Many of us are familiar with the story of Jesse Owens (1913-1980) winning four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin. Adolph Hitler was in the stands and watched Jesse and his teammates beat out German athletes in various track and field events. After watching African Americans step up to the victor’s stand on day one, Hitler refused to shake hands with anyone other than a German. Told it was all or nothing ⏤ he had to either shake everyone’s hand or no one ⏤ Hitler chose the latter. So, every day before the award ceremonies began, Hitler left the stadium. Watch the video clip “Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics” in 1936 here.
Luz Long, German athlete saluting Hitler (right), on the winners stand at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jesse Owens (left) on the podium after winning the gold medal. Photo by anonymous (c. August 1936). Bundesarchiv Bild 183-G00630, Sommerolympiade, Siegerehrung Weitsprung. PD-CCA-Share Alike 3.0 Germany. Wikimedia Commons.
This is only one of many stories which took place in the latter part of the 1930s when German athletes competed against African Americans in sports such as boxing (Schmeling vs. Louis) and track and field (Owens and others). It was a time when German nationalism was on the rise and Hitler was promoting his master-race theories.
It wasn’t only African American athletes who were embarrassing Hitler and his regime. In the late 1930s, motorsports took on the Führer and won. Two Formula One (F1) race car drivers, a Jewish Frenchman and an American woman, financed, built, and raced cars to compete with the Nazis’ Mercedes-Benz team and they beat Hitler at his own game. Read More Outpacing Hitler and the Nazis
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”
“Informative and entertaining, Stew Ross’ newest work evokes a difficult and frightening time in the history of the City of Light. The detailed descriptions of sites such as the Vél’ d’hiv’ or Gestapo headquarters reminds us of the choices people made during those years.”
Cynthia Bisson, PhD, Professor of History, Belmont University, French Resistant Expert
“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
