Abetz, Suzanne (died 1958) French-born wife of Otto Abetz, German Ambassador to Vichy government
Alsop, Susan Mary (1918–2004) American, born in Rome, came to Paris in 1945 with her diplomat husband and fell in love with Duff Cooper, British Ambassador, whose child she secretly bore
Arletty (1898–1992) Popular French actress and singer known for her wisecracks, imprisoned briefly in 1945 for wartime liaison with a Luftwaffe officer, Hans-Jürgen Soehring
Arpels, Hélène (née Ostrowska) (1907–2006) Model born in Monte Carlo to Russian parents, married Louis Arpels in 1933 and moved to New York Atkins, Vera (1908–2000) Romanian-born head of SOE’s French Section based in London, never married
Aubrac, Lucie (1912–2007) Catholic teacher and resister, married Jewish resister Raymond Samuel and helped organize a daring escape for him, later a government minister
Belperron, Suzanne (1900–83) Influential and original jewellery designer based in Paris who took over the business from Bernard Herz, the Jewish owner, under compulsory aryanization
Berr, Hélène (1921–45) Gifted Sorbonne student who refused to escape but wrote a diary of her daily travails, helping her parents and abandoned children
Bretty, Béatrice (1893–1982) Comédie-Française actress who left the company to support her lover, politician Georges Mandel, and his daughter Claude
Brinon, Lisette de (née Jeanne Louise Rachel Franck) (1896–1982) Married, first, Jewish banker Claude Ullmann; second, Fernand, Marquis de Brinon, Catholic aristocrat and Vichy activist who made her an honorary Aryan
Bucher, Jeanne (1872–1946) Avant-garde gallery-owner who supported many banned artists; divorcee
Camondo, Béatrice de (later Reinach) (1894–1944) Born into prominent Jewish banking family, converted to Catholicism, went riding with Germans but was arrested with her two children and killed at Auschwitz
Carven, Marie-Louise (née Carmen de Tommaso) (1909–2015) French fashion designer who founded the house of Carven in 1945 for petite women
Casadesus, Gisèle (1915–) Comédie-Française actress who joined as a pensionnaire in 1934, worked throughout the war and left in 1962. She continued to act in films and had a second career in her 90s
Casanova, Danielle (1909–43) Communist women’s organizer and resister
Chanel, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ (1883–1971) Influential French fashion designer who closed her shop at the beginning of the war and lived at the Ritz with a German lover
Chevrillon, Claire (1907–2011) Teacher, resister, spent four months in prison in Paris
Chevrillon, Vivou (later de Boysson) Musician cousin of Claire, worked on forged identity cards
Child, Julia (1912–2004) American-born cook and educator who discovered French cooking when she came to live in Paris with her husband in 1948
Churchill, Odette (formerly Sansom) (1912–1995) British SOE agent, mother of three children, captured in France in 1943. She maintained she was married to Peter Churchill, nephew of the Prime Minister. Eventually released in 1945 after almost a year in Ravensbrück and was one of the first women to win the George Cross
Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle (1873–1954) French novelist who remained anxiously in Paris during the Occupation even though her Jewish husband Maurice Goudeket had once been arrested by the Gestapo
d’Albert-Lake, Virginia (1910–97) American resister with Comet line, imprisoned in Ravensbrück
de Beauvoir, Simone (1908–86) Feminist writer and long-term lover of Jean-Paul Sartre
de Gaulle Anthonioz, Geneviève (1920–2002) Resister with Défense de la France, imprisoned in Ravensbrück, niece of General de Gaulle
de Gaulle, Sylvie (1925–2012) Resister and daughter of the Anglophile painter Charles Geoffroy-Dechaume, married Bernard de Gaulle, nephew of the General
de Gaulle, Yvonne (1900–79) Wife of General Charles de Gaulle, widely known as Tante Yvonne to French public
de Wolfe, Elsie (later Mendl) (1859–1950) American-born interior decorator and influential Parisian hostess
Desnos, Youki (formerly Lucie Badoul) (1903–66) Daring model and muse married to surrealist poet and resister Robert Desnos who died at Theresienstadt
Dior, Catherine (1917–2008) Resister and sister of designer Christian Dior, she was a member of the Polish intelligence unit based in France but was arrested in July 1944 and deported to Ravensbrück
Dufournier, Denise (later McAdam Clark) (1915–94) French novelist, barrister and resister who wrote an early account of Ravensbrück, called La maison des mortes, after she was imprisoned there in 1943
Fabius, Odette (née Schmoll) (1910–90) French Jewish resister, one of the few women who tried to escape from Ravensbrück, fell in love with Marseilles trade union leader and fellow resistant Pierre Ferri-Pisani
