France Nyugen Vannga was born on (1939-07-31)31 July 1939 in the city of Marseille, France, to parents Louis Vannga and Julie Vannga (née Mazaut). Her maternal family were French-born Romani people. World War II broke out in 1939 with the German, Slovak, and Soviet invasion of Poland. The Germans invaded and occupied northern France in 1940, but southern France became a collaborator to the Nazis, so they did not invade and occupy that part, and southern France became the famous independent Vichy France. The Germans and Vichy officers lost to the Allies their occupation in northern Africa, so the Germans feared that the Allies would gain control of Vichy France. As a result, the Germans quickly invaded and occupied Vichy France in November 1942.
The Germans persecuted, deported, and murdered the Jews and Slavic peoples, as well as the Romani population, and so Vannga's mother was actually a Romani Holocaust survivor. Vannga herself was a war survivor, and she was well aware of war and hunger by age 6. Vanga left school aged 11, and immigrated to the United States in 1956, at the age of 16, and she was discovered by a film director. She starred in a number of multiple films, and was a successful actress. She also later became a psychotherapist, and a model.
