Each May, Hollywood stars descend on Cannes for its annual film festival, attracting actors, directors and models, with the Hotel Martínez at the center of the lavish event.
Film festival jurors have purchased luxurious rooms and suites within this historic Art Deco palace, the crown jewel of the French Riviera, overlooking the dazzling Mediterranean Sea.
Since opening in 1929, Martínez has hosted some of the world’s most famous actors – from Rita Hayworth and Charlie Chaplin to Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor and Sean Connery.
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But behind its cinematic glamor lies a sinister history that haunts the Hotel Martínez to this day.
Its founder, Emmanuel Michel Martínez, a courageous activist of the French Resistance movement, helped Jews, refugees and spies escape Nazi terror during World War II – while oblivious German officers were stationed just a few floors away.
“The story has never been told – it’s a saga that lasts 100 years,” says Danny Rosner, filmmaker and co-author of Philip M. Kenny’s new book, “hotel martinez,” Out now, told the Post.
“The play began the day it opened its doors in 1929 when the Hotel Martínez ran into financial difficulties due to the stock market crash,” Rosner said.
Born in Palermo, Martínez, the son of a Sicilian port master, worked in the hotel trade throughout France before saving enough francs to fulfill his dream of becoming a hotelier.
When he opened the Hotel Martínez in 1929 it immediately became one of the most posh holiday destinations on the Côte d’Azur – in the midst of the roaring 20s in Europe – symbolizing the spirit of the artistic Anés Folles, the “crazy years”.
Then, six months after its debut, the US stock market crashed, destroying tourism.
Martínez sought to keep his hotel operating, to ensure that his staff remained employed despite the financial strain. He managed to pay off his creditors and, somehow, managed to avoid the auction hurdle that befell many other French hotels.
Then the Holocaust and World War II broke out, with France being one of the first countries to surrender to the Nazis in June 1940. Several floors of the Hotel Martínez were occupied by German SS and Italian military command officers as they ruthlessly ruled the country. ,
Like other hoteliers throughout France during the German occupation, Martínez had no choice but to comply.
But Martínez experienced an unexpected political awakening, prompted by his daughter Micheline’s fiancé – a Canadian intelligence officer named Tom Kenny, who had helped British pilots and spies escape Vichy France.
Sensing an opportunity for service, Martínez moved on to action for the French Resistance, secretly supporting Kenny as he helped hundreds of Jews, refugees, and spies.
Many people hid on the lower floors of the hotel, making their way to safety.
Meanwhile, Italian and German officers were just one floor above.
A few days after their wedding, Kenny – a distant relative of Theodore Roosevelt – was arrested by the Gestapo and jailed on charges of espionage.
Martínez worked tirelessly to secure the release of his son-in-law, connecting with Kenny’s family in Canada, who had strong ties to the international banking industry as founder of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Micheline, who became pregnant with her first child, exchanged prison letters with Kenny, who was forced to undergo four months of harrowing interrogation by his Nazi captors.
Eventually, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened, sending a letter to the “American Ambassador to Vichy”. , , He was asked to obtain special favors from the French military authorities to investigate his ‘cousin’ Thomas Kenny. , , Be brought to more reasonable dimensions,” Kenny, who is the son of Thomas Kenny, writes in the book.
After his release, Kenny continued to fight against the Nazi regime as a spy, eventually escaping to Gibraltar in the dark of night in late December 1942, and then to Spain in early 1943.
Around the same time, French businessman and Nazi collaborator Mendel Skolnikoff lent Martínez 19 million francs, which the hotelier repaid two months later.
However, in June 1945 Skolnikoff was kidnapped and violently murdered under orders from the French secret services for collaborating with the Nazis.
The French government then accused Martínez of selling the hotel to Skolnikoff, which they saw as a black marketeer, and of collaboration with the Italian and German occupiers, leading them to confiscate his hotel in 1944.
“All of his assets and valuables were confiscated and his estate now owes billions of francs to the French government,” Rosner told The Post.
The French government held possession of Martínez until 1982, when it was sold to new owners, the Concorde Group.
Before his death in Italy in 1973, Martínez did not see a single franc from his beloved hotel.
The legal battle for compensation is still being fought today.
Despite poor financial condition, the Hotel Martínez continues to dazzle stars and A-listers, hosting the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival – it has a spectacular sun deck site for prime people watching locations on La Croisette.
As far as Martínez is concerned, his legacy – and name – lives on, with the Hotel Martínez sign shining over the five-star retreat in all its cinematic glory.