Ferriday, Caroline (1902–90) American philanthropist and Francophile who devoted her life to helping Polish women experimented on by Nazis in Ravensbrück
Flanner, Janet (1892–1978) American writer and journalist who worked as Paris correspondent of the New Yorker from 1925
Fleury, Jacqueline (née Marié) (1923–) Teenage resister imprisoned in Ravensbrück with her mother, survived the death march with her and became active member of ADIR and speaker
Gilot, Françoise (1921–) Young painter in Paris, lover and muse of Pablo Picasso 1944–53 and mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma
Gould, Florence (née Lacaze) (1895–1983) American beauty married to wealthy older philanthropist Frank Jay Gould, became Paris hostess during the war entertaining many Germans
Haag, Inga (née Abshagen) (1918–2009) German socialite, journalist and spy, worked for Admiral Wilhelm Canaris in Paris, opposed Nazis
Hardy, Françoise (1944–) French singer and actress who won huge fame with her first recording in 1962, ‘Tous les Garçons et les Filles’
Humbert, Agnès (1894–1963) Resister with the Musée de l’Homme group, divorced mother, author of diary called Résistance
Inayat Khan, Noor (Nora Baker) (1914–44) Russian-born Indian princess, part American, Paris-educated musician and writer, became an SOE agent, murdered at Dachau
Jackson, Charlotte ‘Toquette’ (1889–1968) French nurse who married Sumner Jackson and helped run the American Hospital in Paris, a resister and Ravensbrück survivor
Jamet, Fabienne (née Georgette Plagie ? ) Nightclub- and brothel-owner who wrote racy memoirs called Palace of Sweet Sin about her time running the infamous One Two Two
Kaminker, Simone (later Signoret) (1921–95) French Jewish cinema actress who started working for collaborationist journal of Jean Luchaire, wrote autobiographical novel Adieu Volodya
Kelly, Margaret (later Leibovici) (1910–2004) Irish-born dancer who founded the Bluebell Girls in Paris and sheltered Jewish pianist husband Marcel Leibovici
Lanvin, Jeanne (1867–1946) Former milliner and founder of French couture house Lanvin, whose daughter became the Comtesse de Polignac
Laval, Josée (later Comtesse de Chambrun) (1911–92) Only daughter of Vichy politician Pierre Laval, married lawyer Count René de Chambrun and never gave up fight to defend her father’s innocence
Lawrence, Marjorie (1907–79) Australian soprano and noted Wagnerian, rival of Germaine Lubin
Leduc, Violette (1907–72) Bisexual novelist befriended and nurtured by Simone de Beauvoir, whose frank autobiography has been adapted as a film, Violette (2014)
Leigh, Vera (1903–44) Leeds-born Paris-educated milliner and resister, became British SOE agent parachuted into France, captured in 1944 and executed at Natzweiler-Struthof camp
Liwarrak, Rosa (later Lady Lipworth) (1933–) Child victim hidden during war, later a state orphan, now a London-based philanthropist
London, Lise (née Ricol) (1916–2012) Member of communist women’s resistance, wife of Spanish Civil War veteran Artur London
Lubin, Germaine (1890–1979) French dramatic soprano and Wagnerian praised by Hitler and other Nazis, later punished for alleged Nazi sympathies
Luchaire, Corinne (1921–50) Actress daughter of Vichy newspaper editor Jean Luchaire, married twice, died of TB, leaving orphan child
Luchaire, Ghita (1904–?) Sister of Jean Luchaire, married to Théodore Fraenkel, a Jewish doctor and writer
Maar, Dora (née Henriette Theodora Marković) (1907–97) Part Argentinian, part Croatian Jewish and French Catholic, photographer, poet, artist and Picasso’s lover and muse for nearly a decade from 1936
MacCarthy, Marie-France (1919–2011) Resister and daughter of the Anglophile painter Charles Geoffroy-Dechaume, married British paediatrician Dermod MacCarthy
Maurel, Micheline (1916–2009) Communist resister and teacher imprisoned in Ravensbrück, wrote one of the first books about the camp
Mesnil-Amar, Jacqueline (1909–87) Assimilated Jewish mother and writer, author of Maman, What Are We Called Now?, became Jewish activist for deportees
Meynard, Elisabeth (later Dr Betty Maxwell) (1921–2013) Worked as interpreter for the Welcome Committee in Paris where she met her husband Robert Maxwell
Miller, Lee (later Lady Penrose) (1907–77) American fashion model and photographer, lived in Paris with Man Ray and later became accredited war photographer for Vogue
Mitford, Nancy (1904–73) English novelist, eldest of the renowned Mitford sisters, involved in long-term relationship with French politician Gaston Palewski, moved to Paris in 1945
Morris, Violette (1893–1944) French lesbian athlete who won gold and silver medals at Women’s World Games in 1921–2 but collaborated with Gestapo in Paris after French officials disqualified her
Némirovsky, Irène (1903–42) Russian-born French writer, died in Auschwitz, whose unfinished novel Suite Française became a bestseller when it was published in 2004
