Veruschka von Lehndorff
- Actress
- Writer
Her father was a Prussian count (Count von Lehndorff-Steinort) who was
involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 and hanged that year,
when Vera was three. Her mother was arrested, and Vera and her sisters
spent the rest of the war in Gestapo camps. They were reunited with
their mother after the war, but the family was destitute, and
ostracised by other Germans for their father's treachery. She ended up
studying textile design in Florence, where a fashion designer first
asked her to model. She had first travelled to New York in 1961 as
plain old Vera, but failed to secure a single booking. After retreating
to Milan for a spell, she returned to take Manhattan under her new
name.... Veruschka!
