Julie HOFER (née KOBYLINA, aka Julie Hofer d'Hauv) [1885-1961]

Julie Hofer claimed to have been a Polish princess born in Siberia, but as she shared her husband's penchant for fantasy, this might not be the case.

She married Georges Hofer in Shanghai in 1917 and accompanied him to Hong Kong in 1937, where she worked a masseuse. The couple were in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation and she tried to claim compensation for injuries received (which stopped her carrying out her work) when she was deliberately run-over by a car driven by two laughing Japanese officers in retaliation for her husband's refusal to spy for the occupiers. Dr. Siegfried Ramler confirmed that he'd treated her on April 24, 1944 and that she had to wear a plaster cast for five weeks, but former Swiss Consul Harry Keller explained that her injuries were caused by a fall in the street that was entirely her own fault.

Sources:

The Hofers' files in the Swiss Federal Archives (Bern) e.g. in Dossier E2001D#1968/154#1358*

http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/detail.aspx?guid=afdc0c89a3cb46219a09a5a95... (German)