Oddon, Yvonne (1902–82) Resister with Musée de l’Homme group
Pastré, Comtesse Lily (1891–1974) French liquor heiress who sheltered many Jewish artists and musicians in her chateau near Marseilles and after the war helped establish the Aix-en-Provence opera festival
Péry d’Alincourt, Jacqueline (1919–2009) Resister friend of Geneviève de Gaulle in Ravensbrück and of Caroline Ferriday in post-war America
Piaf, Edith (1915–1963) French singer and actress who controversially visited Germany and entertained prisoners of war
Portes, Comtesse Hélène des (1902–40) Fascist sympathizer, mistress of Prime Minister Paul Reynaud
Puissant, Renée (née Rachel Van Cleef) (1896–1942) Heiress of the jewellery firm Van Cleef & Arpels who committed suicide in Vichy
Renty, Comtesse Germaine de (1899–1994) Resister with Alliance network, imprisoned in Ravensbrück, later hosted Jacqueline Bouvier in Paris
Riffaud, Madeleine (1924–) Journalist, poet and teenage resister who took a man’s name, Rainer, killed a German soldier in the final days of the Occupation and was threatened with execution
Rigal, Sadie (aka Florence, later Waren) (1917–2012) South African-born Jewish dancer who worked at Bal Tabarin music hall and helped refugees and resisters
Riols, Noreen (1925–) Born in Malta to British parents, became F Section (SOE) operative in London
Rol-Tanguy, Cécile (1919–) Liaison agent of Henri Rol-Tanguy, her husband, and communist resister
Rothschild, Elisabeth de (née Pelletier de Chambure) (1902–45) Wife of Philippe de Rothschild, mother of Philippine, killed in Ravensbrück
Rousseau, Jeannie (later Vicomtesse de Clarens) (1919–) Early resister in the Druids network who evaded Gestapo agents while gathering crucial information on the Germans’ emerging flying-bomb and rocket programmes. Eventually sent to Ravensbrück where she organized a protest in the Torgau munitions factory
Rozenberg, Marceline (later Loridan Ivens) (1928–) Writer and film director whose prize-winning memoir But You Did Not Come Back details her time in Auschwitz-Birkenau
Salomon, Andrée (1908–1985) Worked with OSE to save Jewish children
Sandzer (later Stantun), Miriam (1914–2005) Polish-born daughter of lingerie manufacturer, who with English fiancé was trapped in France for months
Say, Rosemary (1919–1996) English girl working as nanny trapped in Paris after fall of France, later worked for SOE in London
Scali, Arlette (1911–2011) Jewish socialite who escaped Paris and survived in south of France, close friend of Vichy functionary Colonel Marty and Renée Puissant (née Rachel Van Cleef)
Schiaparelli, Elsa (1890–1973) Italian fashion designer, influential in Paris between the wars
Schoenebeck, Maximiliane ‘Catsy’ von (1899–1978) Half-sister of British writer Sybille Bedford, once married to Hans Günther von Dincklage, Chanel’s lover, imprisoned during war and after
Sinclair, Anne (1948–) French television journalist and granddaughter of Paul Rosenberg, Picasso’s art dealer, still fighting for her family’s looted art
Smith, Emma (1923–) British writer who went to stay with the Geoffroy-Dechaume family after the war and wrote a successful novel in 1948 while staying in a Paris hotel
Spanier, Ginette (1904–1988) Paris-born, English-educated, married to French Jewish doctor when war broke out. They fled the capital and helped refugees. She became Directrice for Balmain
Szabo, Violette (1921–1945) Joined SOE after her Hungarian husband, with whom she had a daughter Tania, was killed, but was captured in France in 1944 and sent to Ravensbrück, where she was executed. Posthumously awarded George Cross
Tartière, Drue (née Leyton) (1903–97) American actress and resister who married Frenchman Jacques Tartière
Teissier du Cros, Janet (née Grierson) (1905–90) Born in Scotland, married to François Teissier du Cros, scion of an old French Protestant family
Testyler, Arlette (1933–) Survivor of the Vél d’Hiv round-up of 1942 and other camps, who has devoted adult life to testifying
Tillion, Germaine (1907–2008) Ethnographer and resister with Musée de l’Homme group, wrote operetta while imprisoned in Ravensbrück alongside her mother, art historian, Emilie Tillion
Toussaint, Jeanne (1887–1976) Cartier’s creative director 1933–70, Louis Cartier’s lover and the woman who inspired panther jewellery beloved of the Duchess of Windsor
Valland, Rose Antonia (1898–1980) Blacksmith’s daughter who became a volunteer assistant curator at the Jeu de Paume Museum and later directed the commission working in Germany to recover looted art
Wiborg, Mary ‘Hoytie’ Hoyt (1888–1964) American heiress active in expatriate circles in Paris, also art patron, collector, critic and amateur playwright
Witherington, Pearl (later Cornioley) (1914–2008) Born in Paris to British parents, SOE agent parachuted into France, became leader of Wrestler network