In Lebensborn, the second book in the series The Addlestone Chronicles, I introduced readers to the anti-Nazi role that Dietrich Bonhoeffer played and contrasted it with the support that Coco Chanel gave to Hitler. In the Historical Background section which followed the body of the novel, I wrote, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s anti-Nazi efforts through the Lutheran Church are as described in this novel. He was arrested in April 1943 for his resistance activities primarily aimed at opposing Hitler’s euthanasia programme and the persecution and murder of Jews. He was executed by hanging on April 9th, 1945 at Flossenbürg concentration camp. That was less than four months before the war in Europe ended. Gabrielle Bonheur (Coco) Chanel was close to Hitler and had a romantic relationship with the German diplomat Baron Hans Günter Dincklage. After the war, she was officially questioned but not charged as a collaborator due to the intervention of Churchill. She hid out of the public’s view in Switzerland before returning to Paris to revive her fashion business. Newly released documents revealed directly that she worked for and with the Nazi secret intelligence service, Sicherheitsdienst, bringing messages from Hitler and the High Command to pro-Nazi sympathizers in Britain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Coco Chanel, & the Nazis
