England, France, and the United States were certainly no strangers to Hitler and his Nazi party philosophies during the 1930s. In fact, England and America were home to large fascist organizations while France hosted several influential right-wing fascist groups which would directly influence the Vichy government and its collaboration with Germany.
America saw the founding of the pro-Nazi “Friends of New Germany” (FoNG) in 1933 after Hitler gave his permission for the organization’s formation. The FoNG closely followed the Nazi party’s tactics including propaganda, harassment of Jews, and infiltration of other German American groups. Congress investigated the FoNG and determined it represented a direct subsidiary of the Nazi party. By late 1935, FoNG ceased to exist but was quickly replaced by the German American Bund with Fritz Julius Kuhn as its Bundesführer. The Bund mimicked the real Nazi party with respect to its organizational structure. Training camps were set up around the country and rallies were held with members displaying the Hitler salute. The Bund’s primary attacks were centered on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish organizations, and Communists.
Nearly 1,000 uniformed men of the New Jersey division of the German American Bund march in Camp Nordland. Photo by anonymous (18 July 1937). The Atlantic.
After Bund leaders traveled to Berlin, giving the impression that Hitler was supporting the Bund, Congress passed the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act requiring foreign agents to register with the United States State Department ⏤ an act which remains in place today. After this, Germany purposely tried to distance itself from the Bund. A rally at Madison Square Garden on 29 February 1939 resulted in violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers after the president was referred to as “Frank D. Rosenfeld” and the New Deal was referred to as the “Jew Deal.” Predictably, the Bund was dissolved in 1941. Sadly, it was followed in 1959 by the American Nazi Party, founded by George Lincoln Rockwell, and is known today as the World Union of National Socialists. Read More “British Fascists and a Mitford”
Our story today originated as a result of an e-mail from one of our readers, Andrew B. who read our blog Double Agent or Bad Neighbor?(read here). Andrew pointed out that I had “missed a key point, 140 meters away from (where) Déricourt, lived Yvonne Grover-Williams.” Andrew went on to briefly describe Yvonne’s role during the German occupation of Paris.
Andrew was right about me missing this one on Yvonne and her story. To be honest, I had never run across this woman or her husband, William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams, head of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) CHESTNUT circuit in Paris. During the occupation, Yvonne lived at 21, rue Weber which was around the corner from Henri Déricourt’s apartment about five hundred feet away at 58, rue Pergolèse (and next door to the renown Nazi spy catcher, Hugo Bleicher) and not too far from Avenue Foch where various Gestapo units set up their offices including the infamous interrogation and torture cells on the fifth and sixth floors at number 84.
Exterior of Henri Déricourt’s apartment building: 58, rue Pergolèse. Photo by Sandy Ross (2017).
Well, that sent me down, yet another rabbit hole and I discovered a wonderful book by Joe Saward called The Grand Prix Saboteurs. Part of the story includes the years Yvonne spent as Sir William Orpen’s mistress, modeling for his paintings in some very suggestive nude poses. Then, with Orpen’s approval, she married the couple’s chauffeur.
Did You Know?
Did you know that a gruesome discovery was made several years ago in Berlin at the Charité University Hospital? In several of my past blogs, I’ve talked about the Nazi executions (i.e., beheadings) of women prisoners − principally political resisters − at Plötzensee Prison (readThe Nazi Guillotinebloghere). After their executions, the bodies were sent over to the Berlin Institute of Anatomy at Charité where Dr. Hermann Stieve (1886-1952) was an internationally acclaimed anatomist. His research specialized in the effects of stress on the menstrual cycle. Before the Nazis came to power in 1933, women were not executed in Germany. However, that changed quickly under the Nazi party. Approximately 182 women were tried before a Nazi court (read Hitler’s Blood Judge blog here), found guilty, and executed. Stieve performed dissections on their reproductive organs to support his research. After he was finished, the remains were discretely cremated and disposed of in locations that were never disclosed to the families. Some of these victims included the women of the Red Orchestra resistance organization (readDie Rote Kapelle blog here) while others were convicted of innocuous crimes including distributing leaflets.
Professor Hermann Stieve lecturing an anatomy class. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). Private collection – DocHu. PD-Author Release. Wikimedia Commons.
In 2016, more than three hundred microscope slides once belonging to Stieve were discovered at Charité. These were samples taken from the bodies he dissected during the war. They were stored in small black boxes with the names of the victims. On 13 May 2019, a small coffin containing the slides was buried at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery in a grave near one of the memorials to the victims of the Nazis. It is hoped that this will give some closure to the victims’ families as well as an effort to ensure the Nazis’ crimes will not be forgotten. Despite joining right-wing organizations during the interwar period (the time between World Wars I and II) and becoming a strong supporter of Hitler, Dr. Stieve never joined the Nazi party. As a result, he was never tried for war crimes.
Procession to bury small coffin containing slides of human tissue from women prisoners executed by the Nazis. Photo by anonymous (c. 2019). Reuters – BBC.
Let’s Meet Yvonne Aupicq
Yvonne Aupicq (1896-1973) was born in Lille, France to Joseph Aupicq, a schoolteacher and Laetitia who worked as a housekeeper. Many accounts of Yvonne’s life mention her father was mayor of Lille and her last name was spelled Aubicq. However, her birth certificate and other historical records do not substantiate either of those assertions.
Yvonne was a strikingly beautiful woman with deep blue eyes and golden curly hair. She worked at a hospital during World War I which is where she met the famous Irish portrait artist, Major William Orpen (1878-1931), who was assigned to the war’s Western Front as an official Allied war artist. Learn more about Major William Orpen here. Read More “Racer, Spy and the Erotic Model”
“Stew blends the dark history of buildings in Paris that are associated with the infamous deeds of the Gestapo with contrasting insights into the bravery of the French people, who, at great risk to themselves and their families, secretly resisted the German Occupation.”
Stanley Booker, MBE, RAF (Ret.), Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur
Lavishly illustrated, gripping guide to the Paris that existed under Nazi rule.
This is a fantastic new book that provides extensive information for both those planning a trip and for armchair historians. While there are are walks that take you past famous places made infamous by Nazi rule, there is also a lot of detailed information. Stew Ross provides details about many topics that are not necessarily popular, including anti-semitism and collaboration. Photos add poignancy. Paris is haunted by its past, and these pages show you exactly why. The days of the Occupation and the Resistance are not that distant.
