The countesses of the Gestapo (french: Les comtesses de la Gestapo) were elite adventuresses of the Paris

demimonde is French for "half-world". The term derives from a play called , by Alexandre Dumas , published in 1855. The play dealt with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The was the world occupied by elite me ...

protected by the French Gestapo and large-scale black marketeers during the German occupation of France. The Gestapo countesses led extravagant lives despite the misery prevalent in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

at the time. They were French or foreign former actresses or runway models, sometimes in fact truly aristocratic, who engaged in a variety of lucrative practices such as the confiscation of Jewish assets, espionage or black market operations.

Countess Mara Tchernycheff

An actress known by her stage name,

Illa Meery Illa Meery (1915–2010) was a Russian-born French adventuress, singer, film actress and possibly Soviet spy who became involved in the French black market under German occupation. Émigrée She was the daughter of count Alexandre Alexandro ...

, Tchernycheff in 1934 was one of several pretty girls with improbable names, displaying her tanned curves and platinum blondness as an extra in a soft-porn pot-boiler filmed on the

Cote d'Azur The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

, ''Les aventure du roi Pausole'', based on the

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Pierre Louys Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

. She later appeared topless in '' Zouzou'' as a foil to ''

années folles The ''Années folles'' (, "crazy years" in French) was the decade of the 1920s in France. It was coined to describe the rich social, artistic, and cultural collaborations of the period. The same period is also referred to as the Roaring Twen ...

'' sensation

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...

. A Russian countess, Tchernycheff ran a black market network specializing in cognac and fine wine, and moved shared an apartment with a homosexual socialite from

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

named , intimate friend of

Philippe de Rothschild Philippe, Baron de Rothschild (13 April 1902 – 20 January 1988) was a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty who became a Grand Prix motor racing driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one ...

. Barjanski, an illustrator known for his movie posters, fled to Hollywood after French police wrongly accused him of being a spy. She married a gambler named Garat and spent some time with him on the beaches of Brazil. But she had an affair and he left her. When she returned to France her former allies had all left for safer places. But other Russian emigres whispered of fortunes to be made selling to the Germans, who were on a monumental buying spree with the "occupation costs" extracted from the Vichy government. Paul Metchersky, Andre Galitzine and Yvan Shapochnikoff were rich now, the whispers said, Soumarakoff, Lazare Mailoff and

Michel Szkolnikoff Mandel Szkolnikoff (28 January 1895 – 10 June 1945), better known as Michel Szkolnikoff, was a Belarusian-French businessman, billionaire, and Nazi collaborator. During the German occupation of France, he made a fortune by supplying the Kriegsm ...

. She joined a salon on avenue Iena and then at the George V hotel made up of entrepreneurs who had no objection to supplying the German war effort, since these former aristocrats were in favor of the Germans taking care of the Soviets for them and perhaps making it possible for them to return to past glories. The Germans did business at what were known as , known as Amt Otto, Pimetex, ZKW or SS-Essex, where she ran across old friends and former accomplices such as Stephan Djanoumoff, Serge Landchewsky,

Boris Ivanowski Boris Ivanowski (russian: Борис Ивановский) was an officer of the Russian Imperial Guard who went into exile after the Russian revolution and made his way to fame in the 1920s as a racecar driver. Race results Irish International ...

and the Baron of Osten-Sacken. She became the mistress of

Henri Lafont Henri Lafont (born Henri Chamberlin, 22 April 1902 – 26 December 1944) was a French criminal based in Paris who headed the French Gestapo during the Nazi German occupation in World War II. He was executed by firing squad on 26 December 1944 ...

, who ran the Paris underworld with the help of the French police. Google Books version has no page numbers but multiple pages at the beginning of that chapter are devoted to her

Princess Euphrosine Mourousi

Princess Euphrosine Mourousi, a Greek addict who trafficked in cigarettes and informed on Jewish and Russian émigré families, was sentenced in 1950 to three years in prison and 20 years of banishment from France for informing to both the French police and the Gestapo about several Russian Jews. Her son Yves became a well-known French journalist.

Others

* Marquise de San Carlos de Pedroso (née María Angustias Núñez del Prado), an early Spanish supporter of Franco * Countess Seckendorff, an authentic German aristocrat who spied on Parisian high society * Countess Marie Olinska (pseudonym of Frenchwoman Sonia Irène Blache), heroin addict and minor film actress who appeared in

The Wolf of the Malveneurs ''The Wolf of the Malveneurs'' (French: ''Le loup des Malveneur'') is a 1943 French mystery horror film directed by Guillaume Radot and starring Madeleine Sologne, Pierre Renoir and Gabrielle Dorziat. It was shot at the Cité Elgé studios in Pa ...

* Marquise d'Abrantès (née Sylviane Quimfe, but an authentic marquise after her marriage to the marquis , whom she met at the brothel where she worked). Frenchwoman and courtesan, she was introduced to rue Lauriston by . She needed a pass to return to the zone libre and her title, her furs and her jewels made an impression on the members of the

Carlingue The Carlingue (or French Gestapo) were French auxiliaries who worked for the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and Geheime Feldpolizei during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The group, which was based at 93 rue Lauriston in th ...

at dinner that night. Lafont's driver Pagnon was there as well as Edmond Delehaye, Louis Estebesteguy, and Pierre Bonny, in addition to Lafont. She claimed a she'd had liaison with the prince of Monaco, but Pagnon recognized her and let Lafont know about the lady's past. *Baroness de Beaufort (pseudonym of Olla Lemesle) Translated to Spanish by Éditions El Ateneo, 2007] * Countess de Thucé (Madame Hubert) Most of these women were not prosecuted after the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers of World War II, Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French R ...

References

Bibliography

* Reissued: ** * * * * * * * * (about Roger Griveau) * Patrice Rolli, La Phalange nord-africaine (ou Brigade nord-africaine, ou Légion nord-africaine) en Dordogne: Histoire d'une alliance entre la Pègre et la Gestapo; 15 March-19 August 1944, Éditions l'Histoire en Partage, 2013, 189 pages (mostly about Alexandre Villaplane and Raymond Monange) * Collaborators during World War II occupations Black markets Prostitutes Corruption in France Police officers Organized crime by city Gangs in Paris French collaborators with Nazi Germany Paris in World War II {{Women-hist-stub

Countess Mara Tchernycheff

Princess Euphrosine Mourousi

Others

See also

References

Bibliography