Suite Francaise (53 page)
Authors: Irene Nemirovsky
I read with great trepidation the fears you recently had regarding your children. I can only rejoice now in knowing that you are safe from all the measures of the type to which you allude. All we can do now is pray for the swift return of those who have been taken from us.
Monsieur Esménard has, of course, given the necessary instructions for the remaining copies of Mme I. Némirovsky’s works to be sold. As for me, I have been wondering if now would be the time to publish the two manuscripts of hers that I have, her novel
Les Biens de ce Monde
and her biography of Chekhov. Like myself, Monsieur Esménard considers it would be preferable to postpone such publication, for it would perhaps be dangerous to attract attention to her at a time when her situation does not protect her from potentially dreadful reprisals.
Robert Esménard to Julie Dumot 27 December 1944
May 1945 finally bring us peace and the return of your dear absent family.
Albin Michel to Julie Dumot 1945
9000 francs (June–July–August 1945).
Reply of Robert Esménard to R. Adler 8 January 1945
We received the card dated 13 October 1944 addressed to Mme Némirovsky, but alas! we have not been able to forward it to her. In fact, Mme Némirovsky was arrested on 13 July 1942 at Issy where she had been living since 1940 and taken to the concentration camp at Pithiviers, then deported the same month. Her husband was arrested a few weeks later and also deported. All attempts to intervene on their behalf were futile and no one has heard from either of them since. Fortunately, their two little girls were saved thanks to a loyal friend with whom they are living in the provinces. Please believe that we deeply regret having to be the bearer of such news.
Reply of Albin Michel to A. Shal 16 January 1945
Thank you for your card dated 6 November 1944 addressed to Mme Némirovsky. Alas! it will be impossible for us to forward this card to her for our author and friend was taken away in 1942 and marched to some camp or other in Poland. Since then, in spite of many various efforts, we have never been able to learn anything. Her husband had the same fate a few months after his wife. As for the children, they were fortunately entrusted to friends of the family in time and are currently doing well. I deeply regret having to be the bearer of such sad news. Let us not lose hope . . .
Marc Aldanov to Robert Esménard 5 April 1945
(Found[ation] for the relief of men of letters and scientists of Russia—New York)
We have just learned the tragic news regarding Irène Némirovsky from Madame Raïssa Adler. Madame Adler has also told us that her two daughters were saved by one of their grandfather’s former companions. This woman, Mlle Dumot, we understand, is a completely trustworthy person, but unfortunately is lacking in financial means and cannot, therefore, take responsibility for their education.
The friends and admirers of Mme Némirovsky in New York met to discuss how we might be able to help the children. But they are neither numerous nor rich here. As for our committee, today we number about one hundred men of letters and scientists. We have been unable to do enough. This is why we are contacting you, dear Monsieur, to find out if Mme Némirovsky has any funds with her French publishers from royalties and if so, to see if it would be possible for you and your colleagues to place a portion of these fees at the disposal of the two children. We will send you their address.
Robert Esménard to Marc Aldanov 11 May 1945
Mme Némirovsky was, alas! arrested on 13 July 1942, taken to the concentration camp at Pithiviers, then deported. Her husband, a few weeks later, met the same fate. We have never heard from them again and we are terribly worried about them.
I know that Mlle Dumot, who saved the two little girls, is raising them perfectly well. In order for her to do so, I must tell you that since Irène Némirovsky’s arrest, I have sent Mlle Dumot large sums of money which come to nearly 151,000 francs and that we are continuing to provide her with a monthly payment of 3,000 francs.
André Sabatier to Julie Dumot 1 June 1945
I have been thinking of you and your children often since the camp survivors and prisoners have begun to return to France. I am assuming that for the moment you haven’t heard anything or you certainly would have let me know. As for me, I have been unable to find out anything at all. I asked Mme J. J. Bernard
*
32
who knew Mme Némirovsky and who is currently with the Red Cross trying to take the necessary steps to find something out. Naturally, if I hear anything at all, you will be the first to know. There is one question I wanted to ask you: what happened to the manuscripts that were at Issy when Mme Némirovsky was arrested? I heard that there was a long novella she’d finished. Would you happen to have the text? If so, could you send it to me so we could possibly publish it in our journal
La Nef
.
André Sabatier to Father Englebert 16 July 1945
My reason for writing to you will come as a surprise. Here is what it is about: you will surely know I. Némirovsky by name and reputation, one of our greatest novelists of France in the years preceding the war. Jewish and Russian, I. Némirovsky was deported in 1942, as was her husband, and undoubtedly sent to a concentration camp in Poland; we have never been able to learn anything more. Even today, there is total silence and we have, alas! lost any hope of finding her alive.
