I’m coming back to the topic of truthful accounting of history because it matters. Any form of society that wants to function justly, equitably and ethically – I can think of none right now, but we can aspire – needs to look at the way things were historically handled, if only to rectify mistakes in pursuit of the desired state. And it irks me to no end, that the white-washing of history, the refusal to acknowledge bad plays or bad actors, is not exactly a monopoly of the bad guys (yes, you know who) but is happening as well in quarters that really should know better.

Some years back it was the rehabilitation of fascist film maker Leni Riefenstahl by no other than German feminist powerhouse Alice Schwarzer, refuted by Susan Sonntag, who pointed to the continual thread of fascist ideals across Riefenstahl’s life and work. Three years ago the Berlin Museum of Photography added to the “quiet absolution” of the famous artist.

Today’s case in point was brought to me by the successful, feminist  OnThisDay She Twitter account, which offers daily blurbs about women that have been neglected by history. Tania Hershman, a British poet, runs the account with Jo Bell and Ailsa Holland, all co-authors of the book  On This Day She: Putting Women Back into History One Day at a Time, which came out this spring. It features 366 stories about mostly forgotten women. So then, what do you make of this:

A dazzling feminist and sports icon, lover of Josephine Baker, close friend of Jean Cocteau, darling of the Paris intelligentsia? Punished for her identity? You’d think so. But why killed by the Resistance?

The tweet prefers not go there.

It turns out that Morris was alleged to have become a Nazi collaborator, said to have accepted a personal invitation by Hitler to attend the Berlin Olympics. She was accused of spying for German intelligence and of passing Allied military plans to the Germans, giving the names of members of the French Resistance to the Gestapo and of actively participating in the torture of prisoners, particularly women prisoners as well as having made huge profits from the black market sale of fuel confiscated by the German army. After a secret trial by the Resistance, she was killed by British commandoes and French partisans.

Here is another site which lifts obscure people from history, that goes even further. Rather than omitting crucial accusations, it pushes them aside along the line of, “but she was such a bad ass…”

Morris joined the Reich, performed acts of espionage against the French government throughout the late 30s, and when France finally fell to Hitler in 1940 Violette Morris became so ferocious in her tactics rooting out the French Resistance that she was known as “The Hyena of the Gestapo”. Rolling through town with psychotic thugs named One-Armed Jean, Jo the Mammoth, and Le Sanguinaire (“The Bloodthirsty”), this former boxing champ realized she had a hell of a knack for beating confessions out of prisoners – which, incidentally, is kind of the Gestapo’s thing anyways – and armed with nothing more than a whip and a zippo lighter she destroyed Resistance cells and British SOE spies anywhere she could find them. Which is admittedly pretty impressive, even though I don’t exactly have any love for her ideology. (Bolded by me.)

So… yeah, it’s kind of a bitter finale because this chick goes from Jimmy Johnson to Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS in the course of like 2 paragraphs, but it turned out that by-and-large the Nazis tended to get what was coming to them, and that’s exactly how it went down with Violette Morris. She became so notorious in her counter-espionage tactics that the SOE organized a special mission to take her out of the picture, and on April 26, 1944 – just a month or so before D-Day – British Commandos and French Resistance partisans ambushed her and opened fire on her supercharged sports car with a dozen or so machine guns, whacking her out in slow motion Sonny Corleone-style. She was buried in a potter’s field and is now basically almost universally-despised by everyone in France. Which, honestly, should probably count as bonus points somewhere.

As it turns out, we have no proof either way, Violette Morris being a nasty piece of work, or the victim of false accusations conveniently targeting a rebellious woman ahead of her time (or her sports competitors.) A 2019 book, “Femme qui court” (“Woman Running”), by Gérard de Cortanze, a Jewish author whose grandfather participated in the Resistance, argues that numerous historical sources and archival material relating to the Nazis revealed no proof for her collaboration. Since the Resistance trials were not documented for safety’s sake, we have no evidence from that corner either.

I think I’ve made my point, though. Just because some person scores on whatever identity board you count on – degree of badass, daring lesbian life style – does not mean you should not mention the darker side, or, worse, shrug it away. You should do full scholarship to be truly informed about your idol, and you need at least mention that there are competing versions of the full actions embraced by the historical figure. Something that is never done while white-washing.

Selective myopia is not going to serve us well.

Music hails from the Paris of the 1930s and 40s, photographs from Parisian flea markets that allow glimpses into the history of the population.