Louisette Fleuret

Louisette Fleuret was one of the top French swimmers between the wars. She began swimming in 1925 with the Mouettes de Paris. In 1930 she became French schools champion, and she was French Champion in the 400 metres in 1933-35, winning nationals in the 800 freestyle in 1937-39. Fleuret placed sixth in the 400 at the 1934 European Championships. She set multiple French records during her career.

During the Berlin Olympics, Fleuret fell in love with a German named Schweitz. During the Nazi occupation of France, she worked as a Gestapo agent in Paris, and just after the Liberation, abruptly disappeared. After the war she was tracked in Tunis, Tunisia, where she ran a brothel and went by the name Louisette Pigeon, using her mother’s maiden name. She was returned to France where she was tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by the guillotine. However, that sentence was commuted when she asked the judge for mercy, arguing that she had fallen in love with a Gestapo officer, but had not betrayed her French friends. Little is known of what later became of her.