From French Sports Star to Gestapo ‘Hyena’: The Fall of Violette Morris
LGBTQ+ Lives: WWII and the Nazi Era
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13m
Early May 1940. Nazi Germany invades Western Europe, and France soon falls under occupation. To enforce their rule, the Germans rely on local collaborators.
Among them is a woman once celebrated as one of France’s greatest athletes.
Born in Paris in 1893, Violette Morris was a multi-sport champion who won more than 20 national titles and competed in football, boxing, racing, and athletics. Bold and controversial, she lived by her motto: “What a man can do, Violette can do.”
During the occupation, she allegedly worked for the SD and collaborated with the Gestapo, infiltrating resistance networks and taking part in interrogations. Her reputation for brutality earned her the nickname:
“The Hyena of the Gestapo.”
But as the war turned against Nazi Germany, even the most feared collaborators could not escape their reckoning.
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