivio centrale dello Stato, documents of Mussolini’s secretary:
Ordinary correspondence, envelop 1726, file no. 523074
Centre Historique des Archives du Département de l’Armée de terre CHADAT, Vincennes, France:
Series 7NN 2ème Bureau: 2145, 2162, 2164, 2268, 2402, 2502, 2515, 2641, 2650, 2655, 2659, 2708, 2717, 2719, 2735, 2736, 2737, 2752, 2973
Centre de Recherches
des Archives Nationales CARAN, Paris, France:
Series AJ/40 German/economic files: 871
Series F/7/ Police: 14713, 14714, 14939, 14940, 14946, 15142, 15299, 15305, 15327, 15332
Series 3AG2 prefix 171/MI/ BCRA Files:
112, 119, 125, 127, 128, 326
Series 3W/354 Archives de Berlin: Bordereau 2597, Bordereau 2745, no. 4
Series Z/6/762 greffe 5559 Justice File
The Chartwell Trust, West Kent, UK:
1/272/83
2/255/25–27
20/173/44
20/181/19
20/198A/62, 63, 65–69, 71–82, 86–92
Hanover Registry Office:
Standesamt Nr 0193 Eintrag 7181
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin:
Sybille Bedford Papers, Box 46.1
Landesarchiv, Berlin State Archives:
Bestand B Rep 012
Abt. 460 Nr. 1789, reference D 120—Denazification file
Abt. 611 Sta Nr. 53778 Citizenship file
Abt. 761 Nr. 18049 Reparation file
Ministero della Difesa, Rome, Italy:
Prot. n. M_D/GMIL V 16 5/0367479.
Archivio di Stato—Ministry of the Interior, Political police, personal records,
Rome, Italy: B728, “Lombardi Alberto.”
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
“Walter Schellenberg,” File no. XE001752, Box 195
RG No. 319, Stack Area 270, Row 84, Compartment 8, Shelf 3
“OSS-Schellenberg,” Entry 125A, Box 2, Folder 21
RG No. 226, Stack Area 190, Row 7, Compartment 19, Shelf 3
“OSS-Schellenberg,” Entry 171, Box 10, Folder 61
RG No. 226, Stack Area 190, Row 9, Compartment 10, Shelf 6