Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War

by Hal Vaughan

  7. With the occupation of France: MBF document.

  8. Until 1944 he played a key role: Martin Jungius and Wolfgang Seibel at the University of Konstanz wrote how Dr. Blanke

  displayed intelligence, determination, and devotion to his convictions … committing his energy and resourcefulness to the development of effective machinery for the economic persecution of the Jews … Blanke’s wartime activities reveal much about [Nazi] bureaucratic perpetrators during the Holocaust … In occupied France, Blanke showed no inhibitions against depriving many thousands of Jewish property-owners of the material basis for their existence, rendering them even more defenseless against the attacks of the SS, the Gestapo, and the Nazis’ French collaborators … Blanke personally carried out supervisory visits to the businesses of Jewish owners, himself ordered the punishment of violations of the anti-Jewish ordinances, and knew full well the impact the measures he ordered had on specific individuals. Blanke’s particular commitment was to exclude Jews from the French economy. In France his victims were not the middle-class Jewish neighbors whom he had known in his hometown, but typically the Jewish tradesmen and shop-owners of the Parisian suburbs (many of them East European in origin), as well as the more prominent Jews whose names are emphasized in “The De-Jewification [sic] of the French Economy.” These were the stereotyped targets of German anti-Semitism, and Blanke … accepted the Nazis’ anti-Semitic cliches. Blanke was one of the indispensable bureaucrats of the Holocaust …

  Jungius and Seibel, “The Citizen as Perpetrator: Kurt Blanke and Aryanization in France, 1940–1944,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 22, no. 3 (Winter 2008): 441–74.

  9. Kristallnacht: On the Night of Broken Glass, November 9–10, 1938, 91 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps; 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked throughout Germany and Austria.

  10. SECM: Société d’Emboutissage et de Constructions Mécaniques. Transfer of 50 million French francs to Amiot’s aviation company in August 1939, CHADAT 7NN 2659. A French counterintelligence report states, “Amiot had given the plans for the Amiot 370 bomber.”

  11. via a bank transfer: The funds were transferred to Amiot via the Banque Manheimer-Mendelson in August 1939. Ibid.

  12. “We said goodbye”: Bruno Abescat and Yves Stavridès, L’Express, July 11, 2005, p. 1.

  13. They flocked to cinemas: Between 1940 and 1945, Americans and refugees in New York had nostalgia for Paris and France, a sentiment prominent in major U.S. cities. The defeat of France at the time was the subject of books, magazine pieces, and Hollywood feature films. Typical was the 1942 movie Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid.

  14. “a big-boned, jagged-faced”: For a description of Thomas, see NARA, OSS Personnel File, “Thomas, Herbert Gregory,” Entry 168A, Box 2. Aline Countess of Romanones, an OSS agent in Madrid, worked for Thomas, code named Argus, at the OSS Madrid station. Her description confirms Thomas’s size. Aline Countess of Romanones, The Spy Wore Red, p. 83.

  15. A vice president: National Archives, NARA, OSS Personnel File, “Thomas, Herbert Gregory,” Personal History Statement, SA-One.

  16. Second, he had to secure: Jasmin de Grasse, the natural essence needed to produce the Chanel No. 5 perfume, is grown only in Grasse in southern France and had to be shipped to the United States in large quantities. Some experts believe Thomas shipped a concentrate, absolu de jasmin; 40 to 50 kilograms of the concentrate would be enough for a few years of production. Though illegal, it could be carried by suitcase to Lisbon by train and then by boat to New York.

