A French television documentary has dug up World War II documents proving that fashion icon Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel spied on behalf of the Nazi regime’s Germany’s secret military intelligence organization, the Abwehr.
The documents from France’s Defense Ministry archives show that Chanel was known by the Germans as agent F-7124 and was given the code name of Westminster, a reference to the Duke of Westminster with whom she had a romantic affair in the 1920s, only one of her escapades.
“Chanel’s love affairs with high-ranking Nazis, including senior Gestapo officer of 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,” France 24 reported.
During the Nazi occupation of France, Chanel moved into the hotel that the Luftwaffe used as its headquarters.
She also tried to use her influence to gain access to the perfume business that had been owned by Jews, who she did not know had sold it to non-Jews in an anticipation of Nazi laws forbidding Jews from owning businesses.