New book claims Coco Chanel was a Nazi spy

(CBS/AP) PARIS - A new book alleges iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel was an anti-Semite and a Nazi spy.

"Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret Wars," by Paris-based American historian Hal Vaughan, contends Chanel was an agent of Germany's Abwehr military intelligence organization that undertook wartime missions to Berlin and Madrid.

Publisher Knopf describes the book as "part suspense thriller, part wartime portrait" and says it "fully pieces together the hidden years of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel's life, from the Nazi occupation of Paris to the aftermath of World War II."

The book is based in part on documents from archives in Germany, France, Britain and Switzerland.

The House of Chanel said the book's claims about Chanel's alleged anti-Semitism "cannot go unchallenged." It said: "More than 57 books have been written about Gabrielle Chanel. ... We would encourage you to consult some of the more serious ones."

The book was released Tuesday.

Chanel died in 1971 at the age of 87.