Americans in Paris: Life & Death Under Nazi Occupation (63 page)

p. 89 ‘Sylvia, who left’
Ibid
., pp. 39–40.

p. 90 ‘Fouquet’s open … another orchestra’
Ibid
., pp. 40–41.

p. 90 ‘open with terrace … No, only when’
Ibid
., pp. 42–3.

p. 90 ‘ravishing, books in profusion … Nothing at the market’
Ibid
., pp. 44–8.

p. 91 ‘This morning, saw’
Ibid
., p. 48.

p. 91 ‘We often have’
Adrienne Monnier, ‘A Letter to Friends in the Free Zone’, originally published in
Le Figaro Littéraire
, February 1942, in Adrienne Monnier,
The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier: An Intimate Portrait of the Literary and Artistic Life in Paris between the Wars
, translated with introduction and commentaries by Richard McDougall, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976, p. 404.

p. 91 ‘Parisians who survived’
Sylvia Beach,
Shakespeare and Company
, London: Faber and Faber, 1960, p. 218.

p. 92 Eleanor Beach had originally … ‘The cinema for my sister’
Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University Library, Box 14. Miscellaneous note.
p. 92 ‘She was not pretty’
Katherine Anne Porter, ‘Paris: A Little Incident in the rue de l’Odéon’,
Ladies Home Journal
, August 1964 (pp. 54–5), p. 54.

p. 92 ‘Cyprian was so beautiful … Among my sister’s admirers’
Beach,
Shakespeare and Company
, pp. 22–3.

p. 93 The poet Léon-Paul Lafargue
Cyprian was born in 1893, six years after Sylvia. She was named Eleanor after her mother, but she changed it to Cyprian. Her stage name was Cyprian Gilles. Her other Paris films were
The Fortune Teller
(1920),
L’Aiglonne
(1921) and
Amie d’enfance
(1922).

p. 93 An unexpected tragedy further
Noel Riley Fitch,
Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties
, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1983, pp. 260–61.

p. 93 ‘It’s pleasant to think’
Letter from Sylvia Beach to Holly Beach Dennis, 9 January 1940, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University Library, CO108, Box 20, Folder 8. Majority Style Folder.

p. 94 ‘If only I could’
Letter from Sylvia Beach to Rev. Sylvester Beach, 10 April 1940, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University Library, CO108, Box 20, Folder 7.

p. 94 ‘Of course … we can’t’
Letter from Holly Beach Dennis to Sylvia Beach, 20 May 1940, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University, CO108, Box 14, Folder 18.

p. 94 ‘very glad to read … Are you still’
Letter from Carlotta Welles Briggs to Sylvia Beach, 25 August 1940, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University Library, CO108, Box 58, Folder 2.

p. 94 A mutual friend
Don and Petie Kladstrup,
Wine and War
, New York: Broadway Books, 2001, p. 106.

p. 95 ‘But the really unpleasant’
Letter from Gertrude de Gallaix to Sylvia Beach, 2 September 1940, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University Library, CO108, Box 14, Folder 18.

p. 96 In the American beauty’s suite
In this coterie of writers and would-be writers, the Germans were more anti-Nazi than the French. Jünger was on the fringes of the July Plot to kill Hitler, and Heller had grave misgivings about occupying France. Jouhandeau, Drieu La Rochelle and the other Frenchmen praised Hitler and derided the Jews.

p. 96 ‘stupified to be shaking’
C. Mauriac,
Bergène ô tour Eiffel
, Paris: B. Grasset, 1985, pp. 222–5.

p. 96 ‘She was beautiful, great’
Gerhard Heller,
Un Allemand à Paris
, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1981, p. 62.

p. 96 ‘Among the collaborationists’
Silas P., ‘Letter from France II (July)’,
Horizon
, vol. 4, no. 23, November 1942, p. 351.

p. 97 ‘He was there when [Paul] Valéry’
Adrienne Monnier, ‘Benoist-Méchin’, in Monnier,
The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier
, pp. 133–4.

p. 97 She did not write what became
In Laval’s government of 18 April 1942, Jacques Benoist-Méchain was promoted to ‘secrétariat d’Etat chargé de la main d’oeuvre française en Allemagne’. In September, he assumed the new post of ‘secrétariat général à la Police’ under René Bousquet and stood down in January 1944.