  John Updike wrote in The New Yorker that “seven hundred pounds of jasmine had to be smuggled [by Thomas] from Grasse, France, to Hoboken.” Updike, “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” New Yorker, September 21, 1998, pp. 135–36. The New York Toilet Goods Association told the State Department in 1941: “A pound of precious natural aromatic product [like jasmine] may sell for as high as four or five thousand dollars in 1941.” For the formula being in a Chanel company safe, see Véronique Maurus, “No. 5., l’éternel parfum de femme,” Le Monde, April 20, 1997, p. 9. Use of anti-Semitic laws, see Updike, “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” New Yorker. NARA: American Perfume Association letter to Department of State, March 25, 1941. For “seven hundred pounds of jasmine,” see Updike, “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” New Yorker. The Chanel No. 5 classic bottle, designed in 1924 by Jean Helleau, has been on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1958. No. 5 would become the favorite scent of Marilyn Monroe, Catherine Deneuve, and Vanessa Paradis. In 2010, a 0.25 (7.5ml) bottle sold for over $100 in major U.S. cities and overseas. In 1942: For the date of Thomas’s travel: “Studies Cosmetic Needs,” New York Times, August 18, 1940. Thomas’s pseudonym was found thanks to Peter Sichel in a note entitled Commanderie de Bordeaux History. Address and C.V. of Thomas from: NARA, OSS Personnel Name File, Thomas, Entry 168 A, Box 2. After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Thomas took a leave of absence for the Wertheimer firm and worked for General William “Wild Bill” Donovan’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS). As Chief of Station at Madrid and Lisbon, he headed all U.S. intelligence-gathering activities on the strategic Iberian Peninsula. He was also responsible for running OSS agents into France. With war’s end, the Wertheimers rewarded Thomas by appointing him president of Chanel, Inc., in 1945, a job he kept until he retired in 1972. Allen Dulles, a senior officer of the OSS (and later, head of the CIA), interviewed Thomas for a job with the OSS. In April 1942, Dulles wrote: “Thomas has rather extraordinary qualifications and is quite an impressive fellow. If he checks out satisfactorily, I think we should make use of him.”

  17. “The feats accomplished”: Details of the Thomas mission for the Wertheimers in France in 1940, drawn from Bruno Abescat and Yves Stavridès, “Derrière l’empire Chanel,” L’Express, August 11, 2005, p. 2; Phyllis Berman and Zina Sewaya, “The Billionaires Behind Chanel,” Forbes, April 3, 1989, p. 104; and Updike, “Qui qu’a vu Coco?” New Yorker. Thomas’s appointments as president and later chairman of Chanel, Inc., from: “Executive Changes,” New York Times, April 14, 1971. See www.zoominfo.com/people/Sichel_Peter_14493897.aspx.

  18. Sichel believes: Peter Sichel, e-mail messages to author, October 2007 and May 2008. The Louis d’Or was first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin. The French royal coat of arms is on the reverse.

  19. In a 1989 interview: For gangsters’ help, see Berman and Sewaya, “The Billionaires Behind Chanel,” Forbes.

  20. From other sources: The Excalibur was used as a troop ship by the U.S. Army. She was sunk off the North African coast in November 1942 during a sea battle surrounding the invasion of North Africa by U.S. and U.K. forces.

  CHAPTER TEN: A MISSION FOR HIMMLER

  1. “She wanted to live”: Charles-Roux, L’Irrégulière, p. 356.

  2. On Monday morning: Le Matin, Monday, November 9, 1942, front page.

  3. Another newspaper assured: Le Petit Parisien, November 10, 1942, front page.

  4. “President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s baby”: Churchill’s words, borrowed from a phrase spoken by Talleyrand in 1812 after the Battle of Borodino, were spoken at the Lord Mayor’s Day luncheon in London on November 10, 1942.

  5. “horizontal collaborator”: Carmen Callil, Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy, p. 305. BBC broadcasts, see Frederic Spotts, The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation, p. 255.

  6. The Free French knew: For Josée Laval de Chambrun’s possessing Jewish paintings stolen by Nazis from the Schloss family and Rosenberg collections, see Callil, Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy, pp. 335, 352.

  7. The Life magazine article: “Black List,” Life, August 24, 1942, p. 86.

  8. Now he was condemned: See CARAN F/7/14939, “Black List,” 27/12/43, “Bla
ck List,” Life, August 24, 1942, p. 86. Chambrun told the New York Times in October 1941 that all allegations were “ridiculous.” René de Chambrun, Mission and Betrayal, p. 140.

  9. “Darlan and Juin”: Yves Pourcher, Pierre Laval vu par sa fille, p. 270; unpublished manuscript.

