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SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're talking about adventurers, women who refuse to be confined. They push the boundaries of where a woman could go and how she could get there. Today we're talking about a woman who did it all. She graced the cover of Vogue, spied for the Allied forces in World War II, and narrowly escaped death in a concentration camp. Please meet Toto Koopman. Katarina Koopman was born on October 28th, 1908 on the island of Java in modern-day Indonesia. At the time, the nation was still a colony, part of the Dutch East Indies. Her father was a Dutch cavalry officer. Toto got her lifelong nickname from her father's favorite horse. Her mother was part Javanese and part Dutch. Growing up in Java, Toto and her older brother Odi often experienced discrimination because of their biracial identities. Toto was educated at a distinguished boarding school in the Netherlands. As a student, she became known for her mastery of languages. She was fluent in Italian, German, French, English, and Dutch, and was getting the hang of Turkish, too. Like many wealthy young women of the period, Toto went on to finishing school after graduating. But it didn't take long for her to chase down a more exciting and glamorous life in France. Toto was 19 years old when she arrived in Paris. She had grown into a striking beauty. Slim and lithe with high-defined cheekbones and full lips, she fit the aesthetic of celebrated socialites and starlets of the 1920s and 30s. Her natural good looks propelled her into a modeling career. For a while, Toto worked exclusively with Vogue, appearing regularly in the Paris edition throughout the 1930s. She graced the cover in August of 1933. Her lips painted crimson to match the hat positioned atop her brunette curls. She wore a brown fur collar, elbow-length gloves, and a pearl earring. The photo cemented Toto as the publication's earliest known cover model. Before that, Vogue had only used illustrations of models. Toto went on to do exclusive work for Coco Chanel. She also modeled for other renowned fashion designers like Marcel Rochas, Maralane Vionnet, and Main Bocher. But she didn't just get photographed in their couture. Her charisma and disarming beauty pushed designers to hire Toto to wear their clothes out on the town. As a hired so-called jockey, Toto showed off the newest fashions to Parisian society, from grand balls to the racetracks to the opera halls. She once quipped, "'One dressed up not to please men, but to astound the other women.'" Despite Toto's popularity, her family was scandalized by her modeling career. At the time, it was a job not much more respected than prostitution, but Toto didn't mind their disapproval. She had never intended to follow the traditional path of marriage and homemaking. Instead, she sought out thrills and love affairs with various men and women. Toto was openly bisexual. She had flings with well-known figures like actress Tallulah Bankhead and Randolph Churchill, the son of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She also had a relationship with Lord Beaverbrook, a newspaper tycoon, and his son Max. When Beaverbrook discovered Toto's affair with his son, he offered her a lifelong pension if she promised to never marry him. This suited Toto just fine. Eventually, her romantic trysts led Toto to the world of espionage, just as World War II was breaking out all over Europe. In 1939, she was visiting friends in Florence, Italy, when she fell for an Italian resistance leader. She financially backed her lover's anti-fascist operations by selling her furs and jewels. Toto also began to help the Allied cause by spying on meetings between members of the Italian Fascist Party. After two years as a spy, Toto was found out by Italian police and was sent to several different prison camps. Eventually, she ended up in a detention camp. Toto was able to escape, vanishing into the surrounding mountainous landscape. She quickly started working to help hide other prisoners who'd also fled. Toto's continued resistance work ended with her getting captured once again. But amazingly, she managed to escape her detention camp for a second time. She fled to Venice, taking a break from spy work to avoid further pursuit by the Italian fascist forces. But by 1944, she was back at it, working out of the Grand Agnelli Hotel. Once, she attended an aristocrat's dinner party and was seated next to a German general. It was so brazen an act that the officer never suspected the beautiful woman next to him was a spy. But Toto was eventually discovered and captured for a third time. She was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, and this time, escape would prove nearly impossible. Roughly 132,000 female prisoners were sent to Ravensbrück from 1938 to 1945, and 90,000 died there. Toto got by with her mastery of German, successfully fooling prison guards into believing she was a trained nurse. This helped secure her work in the camp infirmary, where she sometimes managed to sneak food to other prisoners at great personal risk. In 1945, Toto was set free from Ravensbrück after the Swedish Red Cross partially liberated the camp. By that time, Toto was almost unrecognizable. Her head had been shaved, and she'd undergone medical experimentation and starvation that weakened her body. When her old lovers, Randolph Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook learned of her release and dire condition, they arranged for her to travel to Switzerland to recover. While she was recuperating on the coast of Lake Maggiore, Toto met art dealer Erika Broussen. The two women fell in love. They returned to England together, where Toto helped Erika open the now-famous Hanover Gallery. Erika scouted and managed the artists, and Toto dealt with behind-the-scenes matters, including using her social connections to help the gallery rise to prominence. Eventually, the couple was running one of the most influential galleries in all of Europe, celebrated for being the first to represent artist Francis Bacon. They also showcased works by acclaimed artists like Henri Matisse, Mac Ernst, and Man Ray. During the 1950s, Toto went back to school to study archeology. She earned a degree from the University of London and went on to participate in several archeological digs. Toto and Erika stayed together into their old age, hosting lavish parties in their villas on the Italian island of Panarea. Toto died on August 27th, 1991. She was 81 years old. Her partner, Erika, died 18 months later. All month, we've been talking about adventurers. Tune in tomorrow for the start of a new theme. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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