Hélène de Cressac Martini (6 August 1924 – 5 August 2017) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

-born French striptease artist turned businesswoman and nightclub owner associated with the

Folies Bergère The Folies Bergère () is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trév ...

, and nicknamed "The Countess" and "The Empress of the Night". The Polish-born (present-day

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

) Martini landed in Paris aged 20 after surviving the Holocaust. She was believed to be the sole surviving member of her family. Starting out at the Folies Bergere, she won three million francs on the lottery. She then went on to employ her managerial and entrepreneurial skills to run half a dozen Paris nightclubs, first with her Syria-born husband, Nachat Martini, a lawyer, professor and secret agent (1910–1961), whom she married in 1955. After his death in early 1961, she carried on alone. The couple had no children. She died in 2017, on the day before her 93rd birthday, leaving no known living relatives.

References

1924 births 2017 deaths Holocaust survivors Polish female erotic dancers French female erotic dancers French businesspeople Place of birth missing Polish emigrants to France {{France-business-bio-stub