Page 28 - The Kellner Affair Sample Pages

THE KELLNER AFFAIR: MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
The Bonny-Lafont Gang, Part III: Violette Morris, Hyena of the Gestapo
But murder, theft and especially torture were hard work. And for that there was Violette Morris, who had mastered the ne art of Carlingue interrogation: pulling out ngernails, ling teeth down, bullwhipping, punching, kicking, burning with cigarettes or blowtorch, “drowning” prisoners in a bathtub full of ice-water, electric shock – the list was endless when the interrogator was creative enough. And Violette was. Émilie Paule Marie Violette Morris was born in 1893 into a family with military connections dating back to the Revolution in 1789. Educated by English nuns in a 12th century convent in Belgium, she was an accomplished pugilist, swimmer, cyclist and water polo player in her teens. Shot put, discus throwing, and motorcycle racing were followed by football, archery, horseback riding, tennis, diving and weight lifting. After the death of her parents in 1918, Violette began wearing men’s clothing, but never applied for a permission de travestissement, an of cial document that could be issued by the préfecture de police, allowing a woman to dress as a man. In 1922, she participated in the second female Olympics where she set records in athletics. She also took up motor racing and managed to be the only female entrant to come 4th in the Bol d’Or.
In 1923, Violette opened an automobile accessories shop called Spécialités Violette Morris, at no. 6 rue Roger-Bacon, where she lived in the at upstairs. In 1927, she was thrown out of women’s football for smoking, drinking and wearing men’s clothes – after which the football association banned shorts that were too short, playing without a bra, and costumes that were too tight. In 1929, she had a voluntary double mastectomy in order to be able to t into a race-car – or at least that was the reason she gave. In 1932, the auto accessories shop went under, but Violette continued to live on her inheritance. She often frequented Le Monocle on the boulevard Edgar Quinet in Montparnasse, one of the rst openly lesbian nightclubs, where half the women wore tuxedos and men’s hairstyles, while the other half dressed as women. As Colette wrote, in order to indicate their sexual preference, women would sport “...a monocle and a white carnation in the buttonhole”. At times Violette was seen in the company of Josephine Baker, and although they may well have had an affair, it is safe to say that their paths diverged after the Occupation. Baker worked for the Red Cross, entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East, worked for the French Résistance, and transported messages in her music box. Violette Morris submerged herself in her own darkness and became a feared and perverted Nazi butcher.
RIGHT (BOTH): Violette Morris rst came to fame as a sportswoman – boxer, swimmer, footballer, you name it. She was in every way a woman of many talents. Here photographed in 1913. In 1929 she had a double mastectomy. It was no small operation. (Peter Larsen)
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