Coco Chanel--Nazi Whore?

Cafe Society
1

We work with a lot of design houses at my office, and every time something comes through from Chanel, I mutter “Nazi whore” under my breath. Naturally enough, someone asked me why. Now, I know Chanel openly lived with a Nazi officer all through the occupation of Paris; that’s an established fact. But I’ve heard other things that I cannot find cites for, despite all my Googling:

• She kept her fashion house open during the occupation and/or sold to Nazi officers’ wives and mistresses

• She fired her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer, and took over his share of the business

She did flee to Switzerland after the War, to avoid being tried as a collaborator; she was welcomed back in the mid-1950s with open arms. To this day, that part of her life is brushed off in (shorter) biographies with “she settled in Switzerland briefly after the war.”

Anyone have the Straight Dope on Chanel?

2

Whore, I dunno. Collaborator, certainly; she did sell stuff to the Nazi higher-ups. Cite? Well, I think it was in an article in Smithsonian magazine about a year ago.

3

This from Biography.com:

"Her business was interrupted by the German occupation of Paris in World War II. She closed shop in 1938 and did not reopen it until 1954. "

http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=4487

A search of +Chanel +Nazi on Google brings up only references to her having an Nazi officer for a lover during the war. All the articles I read referred to her as fleeing to Switzerland to avoid collaboration charges.

4

Eve, that is so interesting. I’d never heard a word about that at all.

How do you know so much?!?!?! haha

:slight_smile:

5

Well, I definitely remember reading that she sold to wives and mistresses of Nazis during the war (even though her house was “closed”), and that she cut out her Jewish partners and workers to her own advantage . . . Trouble is, I can’t remember where I read it! Possibly a full-length biography . . . All the Internet sources on her are laudatory and politely skip over her war record.

I have a hard time giving her the benefit of a doubt, as I just plain don’t like her. I’ve read quotes by her that are plain obnoxious (even her fans admit she was a crusty old bitch), and I don’t like her designs, either—she’s the one who took normal, healthy women in the 1920s and made them look like anorexic teenage boys. But, this being The Straight Dope, I will bend over backward to give the old girl a fair shake . . .

6

Karl Lagerfeld, current head of Chanel, is a doll, though. I had to interview him (by phone), and he interrupted a fitting to talk to me, was very sweet, and even sent me a thank-you note! Nice guy.

7

I officially want to be Eve.

(hee hee)

8

Eve–You should do a book on the REAL Coco Chanel. Think of the travel expenses–and the wardrobe!–you could write off your taxes as research!

9

The Smithsonian article was “Chez Chanel”, July 2001, p.60. It’s fairly brief on the war, including only the following paragraphs (which I hope aren’t too much to repeat):

"Three weeks after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II, Coco abruptly let everybody go, and shut down the House of Chanel.

The irony is that closing her doors became, as her biographer Axel Madsen notes, “Chanel’s treason.” First her workers, then the government, tried to force her to reopen–for la belle France, just as in the earlier world war. She bridled at such naivete, but she hadn’t counted on the worst. Turned against France, Hider’s blitzkrieg overran half of the country and the other half became a collaborationist mockery. A dozen Paris houses did collections in 1941 for black marketeers, and the wives and mistresses of German officers. Chanel stayed dosed, but, “I was wrong,” she recalled bitterly. 'Whey never stopped selling fashion during the war."

All her chic friends adjusted, with smooth loathing, to the war. The Wertheimers fled, but kept control of Les Parfums Chanel, selling Chanel No. 5 throughout the Reich and, without her knowledge, in the United States. Chanel lived, with German permission, at the Ritz.

Impulsively, she took up with a tall, blond German officer, much younger than herself, who spoke fluent French–Hans Gunther von Dincldage, nicknamed Spatz. A former diplomat, Spatz was always in civilian clothes, like as not an Abwehr counterespionage officer. Which means a spy, though how much of a spy, or even for which side, is unclear, since he mostly investigated the best wine cellars. “He isn’t German,” Coco claimed. “His mother was English.”

After Paris was liberated in 1944, Chanel was taken for three hours of questioning by the Free French about Spatz, long gone, but was released. Why did she never face charges of collaboration? Was her old friend Winston Churchill, who had met her through Westminster, her protector?"

The article goes on to reveal, incidentally, how the Wertheimers totally screwed her.

10

From an article in TIME , 6-8-98:

"One could say perfume helped keep Chanel’s name pretty throughout the period when her reputation got ugly: World War II. This is when her anti-Semitism, homophobia (even though she herself dabbled in bisexuality) and other base inclinations emerged. She responded to the war by shutting down her fashion business and hooking up with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a Nazi officer whose favors included permission to reside in her beloved Ritz Hotel. Years later, in 1954, when she decided to make a comeback, her name still had “disgraced” attached to it. "

BIOGRAPHY magazine from November 1998 is more damning:

"The darkest days were yet to come. Coco Chanel’s behavior during World War II revealed the very worst aspects of her character – anti-Semitism and a desire to succeed financially no matter what the cost. Unlike other major French designers who fled the country or otherwise defied the Nazis, Chanel befriended the enemy and even tried to take advantage of Germany’s economic policies against Jews to cheat the Jewish partners in her lucrative perfume business. Her notorious affair with the Nazi officer Hans Gunther yon Dincklage branded her a traitor after the war, and in 1945 she fled to Switzerland until the scandal died down. "

11

Hey, you got the job! I’m outta here . . .

Hmmm . . . Thanks for the article, Sampiro, but it seems to go overboard in making her Little Dolly Dewdrop, the innocent victim of everyone else’s machinations. I’d never seen any other article let her off the hook for her longtime shacking up with a Nazi officer!

12

Ah, and thanks for the follow-ups, too! I do have to admit . . . How could you not fall for a guy named “Hans Gunther von Dincklage?”

13

'Kay…I have an ethics question. If it is true that Coco was a Nazi whore (and it appears to be!), can I still wear No. 5 and not be a Nazi whore by association?

14

. . . As long as you don’t also wear Leni Riefenstahl Moisturizer, with SPF 25 . . .

15

Ahem.

Ok I happen to like Chanel’s designs, current and classic. I own a pretty good amount of Chanel clothing and acessories. I also have been known to indulge in the Chanel line of cosmetics. Now does that make me a Nazi whore? Eh…

I also read the full length biography, I think it was called Coco. Though it was a long time ago, I don’t remember coming away with the idea that she was a nazi whore.

16

At least we know that she won’t be making a profit now, so why boycott? But this is fascinating information to me. Do you remember the musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn? I doubt if they touched on this part of her life – or did they?

17

Now, now, this situation calls for a certain linguistic delicacy, as befitting the supercilious lady. “Nazi whore,” indeed!

May I suggest “miraculously unshaven former Nazi mistress” for Coco’s awkward postwar years?