p. 98 Miss Morgan, who had returned
‘Five Women Sail to Assist Allies’,
New York Times
, 3 March 1940, p. 3.

p. 98 ‘About that time … Finno-hysteria broke out’
Polly Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, London: The Cresset Press, 1941, p. 3.

p. 98 The American-Scandinavian Field Hospital’s
‘Hospital Formed to Help Finland’,
New York Times
, 11 February 1940, p. 28. The group’s headquarters were at 340 Park Avenue, and among the sponsors were Prince Carl, chief of the Swedish Red Cross, former President Herbert Hoover, Mrs Frederic Guest and Mrs Winston Guest.

p. 98 ‘the Black Eagle of Harlem’
Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, p. 7. (I met ‘Colonel’ Julian in Beirut in 1975, when he announced an offer to restore Emperor Haile Selasse to his throne in Ethiopia. He may actually have come to Lebanon to sell arms to one faction or another in the nascent civil war. The adventures of this flamboyant character had already been recorded in Peter Nugent’s
The Black Eagle of Harlem
, New York: Bantam Books, 1972.)

p. 99 ‘At each station’
Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, p. 104.

p. 99 ‘Hell, we’ll be just … I turned on him’
Ibid
., pp. 105–6.

p. 99 ‘“Where is everybody”’
Ibid
., pp. 110–11.

p. 99 ‘The people were’
Ibid
., p. 114.

p. 100 ‘the Mayor had not waited’
Ibid
., p. 115.

p. 100 ‘Stepping into the street’
Ibid
., pp. 117–18.

p. 100 ‘During the first few days’
Ibid
., p. 119.

p. 101 ‘a French duchess’
Ibid
., p. 122.

p. 101 The American Embassy made its
‘Office Memorandum, American Consul Walter W. Orebaugh, to S. Pinckney Tuck, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim, Vichy’, 31 October 1942, Enclosure: List of Properties, US National Archives, College Park, Maryland, General Records of the State Department, Decimal File Box 1168, 351.115/136.

p. 101 ‘They made up their minds’
Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen: The Story of My Life
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949, p. 129.

p. 101 Ambassador Bullitt had left
Orville Bullitt (ed.),
For the President, Personal and Secret: Correspondence Between Franklin D. Roosevelt and William C. Bullitt
, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972, p. 476. Will Brownell and Richard N. Billings,
So Close to Greatness: A Biography of William C. Bullitt
, New York; Macmillan, 1987, pp. 261–2.

p. 101 Bullitt caught up with
Paul Saurin, ‘The Allied Landing in North Africa’, in
France During the German Occupation, 1940–1944: A Collection of 292 Statements on the Government of Maréchal Pétain and Pierre Laval,
Translated from the French by Philip W. Whitcomb, Palo Alto, CA: The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, vol. II, 1957, p. 600. Saurin, parliamentary deputy for Oran, met Bullitt and Murphy at the Hôtel de Charlannes just after their arrival.

p. 101 ‘seemed to have lost’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 129.

p. 102 The Americans tended
See Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944
, New York: W. W. Norton and Company (also London: Barrie and Jenkins), 1972, pp. 60–63. Part of the thesis of Paxton’s excellent book is that the Vichy initiatives seeking collaboration with Germany were supported by Pétain, Admiral Darlan and a majority of ministers, rather than by Laval alone.

p. 102 Pétain not only cut
Paxton,
Vichy France
, p. 56. Laval was reported to have said to Pétain when he ordered the attack on the British, ‘You have just lost one war. Do you want to lose another?’

p. 102 The dissenter was
‘Lone Dissenting Senator In France Is a U.S. Citizen’,
New York Times
, 10 July 1940, p. 4.

p. 102 ‘During that morning’
Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, p. 119.

p. 103 ‘the single example of courage’
Bullitt (ed.),
For the President
, pp. 490–91.

p. 104 ‘
Vive la République
’
Ibid
., p. 491. Brownell and Billings,
So Close to Greatness
, p. 262. See also William L. Shirer,
The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940
, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969, p. 942. Shirer wrote that the voice was that of Senator Astier. He added, ‘The Third Republic was dead. It had committed suicide.’