I. Némirovsky left her two little girls, Denise and Elisabeth Epstein, in France in the care of a friend. I have just seen the woman who has looked after them; she told me that she had managed to get the girls accepted as boarding students with the Dames de Sion [Sisters of Zion]. It was all agreed when, at the last minute, the Mother Superior changed her mind, on the pretext that there were not enough places, which was both a disappointment and a terrible problem for the good woman who is looking after these two little girls. Would it be possible for you to find out exactly what is going on? And if you have influence with these Sisters, could you use it to ensure that Denise and Elisabeth be admitted to the Dames de Sion for the beginning of the school year in October at the latest.
We care a great deal about these two little girls, as you can understand; whatever happens, even if you can do nothing, thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.
Telephone call to André Sabatier 23 July 1945
Chautard (Union Européenne Industrielle et Financière
[European Union of Finance and Industry])
Monsieur de Mézières of the U.E.
*
33
is willing to do something to help Irène Némirovsky’s children, in conjunction with our firm.
[manuscript note on transcript of call: wait until he contacts us]
Would be willing to send 3,000 francs per month.
Has found a religious boarding school near Paris for 2,000 francs per month per child.
Omer Englebert to André Sabatier 7 August 1945
I am pleased to inform you that the Russian Jewish novelist (I can’t recall her name!) whose daughters you wanted to help and whom Monsieur Sabatier recommended to me on your behalf, have been accepted at the Dames de Sion, in Grandbourg near Evry-Petit-Bourg. The Mother Superior has just told me that they can attend at the beginning of the coming academic year.
Julie Dumot (46 rue Pasteur, Marmande) to A. Sabatier 29 August 1945
I do not know how to thank you for your extreme loyalty. I am very happy for the children, especially for Babet who is only eight years old and has her entire education ahead of her. As for Denise, who is doing very well now, she can improve herself in this first-class establishment, as her mother wished. This is why I am so very grateful to you, for having made their parents’ wishes come true. If Denise cannot continue her studies, she must have her Certificate of General Education to be able to work, we’ll find out about that in a few days. Your kind letter reached me here where I have brought the children for their holidays. Denise is completely cured. She had an X-ray which showed that all signs of the pleurisy had disappeared. As for Babet, she is going to have her tonsils and adenoids out next week. I couldn’t have it done sooner, as the doctor is on holiday, which means I’ll get back to Paris a week later than expected.
Yes, Monsieur Sabatier, there was the possibility of the Société des Gens de Letters (Society of Men of Letters) doing something for the children. Monsieur Dreyfus, to whom I explained my situation, saying that I couldn’t manage with my 3,000 francs per month, that Denise had been under medical care for six months, took the matter to his friend, Monsieur Robert, asking for something to be done for the children. The very same day, I informed Monsieur Esménard, who knows all about it. If you need any information about me, Tristan Bernard has known me since I was sixteen.
Albin Michel Publishers to Julie Dumot 3 October 1945
12,000 francs: Sept–Oct–Nov–Dec 1945.
Robert Esménard (note for Mlle Le Fur) 7 December 1945
Friday afternoon, I went to see Mme Simone Saint-Clair who is a member of a committee whose purpose is to come to the aid of I. Némirovsky’s children. Certain individuals and groups are going to deposit a monthly amount to a notary who has been appointed to retain the money until, in theory, they have finished sitting the exams for their
baccalaureat
. Once Denise, the eldest, has passed it, I assume this matter will be reviewed.
Apart from that, these gifts will be received in such a way as to constitute a capital sum for I. Némirovsky’s daughters, which they may use however they wish when they are no longer minors. There is already a certain sum, which includes a payment by the Banque des Pays du Nord where M. Epstein was employed, something in the region of 18,000 francs, corresponding to 3,000 francs a month with a certain number of back payments.
Mlle Dumot will have at her disposal, through the auspices of the notary, X amount to reimburse her for her expenses, then each month an amount to be decided. As for our firm, I have said that from the date of our last monthly payment—the sum of 2,000 francs per month will be paid, without, of course, this amount being deducted from I. Némirovsky’s royalties. In addition, I shall allocate the sum of 2,000 francs per month from Mme Némirovsky’s royalties, dating from the month when I began sending these monthly payments, in other words, these monthly payments will be calculated retrospectively from the date of the first payment.