  10. “It’s tough, collaboration is”: For more information on Chambrun’s collaboration, see CARAN F/7/15327, folder 208 3. For Chambrun representing National City Bank and General Motors (GM) in Paris and its businesses in occupied France, and for GM’s investments in Nazi Germany, see Pierre Abramovici, Enquête avec Carine Lournaud. Un rocher bien occupé. Monaco pendant la guerre 1939–1945, pp. 78–79. Chambrun was Marshal Pétain’s godson. He acted as a link between Pétain and Laval and between Vichy and the United States. When Paris was liberated, the Chambruns hid near Paris. René de Chambrun’s arrest was ordered by French authorities. Later, he appeared before Parquet du Cour de Justice of the Département de la Seine and was cleared of all charges on August 11, 1948. Source M. Vallée-M. Vielledent, Parquet de la Cour de Justice du Departement de la Seine, 11 Aout 1948, Affaire: Pineton de Chambrun René, Ordonnance de Classement. He was also reappointed to the bar in France, his “patriotism unquestioned.” See also “Rapport de René de Chambrun au Juge Marchat lors de son inculpation, au lendemain de la Libération,” mimeographed document, n.d. See David Thompson’s A Biographical Dictionary of War Crimes Proceedings, Collaboration Trials and Similar Proceeding Involving France in World War II, written and compiled for the Grace Dangberg Foundation, Inc., http://reocities.com.

  11. The winter of 1943: www.meteo-paris.com.

  12. By year’s end: Vaughan, Doctor to the Resistance, p. 78.

  13. Paris, once the center: Mitchell, Nazi Paris: The History of an Occupation, 1940–1944, pp. 94–98.

  14. Dincklage and Chanel had to wonder: Quote about Chanel’s remark on Côte d’Azur, found in Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper, Paris After the Liberation, 1944–1949, p. 134. Death List: CARAN F/7/14939, “Black List,” 27/12/43. See also APP BA 1990.

  15. Dincklage knew he was: See: French BCRA counterintelligence report, CHADAT 7NN 2973.

  16. Momm wanted Dincklage: BNA, KV2/159. In Ledebur’s file, he identifies Momm’s brother precisely as head of the Abwehr economic espionage service in Istanbul: “IWi K.O. Istanbul, Turkey.” (The letters “IWi K.O.” signify economic espionage in a foreign state.) The author corresponded with Theodor Momm’s daughters, Monika and Kathrin (last names withheld by the author), in Germany. Monika was at first willing to meet the author’s German assistant in mid-January 2010. Monika stated that her sister, Kathrin, had papers and photos related to Chanel’s mission in 1943. However, Kathrin decided at the last moment and for as long as Momm’s wife (name withheld) was alive that she would not agree to reveal any “private documents/letters.” From Michael Foedrowitz (author’s research assistant in Berlin), e-mails to author, January 26 and February 8, 2010.

  17. Chanel would have moved: Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie confirms that her aunt wanted to keep Dincklage in Paris. Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie, telephone interview with author, February 12, 2010.

  18. Dincklage would accompany: BNA, KV2/159, Joseph von Ledebur-Wicheln file.

  19. In the early winter: Ibid.

  20. While in Berlin: For Dincklage’s mother—Valery Cutter von Dincklage, known as “Lorry”—being at Rosenkranz, Schinkel, near Kiel in 1943, see Swiss file, L878995 Hf. By 1945, more than half of Kiel would be destroyed by Allied bombings.

  21. Dincklage returned to Paris: Joseph von Ledebur-Wicheln File, National Archives, Kew.

  22. “It was established”: Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 315; my translation.

  23. James Lonsdale-Bryans: A handwritten note by the MI5 stated: “He went to Italy with the knowledge of the Foreign Office in order to develop his contacts. He greatly exceeded his instructions.” MI5 decided against having him arrested, due to the possible support he was receiving from members of Parliament (potentially including Neville Chamberlain) and the embarrassment this would have caused. Lonsdale-Bryans was on friendly terms with powerful members of the British aristocracy: Lord Halifax, the Duke of Buccleuch, and Lord Brocket, who also were Nazi sympathizers.

  24. In Nazi Germany: Robert S. Wistrich, Who’s Who in Nazi Germany, p. 114.

  25. As early as fall 1942: Reinhard R. Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg, p. 107.

  26. “a way out”: Ibid., p. 172.

  27. “university-educated intellectual”: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 653.

  28. “the sixth most powerful man: Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 457.

  29. “By all counts”: NARA, Schellenberg file, p. 224.

  30. With Himmler’s approval: Doerries, Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence: Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg, p. 39.

  31. “Pheiffer told me”: MI6 and Service Spécial document, SSF and BNA, KV2/159.

  32. “Dincklage had been”: Ibid.

  33. In 1938: Ibid. For Dincklage’s spy work in Switzerland, see Swiss file L878995 Hf.

  34. “I couldn’t use Dincklage”: Quotes from SSF and BNA, KV2/159 Ledebur file.