p. 104 ‘The last scene’
Bullitt (ed.),
For the President
.

p. 104 ‘Say there, Aldebert’
Yves Pourcher,
Pierre Laval vu par sa fille d’après ses carnets intimes
, Paris: Le Cherche-Midi, 2002, p. 235. This story comes from a diary of Josée Laval de Chambrun. The diaries are held by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun in René and Josée’s former house at 6-bis Place du Palais Bourbon, Paris 75007. The directors of the foundation allowed me to read, but not to copy, Josée’s diaries for the occupation years. Many of the entries, however, are reproduced in Pourcher’s book. The directors did permit me to read and copy René and Josée de Chambrun’s letters and other documents.

p. 104 ‘I was introduced’
Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, p. 122.

p. 104 ‘I am going to … Of all the people’
Ibid
., p. 123.

p. 105 ‘Without suspecting that’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 132.

p. 105 ‘A row of high screens
Ibid
., p. 128.

p. 105 ‘What a kowtowing’
Ibid
.

p. 105 ‘Of course not’
Brownell and Billings,
So Close to Greatness
, p. 262.

p. 105 ‘In those first weeks … I think most’
Robert Murphy,
Diplomat among Warriors
, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1964, p. 71.

p. 106 ‘The old soldier … The Marshal was then
Ibid
., pp. 72–3.

p. 107 ‘The president wants’
René de Chambrun,
Mission and Betrayal, 1940–1945: Working with Franklin Roosevelt to Help Save Britain and Europe
, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1992, p. 66.

p. 107 ‘Radiograms reporting the advance’
Letter from René de Chambrun to New York, recipient’s name blocked out by the FBI, 31 May 1945, from FBI files supplied under Freedom of Information Act, unnumbered file, FOIPA No. 1088544-001. See also de Chambrun,
Mission and Betrayal
, pp. 67–8. René de Chambrun,
I Saw France Fall: Will She Rise Again?
, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1940, p. 199.

p. 108 ‘I maintain that’
Chambrun,
Mission and Betrayal
, p. 69.

p. 108 Alice had once caught
‘Two for Cissy’,
Time
, 2 August 1937.

p. 109 ‘You have been able’
René de Chambrun,
Pierre Laval: Traitor or Patriot?
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984, p. 62.

p. 109 Aware of food shortages
de Chambrun,
Mission and Betrayal
, p. 115.

p. 110 ‘refreshed and ready’
‘Black Week’,
Time
, 24 June 1940.

p. 110 ‘France will remain firmly’
de Chambrun,
Pierre Laval
, p. 63.

p. 111 ‘The president has’
Ibid.
, p. 64.

p. 111 ‘René de Chambrun’
‘Concrete Guy’,
Time
, 21 October 1940.

p. 111 ‘like his mother’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 137.

p. 112 ‘He is a plausible’
British Embassy, Washington, Telegram from Mr Butler (Washington), No. 2675, Registry Number C 12267/7407/17, Foreign Office Files p. 211, British National Archives, Kew.

p. 112 ‘we don’t like’
Ibid
.

p. 113 ‘It was late’
Polly Peabody,
Occupied Territory
, London: The Cresset Press, 1941, pp. 151–2.

p. 113 ‘put both fists … This was my’
Ibid
., p. 155.

p. 114 ‘My old lady’
Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen: The Story of My Life
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949, p. 139.

p. 114 ‘a German official … The use of the’
Ibid.
, p. 139.

p. 115 ‘During those first’
Ibid.,
p. 142.

p. 115 ‘young, attractive … a grand sense’
‘Life in Paris, Special Wednesday Reportage’, First Library Broadcast, Paris-Mondiale, 21 February 1940, in the Archives of the American Library of Paris, Box 20, File K.5 (American Library Clippings, 1939–1940).

p. 116 ‘pasted U.S. seals’
Dorothy Reeder, ‘The American Library in Paris: September 1939–June 1941, CONFIDENTIAL’, Report to the American Library Association, 19 July 1941, American Library Association Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, p. 9.

p. 116 ‘It is a funny point’
Ibid
., p. 10.

p. 116 The occupation meant
Ibid
., p. 12.

p. 116 ‘a stiff Prussian-looking’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 144.

p. 117 ‘held each other’
Ibid
.