By the time of Lee’s interview, Colette had endured many challenges in both her personal and professional life. The German occupation of France during the Second World War brought with it more outside influence on her work as she found herself writing for pro-Vichy publications to protect her husband, Maurice Goudeket, after his arrest by the Gestapo in December 1941: . “Once the prisoner was located, an assessment of the possible and probable charges could be made, and from then on the grapevine echo system would know where he had been transferred to on the next shift up or down the crime and punishment scales. Not that they were by any means parallel to each other, but often there was indication that it would be better to delay escape measures if it was a “real” case, and weak, than to precipitate the reprisals and enforced hiding of other members of the family which would follow the “guilt proving” escape of an “innocent man.” . She contacted everyone, high and low: so many people that even now no one knows who it was exactly who arranged his release. In any case, all efforts to free him met indifference until Colette showed herself as writing for the German controlled French press.” . Whilst some critics believed that by writing for publications such as ‘Le Petit Parisien’ Colette lent herself to the Vichy regime, Lee believed that “she wrote innocuous nostalgic pieces which added nothing to German prestige”. . . . Image: Colette, 9 rue de Beaujolais, Paris, France 1944 by Lee Miller © Lee Miller Archives, England 2022. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk . . . . . #leemiller #leemillerarchives #femalephotographer #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #noiretblanc #noiretblancphotographe #fotographia #fotografo #fotographie