[3] She had worked as an actress in Paris, where she met Englishman, Victor Gerson, a dealer in fine rugs and carpets, whom she married.

[4] Her husband, Victor Gerson, proposed setting up a line of helpers to simplify the exit and entrance of SOE agents, and Balmaceda volunteered to reconnoitre the possibility.

[6] She proved adept at distinguishing between those who genuinely wanted to help escapees and those who claimed loyalty to the allies even though they were informing the counterintelligence police.

[5] Balmaceda, ostensibly on holiday, travelled freely on her Chilean passport in Vichy France, not yet occupied by Nazi Germany, and compiled a long list of names and addresses of those willing to help and who she believed could be trusted.

During her three weeks in Vichy France she collected "information about timetables, curfews, the papers civilians had to carry, and the extent of bus and railway controls.