Widespread announcements will be made in the press to raise money.
W. Tideman to Irène Némirovsky 7 December 1945
I am a journalist working for a newspaper in Leyden (Holland) for whom I have offered to translate a novel or short story from French, in instalments. They have just informed me that they agree in principle to publish whatever I suggest or send them. I explained to them that there would be royalties to pay, which would undoubtedly be much greater for a novel already published here, as the publishers would claim their share, than for a new, unpublished short story, for which they would only have to deal with the author. And I thought of you even though I am only familiar with your novels.
Albin Michel’s reply to W. Tideman 29 December 1945
I have seen the letter sent to my offices addressed to I. Némirovsky and am alas! unable to pass it on to her.
Mme I. Némirovsky was, in fact, arrested in July 1942 then deported to Poland, we think. Since the date of her arrest, no one has heard anything from her.
ENDNOTES
Appendix I
*
1
1941, given the historical indications contained in these entries. (Unless indicated, the footnotes are the translator’s.)
Return to text.
*
2
Germany invaded the USSR on 22 June 1941.
Return to text.
*
3
The
Journal Officiel
reported all laws, decrees, decisions etc. adopted by the government. At this point in time, Marshal Pétain had already been given constitutional powers. See Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France, Old Guard and New Order 1940–1944,
Knopf, 1975, p. 32.
Return to text.
*
4
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
5
The mistake in addition comes from the manuscript. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
6
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
7
The reference to Flaubert and this word appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
8
Characters from
Storm in June
. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
9
Catholic delegate for the Gironde region, Philippe Henriot (1889–1944) was one of the Vichy government’s most efficient and influential propagandists. A member of the Milice—the infamous French political parapolice force that recruited some 45,000 pro-Nazis to crush the Resistance—from its creation in 1943, he entered into the government of Deputy Prime Minister (Vice-Président du Conseil) Pierre Laval at the beginning of 1944 and preached total collaboration. Henriot was killed by the Resistance in June 1944. Laval was tried and subsequently shot after the Liberation of Paris in 1945. See Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France,
p. 298.
Return to text.
*
10
A character from the novel. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
11
Austrian statesman and ambassador to Paris under Napoleon I.
Return to text.
*
12
Paxton mentions Pétain’s “lapidary formula” for defeat in his speech of 20 June 1940: “Too few allies, too few weapons, too few babies” (Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France,
p. 21) and in his speech of 17 June 1940, Pétain stated: “the spirit of enjoyment has won out over the spirit of sacrifice” (ibid., p. 33). Similar sentiments are expressed in
Dolce
through the Perrin ladies (ch. 13) and the Viscount and Viscountess de Montmort (ch. 16).
Return to text.
*
13
The Maginot Line was the line of defence built between 1927 and 1936 along the north-eastern border of France and Germany to prevent German attack.
Return to text.
*
14
The Siegfried Line was the line of defence built between 1938 and 1940 along the western border of Germany. It was destroyed by the Allies in 1944–5.
Return to text.
*
15
These final two words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
16
This initial undoubtedly refers to Laval. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
17
Famous Romantic poem by Victor Hugo.
Return to text.
*
18
Undoubtedly a reference to the German statement that the Third Reich would last a thousand years.
Return to text.
*
19
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
20
Refers to previous paragraph regarding one large volume.
Return to text.
*
21
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
22
“Some of the most notorious figures of the occupation were the Frenchmen who led political groups or published newspapers in Paris in return for the high life of the occupied capital and, in many cases, direct subsidies from the German Embassy” (Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France,
p. 49).
Return to text.
*
23
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
24
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
*
25
“Music, though it does not employ human beings, though it is governed by intricate laws, nevertheless does offer in its final expression a type of beauty which fiction might achieve in its own way. Expansion. That is the idea the novelist must cling to. Not completion. Not rounding off but opening out. When the symphony is over we feel that the notes and tunes composing it have been liberated, they have found in the rhythm of the whole their individual freedom. Cannot the novel be like that? Is not there something of it in
War and Peace
?” (E. M. Forster,
Aspects of the Novel,
Penguin, 2000, pp. 149–50).
Return to text.
*
26
These words appear in English in the notebook.
Return to text.
Appendix II
*
1
Irène Némirovsky’s husband. Like her, a refugee who fled Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution to live in Paris, where he was a bank manager at the Banque des Pays du Nord. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
2
Director of Albin Michel Publishers and son-in-law of Albin Michel who, at this time, no longer managed the publishing house alone for health reasons. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
3
Robert Esménard’s secretary. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
4
Both newspapers which published Irène Némirovsky’s works.
