For a’ that, and a’ that,
Their tinsel show, an’ a’ that
-- Robert Burns

France

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Tue 8 Sep 2009 12.01 BST

Mouré K. Food rationing and the black market in France (1940-1944). Fr Hist. 2010;24(2):262-82. doi: 10.1093/fh/crq025. PMID: 20672479 at Black market in wartime France

Les comtesses de la Gestapo Cyril Eder @ Countesses of the Gestapo

Not France

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Template:Excerpt WP Library

Illegal mining and deforestation in the Amazon

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You have to sacrifice your life’: the drug runners of Colombia’s rainforests. With few job prospects, young men in the jungle borderlands with Brazil risk everything in a marijuana trade that ultimately bankrolls dissident armed groups Bram Ebus and Andrés Cardona,The Guardian, 15 Aug 2023

Countess Seckendorff

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In the context of the black market in World War II Paris, specifically 93 rue Lauriston (Henri Lafont and Pierre Bonny) I am trying to expand and reference the following statement from fr.wikipedia: "Countess Seckendorff, an authentic German aristocrat who spied on Parisian high society'.

A simple Google search is giving me a lot of hits about a different countess. I suspect a nomenclature problem such as I found with Illa Meery.

Article is Countesses of the Gestapo. Thank for any brain power applied to this problem.Elinruby (talk) 02:28, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

The reference for that statement appears to be from Cyril Eder (2006). Les Comtesses de la Gestapo. Paris: Grasset. A description of the book is found at this site, where the countess in question is described as la comtesse Seckendorff, laquelle, autrichienne, agent double connu sous le nom de Mercedes, réussira mystérieusement à échapper à la justice française et finira dans la peau d'une pairesse d'Ecosse. Better biographical information should be found within its pages. 59.102.46.248 (talk) 12:49, 10 August 2023 (UTC)
And was this one the hits that you got from your simple Google search with a different countess? "41 Avenue Foch, Comtesse Hildegard de Seckendorff, code named Mercedes, Knochen’s informer." 59.102.46.248 (talk) 13:34, 10 August 2023 (UTC)
This seems to be the person in question. Born 19 February 1907 in Mayen as Hildegard von Reth, married to Graf Crato von-Seckendorff-Aberdar (1905-1960) in 1934, divorced 1936. Started working for German intelligence in 1933. Died 1989 in Warwickshire.
Also see:
  • Milmeister, Jean: Hildegard von Reth, Gräfin von Seckendorff "L'aventurière de Clervaux" und der SD, in: Veiner Geschichtsfrenn 2012, S. 73-81
  • Nagel, Hartmut: Die Spionin aus Niedermendig, in: Landkreis Mayen-Koblenz: Heimatbuch 2020, S. 179-182 (couldn't find it online)
  • You can also see part of the relevant chapter of the book by Cyril Eder at in the book preview on google books.
-- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 19:30, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much people! Elinruby (talk) 15:04, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Yes, we are very much people. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 21:51, 11 August 2023 (UTC)