Spies, radicals and returning deportees: how one Paris hotel passed through three eras

British historian and writer Jane Rogoyska described in a HistoryExtra podcast episode how a single Paris hotel took on three entirely different identities over a roughly 15-year period. Hôtel Lutetia, the grand hotel in the 6th arrondissement, served in the 1930s as a discreet meeting place for Europe's anti-fascist radicals. During the occupation of the Second World War, it became the Paris headquarters of the German Abwehr intelligence service. After the war, it took on a new role as the official reception centre for French citizens returning from Nazi camps.

According to Rogoyska, Hôtel Lutetia is a 270-room hotel built in Belle Époque style by the Bonifacio family in 1910 at the head of Boulevard Raspail. James Joyce, André Gide, Pablo Picasso and Charles de Gaulle were among notable European cultural figures who stayed at the hotel in the 1920s and 1930s. The historian noted in the podcast that guest registers from this period were destroyed when Germany arrived in 1940; available contemporary records were compiled only from hotel bulletins and interviews.

During 1933-1939, as a hub of Europe's developing anti-fascist movement, Hôtel Lutetia hosted secret meetings. Rogoyska's research shows that the hotel accommodated political exiles including German communist party member Klara Zetkin, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and Spanish secret police opponent Manuel Azaña. The historian said, 'In this period the hotel served as one of the Paris centres of Europe's anti-fascist movement.'

With Germany's invasion of France in 1940, Hôtel Lutetia was requisitioned as the Paris headquarters of the German intelligence service Abwehr. Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris and his Paris-based deputy Friedrich Rudolf used the upper floors of the hotel as offices. Rogoyska referenced the post-war memoir of a former deputy of Heinrich Himmler: 'Lutetia was the most suitable centre for German intelligence operations in Paris.'

Intelligence historian Dr. Roderick Bailey commented to HistoryExtra, 'Lutetia's use by the Abwehr also covered intelligence operations against the French resistance. Observation points on the hotel's roof were used to monitor resistance cells from the Sorbonne and other university campuses.' Bailey added that the Germans quickly abandoned the hotel at the end of the war.

In the post-war period of 1944-1947, Hôtel Lutetia was converted into the most important reception centre for Nazi camp deportees under Charles de Gaulle's provisional French government. French citizens returning from Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald were received in the hotel's corridors. Used as a 'matching panel' for family members, the hotel lobby walls were covered with photographs and names of deportees.

Rogoyska said in the podcast, 'Photographs from this period show the hotel was almost entirely structured as an official public building organised to receive deportees. The guest rooms were converted into temporary shelter areas; the restaurants became places where deportees received meals free of charge.' Approximately 18,000 French deportees passed through Hôtel Lutetia during the first three months, the historian documents.

Hôtel Lutetia inspired a 2018 novel by writer Henning Mankell, who is the son of the German general Karl Oberg. The novel narrates all three periods of the hotel through the eyes of one character. Mankell said in a book promotion interview, 'The hotel is a living witness to the historical transformation of Paris between 1930 and 1947. The building did not change, but the people inside it changed entirely.'

Today Hôtel Lutetia operates as a five-star contemporary European luxury hotel. The hotel, owned by The Set Hotels group, underwent a 200-million-euro restoration between 2014 and 2018. A permanent history exhibition documenting the post-war reception period opened in the lobby exhibition area. The exhibition 'The Three Faces of Lutetia' is based on Rogoyska's research sources.

This article is a history and cultural heritage news report; it should not be read as medical, cultural art or political advice outside the field of historical research. All assessments of the interpretation of historical events rest on Rogoyska's published research sources.