Return to text.
*
5
The sections quoted here are Articles 1 and 3 of this law. It immediately followed the famous law of 3 October 1940 which “excluded Jews from elected bodies, from positions of responsibility in the civil service, judiciary, and military services, and from positions influencing cultural life (teaching in public schools, newspaper reporting or editing, direction of films or radio programmes).” It also defined “Jews racially as anyone with three Jewish grandparents, whatever the religion of the present generation.” See Robert O. Paxton,
Vichy France,
pp. 174–5.
Return to text.
*
6
France is divided into regions known as
départements
, similar to the British counties. These in turn are subdivided into cantons and communes. Each department has a central government representative called the
Préfet,
with several
Sous-Préfets
in the cantons. Note that a distinction is being made between foreign Jews and French Jews. French Jews believed they would remain exempt from such laws. Irène Némirovsky was never granted French citizenship.
Return to text.
*
7
Madeleine Cabour, born Avot, was a great friend of Irène Némirovsky, with whom she corresponded regularly as a young girl. After the war, her brother, René Avot, took care of Elisabeth Némirovsky when the legal guardian of the two girls went to the United States. Elisabeth lived with his family until she came of age. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
8
Since the department of Saône-et-Loire was divided by the demarcation line, it was the
Sous-Préfet
who took the place of the
Préfet
in the occupied section, where the village of Issy-l’Evêque was located.
Return to text.
*
9
Literary Director of Albin Michel Publishers. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
10
Reference to the Free Zone and the Occupied Zone.
Return to text.
*
11
Irène Némirovsky and her husband, Michel Epstein, had brought Julie Dumot to Issy-l’Évêque in case they were arrested. She had been the live-in companion of the children’s maternal grandparents. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
12
This work was actually written by Irène Némirovsky and was published in instalments in the newspaper
Gringoire
in 1941 without mentioning the author’s name. Published in novel form in 1947 by Albin Michel with Irène Némirovsky as author.
Return to text.
*
13
Pithiviers, near Orléans, was one of the infamous concentration camps where children were separated from their parents and imprisoned, while the adults were processed and deported to camps further away, usually Auschwitz.
Return to text.
*
14
The first letter was undoubtedly generously passed on by a policeman and the second by someone she met at the Pithiviers train station. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
15
A Red Cross intermediary. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
16
Great-uncle of Denise and Elisabeth Epstein. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
17
The content of this letter implies he is talking about Jacques Benoist-Méchin. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
18
O.U. 1 July 1941. Comrades. We lived with the Epstein family for a long time and got to know them and they are a very respectable and obliging family. We therefore ask you to treat them accordingly. Heil Hitler!
Return to text.
*
19
Count René de Chambrun was a lawyer and son-in-law of Pierre Laval, whose only daughter, Josée, he married. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
20
For translation, see note 18 on p. 369.
Return to text.
*
21
Paul Morand was a French writer and diplomat who retained his post under the Vichy government. In 1958 he was refused entry into the Académie Française but was eventually admitted in 1968.
Return to text.
*
22
This novel appeared in instalments in
Gringoire
beginning in May 1939. It was published in 2005 by Éditions Denoël under the title
Le Maître des Âmes.
Return to text.
*
23
Concentration camp to the north-east of Paris.
Return to text.
*
24
Michel Epstein’s sister; she would be arrested and deported to Auschwitz. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
25
A French friend of Samuel Epstein, Michel Epstein’s older brother. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
26
Irène Némirovsky’s maid. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
27
President of the Red Cross. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
28
Wife of Paul Morand, but to be safe, it was necessary to use ambiguous names. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
29
A Romanian bishop prince who often came to see Irène. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
30
Age thirteen to fourteen.
Return to text.
*
31
Age eight to nine.
Return to text.
*
32
Mme Jean-Jacques Bernard, wife of the writer Jean-Jacques Bernard, son of [the writer] Tristan Bernard. (Editor)
Return to text.
*
33
Banque de l’Union Européenne (formerly the Banque des Pays du Nord where Michel Epstein was Manager). (Editor)
Return to text.
Preface to the French Edition
*
1
This is an edited version of the preface that appeared in the French edition of
Suite Française
published by Éditions Denoël in 2004.
Return to text.
*
2
The infirmary at Auschwitz where prisoners who were too ill to work were confined in atrocious conditions. The SS would periodically pile them into trucks and take them to the gas chambers.
Return to text.