A French national who crossed into active collaboration at its most lethal extreme, Paoli's trajectory — from municipal clerk to Gestapo operative with autonomous arrest powers — illustrates how the occupation created pathways for individuals to accumulate extraordinary capacity for harm. Operating out of Bourges, he arrested over three hundred people, participated in the massacre of Jewish refugees at the Guerry wells, and was known for the brutality of his interrogations. His declaration at trial that he considered himself German, not French, underscored the totality of his alignment with the occupying apparatus.

What distinguished Hamilton-Byrne was the totality of control she exercised over the children she collected — uniformly bleached and cropped, isolated from the outside world, subjected to physical punishment, restricted diets, and, at adolescence, administered LSD as a form of initiation. She built her authority on a claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, drawing in educated and professional followers who helped insulate the group financially and institutionally for decades. Despite a police raid, the removal of children, and a fraud conviction, she faced no prosecution for the abuse itself.