Illa Meery (16 May 1915 – October 2010) was a Russian-born French adventuress, singer, film actress and possibly Soviet spy who became involved in the French black market under German occupation.

Émigrée

She was the daughter of count Alexandre Alexandrovitch Tchernychev-Bezobrazov and Marie Nicolaïevna née Chtcherbatova. She arrived in France in 1919 with her parents and older brother as refugees from the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, first in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, then

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She attended the Russian school in rue Daru.

Film actress and Chanel model

She appeared in several early French films in the 1920s, notably in '' Zouzou'' as Barbara, the topless foil for sensation

Josephine Baker Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...

, who in that film became the first black woman to star in a French feature film.Katherine Groo. “Shadow Lives: Josephine Baker and the Body of Cinema
” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 54, no. 1, 2013, pp. 7–39. Page 19
Available on JSTOR.
Accessed 1 Aug. 2023 She later became a model for

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

, then Schiaparelli. At that time she was living with the painter , a friend of

Philippe de Rothschild Philippe, Baron de Rothschild (13 April 1902 – 20 January 1988) was a member of the Rothschild banking family who became a Grand Prix motor racing driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one ...

. She became his mistress and he got her a part in the film '' Lac aux dames'' (Lake of Ladies), a film he financed, based on a screenplay by

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known as Colette or Colette Willy, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a Mime artist, mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaki ...

and directed by

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

's former lover

Marc Allégret Marc Allégret (22 December 1900 – 3 November 1973) was a French screenwriter, photographer and film director. Biography Born in Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland, he was the elder brother of Yves Allégret. Marc was educated to be a lawyer in ...

. Later she met professional crook Joseph Goldstein a.k.a. Dorélis. They became a couple and she was soon threatened with expulsion as a stateless person holding a

Nansen passport Nansen passports, originally and officially stateless persons passports, were internationally recognized refugee travel documents from 1922 to 1938, first issued by the League of Nations's Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to stateles ...

. On 19 July 1939 she married the actor Henri Garat. In 1940, the couple took refuge in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and lounged on the beach there ith the exiled

Carol I of Romania Carol I or Charles I of Romania (born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; 20 April 1839 – ), was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as ...

. Google Books version has no page numbers but multiple pages at the beginning of that chapter are devoted to her

Mobsters and Nazis

On her return to France in 1942, she developed ties with the Occupation authorities and

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

figures, and was associated with various scandals under the name of Madame Garat. She became the mistress of

Henri Lafont Henri Lafont (born Henri Chamberlin, 22 April 1902 – 26 December 1944) was an underworld figure who headed the '' Carlingue'', French auxiliaries for the German security services, during the German occupation of France in World War II. He w ...

, head of the French Gestapo, and was one of the women known as the

Countesses of the Gestapo The countesses of the Gestapo () were elite adventuresses of the Paris demimonde protected by the Carlingue, French Gestapo and Black market in wartime France, large-scale black marketeers during the German occupation of France. The Gestapo counte ...

. She had many affairs with German officers, notably with members of the SD. As the mistress of Hans Leimer, an SS officer tasked with shipping requisitioned artwork and other goods to Germany, she was arrested in July 1944 by the Gestapo, and her lover was sent to the Russian front. She herself was sent to Germany to be judged in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Fourth Republic criminal justice

Arrested by the Americans in May 1945, she was returned to French authorities and imprisoned in Fresnes on 6 September. On 5 June 1945, she was sentenced by the to two years in prison and the confiscation of one third of her assets. She was also sued in the civil courts by someone who said she had appropriated assets, in litigation that went on for years. She claimed to have been a Soviet agent since 1935 and to have penetrated German counterintelligence around 1942, but no evidence was found to support this.

Selected filmography

* ''

Princess Olala ''Princess Olala'' (German: ''Prinzessin Olala'') is a 1928 German silent drama film directed by Robert Land and starring Carmen Boni, Walter Rilla, Marlene Dietrich and Hans Albers.Wood p.65 It is also known by the alternative title of ''A ...

'' (1928) as Hedy * '' The Abduction of the Sabine Women'' (1928) as Ria, a showgirl * ''

Cagliostro Giuseppe Balsamo (; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795), known by the alias Count Alessandro di Cagliostro ( , ), was an Italian occultist and confidence trickster. Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician. He became a gl ...

'' (1929) as Jeanne de la Motte * ''

Lake of Ladies A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

'' (1934)Bergfelder, Tim & Harris, Sue & Street, Sarah. ''Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema''. Amsterdam University Press, 2007
Available on JSTOR.
Accessed 1 Aug. 2023 as Anika * '' Zouzou'' as Barbara (1934)

References

Bibliography

* Chandler, Charlotte.
Marlene: Marlene Dietrich, A Personal Biography
'. Simon and Schuster, 2011. * Reissued: ** * * * * * * * * (about Roger Griveau) * Patrice Rolli, La Phalange nord-africaine (ou Brigade nord-africaine, ou Légion nord-africaine) en Dordogne: Histoire d'une alliance entre la Pègre et la Gestapo; 15 March–19 August 1944, Éditions l'Histoire en Partage, 2013, 189 pages (mostly about Alexandre Villaplane and Raymond Monange)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meery, Illa Black markets Prostitutes 1915 births 2010 deaths French collaborators with Nazi Germany French women singers French film actresses French silent film actresses 20th-century French actresses Russian women singers Russian film actresses Russian silent film actresses Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Actresses from Moscow Singers from Moscow Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Russian collaborators with Nazi Germany