  35. “Dincklage had trouble”: Ledebur file at KEW, ibid. I was unable to determine which archives Ledebur consulted.

  36. For Ledebur, the case: Ibid.

  37. Ledebur may never have learned: SSF document.

  38. A secret postwar report: NARA December 27, 1946, report, U.S. Political Advisor in Germany, CI-FIR/130. I failed to find information giving the exact amount of money Chanel received from the SS or how the SS funds were dispersed. Chanel and Dincklage must have needed large sums of money to finance their mission in Madrid. After the war Kutschmann was wanted in Germany for having participated in the mass murder in 1942 of Polish Jews and the murder of thirty-six Polish intellectuals in 1941. Sometime in 1945 he escaped to Argentina disguised as a Carmelite monk. He disappeared into Argentina by the time a warrant was issued for his arrest by West German authorities in 1967.

  39. About the same time: Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg p. 85.

  40. While in Turkey: In 1943, Ambassador Papen and Abwehr agent Erich Vermehren were asked to meet with Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis Spellman in Istanbul. The Gestapo learned of Vermehren’s “peace initiative” and had him recalled to Germany. Vermehren defected to the British in Istanbul. He and his wife were sent to England. It is possible that Rittmeister Momm wanted Dincklage to take over Vermehren’s job in Turkey with the Abwehr. For Schellenberg’s discussions with Ambassador Papen, see ibid., p. 136.

  41. He and his colleagues: Uki Goñi, The Real Odessa, pp. 9–10.

  42. Schellenberg was so concerned: Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg, p. 77.

  43. By the late summer … Major Theodor Momm: From German National Archives: NSDAP v. 1.5.37 Nr. 4428309. Momm’s Abwehr unit was identified as Abwehrstelle, Wehrbezirke—Generalkommando—Headquarters Military Districts. See also APP GA LI2.

  44. Arriving in Berlin: The date of Momm’s visit to Berlin is erroneous in the British transcript of Schellenberg’s interrogation. It is incorrectly recorded as April 1944. It may have been a slip by Schellenberg or a fault in transcribing the interrogation file. A host of archival documents at Kew and Churchill’s Chartwell papers place Momm’s visit in the late fall or early winter of 1943. NARA, Schellenberg file, p. 65.

  45. Dincklage immediately made preparations: It is not clear that Momm returned to Paris at this time. He may have communicated Schellenberg’s summons to bring Chanel to Berlin via telephone or a secure SS cable system.

  46. they could travel: Chanel’s travel arrangements, arrival, and stay in Berlin were reconstructed by Michael Foedrowitz.

  47. “I was finished”: Schellenberg quote in Doerries, Hitler’s Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg, p. 240.

  48. The April date: See APP BA1990, Report o
n Chanel’s passport. 1944 Chartwell documents for the date of Chanel’s letter from Madrid.

  49. “interned with [her] husband”: Lombardi was not imprisoned.

  50. “[Pietro] Badoglio”: Badoglio was an Italian general and politician. On July 24, 1943, when Italy had suffered several setbacks in World War II, Mussolini summoned the Fascist Grand Council, which voted no confidence in Mussolini. The following day Il Duce was removed from government by King Victor Emmanuel III and arrested. Badoglio was named prime minister of Italy and, while mass confusion in Italy reigned, he eventually signed an armistice with the Allies. According to Italian documents, at the time of the Schellenberg-Chanel meeting, Colonel Alberto Lombardi, Vera Bate Lombardi’s husband, headed an Italian unit in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and was engaged in fighting Allied units. Mussolini was later rescued by German troops and set up an Italian government above the Po River in North Italy under the Nazis.

  51. “Dincklage was to act”: Chanel, Momm, and Dincklage’s visit is covered in NARA, “Final Report,” Schellenberg file, 65; OSS file, XE001752, Box 195, 65. For Dincklage being a member of the Abwehr and SD, and for Schieber, see Doerries, Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence: Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg, pp. 164–65; see ibid., p. 240, for details of how the report was prepared, and the fact that material was omitted by the British when shared with OSS. The report is incomplete as it appears in NARA; I have been unable to locate the material concealed by the British. In Schellenberg’s biography, The Labyrinth, he fails to mention Chanel, her visit, his plan to use her to contact Churchill, or her generous care of Schellenberg after his release from an Allied prison for war crimes. Doerries, Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence: Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg, p. 164.