Germaine Guérin

Germaine Guérin
Born	Lyons, France
Nationality	French
Occupation(s)	Brothel owner, French resistant
Known for	Allied collaboration

Germaine Guérin (French pronunciation: [ʒɛʁmɛn ɡeʁɛ̃]) was a brothel owner and a French Resistance sympathizer during the Vichy regime. She was part of Virginia Hall's spy network that operated in Lyons, France. Along with the gynecologist Jean Rousset, she helped Hall save Jews, Allied pilots, spies, radio operators, and refugees during the Second World War.^[1]

Biography

Little is known about Guérin's life and background except for accounts chronicling her life as a "madam", an owner of a popular brothel in Lyons. She was described as a brunette who wrapped herself in jewels, silks, and furs.^[2] She lived in an apartment above her business, which was located in a backstreet of the city, an area now occupied by the offices of the National Treasury of France.^[2]

French Resistance

When Virginia Hall was assigned in France to establish resistance networks, she was given a list of names she could contact by an Allied pilot, Flight Lieutenant Simpson.^[3] Guérin was on the list, and the two women first met at the former's salon in the winter of 1942.^[3][4] Guérin's brothel was popular among German soldiers, placing her in a strategic position to extract information through the prostitutes she employed. Guérin also helped undermine the Nazis by spreading sexually transmitted diseases among her German patrons. She used forged white cards that authorities used in their drive to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. With the help of Rousset, a gynecologist, she was able to manipulate this identification document so that infected girls were presented as disease-free.

Guérin was 37 years old when she became Virginia Hall's agent.^[5] She was already part of the French resistance movement prior to her recruitment into Hall's spy network, however, and she was known for harboring Jews forced into hiding.^[6] After Hall fled France, Guérin continued helping resistance fighters, providing them food and shelter.^[4] She was later arrested after she was betrayed by Father Robert Alesch, a French Nazi collaborator who posed as Rousset's associate.^[4] It was also Guérin who introduced several of Hall's colleagues to Alesch, leading to their arrests. These included Monsieur Genet and two collaborators who Hall identified in her correspondence as the "Siamese twins".^[4][7]

References

1. Gouty, Melissa (2020-08-11). "How A Woman Of No Importance Won A War and Changed the World". Medium. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
2. Purnell, Sonia (2019). A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. New York, NY: Penguin. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7352-2529-9.
3. Vargo, Marc E. (2012-09-11). Women of the Resistance: Eight Who Defied the Third Reich. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-7864-6579-8.
4. Mitchell, Don (2019). The Lady is a Spy: Virginia Hall, World War II's Most Dangerous Secret Agent. London: Scholastic UK. pp. 49, 181. ISBN 978-1-4071-9533-9.
5. "How an unlikely female spy with a wooden leg helped win WWII | | Express Digest". 31 March 2019. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
6. Valentine, Genevieve (April 11, 2019). "The story of WWII spy Virginia Hall". MPR News. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
7. Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives. Ann Arbor, MI: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration. 1994. p. 253.