Tag: French Collaborators

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European Heritage Days

I’ll bet most of you who are Euro trippers aren’t aware that European Heritage Days (EHD) exists. I didn’t until our good friend in Paris, Raphaelle Crevet, mentioned this to us a year ago in connection with our research on the next book Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi Occupied Paris (1940–1944).

Open Door Days

During EHD, European governments open up one or more of their buildings, monuments, or sites for one or two days to the general public (usually in September). These places are normally closed to everyone during the rest of the year. The chosen sites will have some significance to a theme the country picks for the current EHD year. The number of sites ranges from one (e.g., Paris, France) to more than 700 (for “Open House London”).

The French Ministry of Culture started this annual event in 1984 as La Journée Portes ouvertes des monuments historiques (Historic Monument Open Door Days). Today, it is considered a cultural event celebrated by more than fifty European countries. Each country can pick a theme such as architecture, collections, shared history, restoration/protection, archaeology, monuments, and public buildings, just to name a few. Administration of the event is handled jointly by the Council of Europe and the European Commission (europeanheritagedays.com). Read More European Heritage Days

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Coco Chanel: Nazi Collaborator or Spy?

Several weeks after the liberation of Paris, Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel was arrested by members of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior—resistance fighters during latter stages of the war) and taken to the Free French Purge Committee headquarters. After two hours of questioning, Chanel was released. She would later tell her maid that she was released under the personal orders of Winston Churchill. Within hours of arriving back at 31, rue Cambon, Chanel left in her Cadillac for Lausanne, Switzerland where she would live in exile until her return to Paris in the mid-1950s (she would come back to Paris from time to time—once as a witness in a trial of her friend and collaborator, Baron Louis de Vaufreland—the judge would declare, “The answers Mademoiselle Chanel gave to the court were deceptive”).

Coco Chanel. Photo (c.1970). Photograph by Marion Pike. Public Domain - copyright expired. Wikimedia Commons.
Coco Chanel. Photo (c.1970). Photograph by Marion Pike. Public Domain – copyright expired. Wikimedia Commons.

Backstory

Chanel had been put on the French Resistance black list since 1942 as a German collaborationnistes (specifically as a horizontal collaborator—get the euphemism?). She was well known as being anti-Communist, pro-German, and virulently anti-Semitic (her verbal diatribes at dinner parties are legendary). Chanel was extremely adept at spinning any story to suit her needs or objectives. Her life story included a broken family childhood (i.e., insecurity—she was a very complex individual), prostitution, homosexuality, drug addiction, creativity, business acumen, betrayals, treason, promiscuous activities, a well-known spy mission, cover-ups, bribes, extreme poverty, extreme wealth, dance halls, lovers—men and women, intellectual friends, loyalty to her friends, and a passion for fashion and fragrances that remain legendary. Wow, how many of us have that resume? Read More Coco Chanel: Nazi Collaborator or Spy?