A French historian on Monday produced “documentary evidence” that celebrity dress designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel worked as a Nazi spy during the Second World War, reports FRANCE 24.
In a documentary titled “L’Ombre d’un Doute” ('The Shadow of a Doubt') broadcast on France 3, historian Franck Ferrand said documents locked away in France’s Ministry of Defence archives since the war proved that the glamorous socialite worked directly for German military intelligence.
Chanel’s love affairs with high-ranking Nazis, including senior Gestapo officer Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, have been widely known for years.
But this is the first time a French state broadcaster has admitted that she went so far as to spy for the occupiers.
According to the documentary, Chanel operated under the codename “Westminster” – a reference to an affair she had with Britain’s Duke of Westminster in the 1920s – and had the Abwehr (German military intelligence) number F-7124.
The documentary went on to claim that Chanel used her influence with the occupiers in a bid to reclaim her perfume business from the Jewish Wertheimer family, which had acquired Chanel no. 5 in 1924.