ALBIN Marie (EN)

Marie Albin ran an antiques shop, Au bon vieux temps (In the good old days), which included a workshop for tapestry repair. Among her German clients were Josef Mühlmann, Friedrich Welz and Hans Herbst.

Marie Tissandier married Pierre Albin on 20 June 1901. The couple chose the separation of marital property contract on 29 March 1921. She ran an antiques shop, Au bon vieux temps, located 145 boulevard Saint-Germain, which also had a workshop for tapestry repair, where ten employees worked during the Occupation.¹

In 1946, she was brought before the Comité de confiscation des profits illicites for “direct sales to Germans.” She was suspected of fraud, due to purchases made in her name at the hôtel Drouot, notably by a M. Blary, and their absence in her accounts. She denied the facts, claiming that anyone could have a check made out in a bank without having to prove his identity.²

Additionally, the Comité noted Marie Albin’s considerable enrichment, evaluated at 1,404,000 F, during the period of the Occupation. Her husband declared no commercial activity, but accounts showed an enrichment of 450,000 F, leading the Comité de confiscation to believe he had profited from the undeclared part of Marie Albin’s accounts.³ However, the Comité was unable to determine how much issued from illicit profits and how much from business with French clients.

Later, in a letter of 15 February 1949, the rapporteur Michel Martin urged the Commission nationale interprofessionnelle d’épuration to close the case, since “it does not seem possible to maintain against Mme Albin […] an indictment for having solicited German clientele, or for having facilitated the purchases of the occupants.”⁴

In the remarks noted by Marie Albin following the first decision of the Comité de confiscation, she indicated that “the German buyer who was my main client had come to me through a commissioner SCHEMLER, 21 rue Basfroi, long since established in the Paris market.”⁵ She sold objects notably to Josef Mühlmann,⁶ and among others, the names Friedrich Welz and Dr Hans Herbst⁷ also appear in her accounts.

Following an appeal before the Conseil supérieur de confiscation des profits illicites, Marie Albin obtained that the amount of the confiscation declared against her be reduced to 429,600 F, and the fine to 694,000 F.⁸ A dossier in her name opened with the Commission nationale interprofessionnelle d’épuration gave no results.⁹