Vichy’s persecution of Jews is depicted by H. R. Kedward, Occupied France: Collaboration and Resistance, 1940–1944, p. 28.
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“They all must go”: ibid., p. 63.
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The flight of young men from STO is explained by Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944, p. 292, and Kedward, Occupied France, p. 62.
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“With every week that passed”: Kedward, Occupied France, p. 9.
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The Piper-Heidsieck story was recounted by Patrick Forbes, Champagne: The Wine, the Land and the People, p. 215, and expanded upon in an interview with Claude Taittinger.
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SEVEN The Fête
It was through a series of interviews with Gaston Huet that we pieced together the story of the wine banquet. Huet also loaned us a logbook he and other POWs kept, which helped us to better understand how much the fête meant to those being held prisoner.
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Roger Ribaud’s story is derived entirely from the book he wrote in prison, Le Maître de Maison de Sa Cave à Sa Table, which was published after the war.
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EIGHT Saving the Treasure
“France’s most precious jewel”: this term used by Defense Minister Daladier was reported by the Bulletin International du Vin, July/August 1938.
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“The Germans are burning people alive”: part of a story told to us by Jacky Cortot, who recalled during an interview how German soldiers retaliated against the Resistance by torching his village of Comblanchien.
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“Turn Paris into a front-line city”: Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Is Paris Burning?, p. 38.
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The role of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, ibid., p. 117.
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The use of Taittinger champagne bottles for making Molotov cocktails was confirmed by Dominique Lapierre.
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In an interview with us, Claude Taittinger described how his father pleaded with General Dietrich von Choltitz not to destroy Paris.
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he would “burn all the houses”: David Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance, p. 439.
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“Paris is one of the few great cities”: ibid.
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The bombing of the Halle aux Vins: New York Times, August 27, 1944.
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Louis Eschenauer’s efforts to persuade Ernst Kühnemann not to carry out orders to destroy the port are described by several sources, among them Pierre Bécamps, La Libération de Bordeaux, pp. 57–75.
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“top secret” order 1-122-144 is mentioned by Florence Mothe, Toutes Hontes Bues, p. 164.
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“We had put down a tremendous barrage”: Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, How I Liberated Burgundy, p. 3.
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“We would go out on patrol”: Robert H. Aldeman and Col. George Walton, The Champagne Campaign, pp. 111–16.
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The unusual early-warning system in which the French held out bottles of wine is described by Stephen E. Ambrose, The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys, the Men of World War II, p. 229.
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The damage sustained by Château du Clos de Vougeot was described to us in an interview with Jacques Chevignard.
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Al Ricciuti told us about his wartime adventures during an interview at his home in Champagne.
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Ricciuti’s claims that the Germans did not have time to set off explosives was confirmed by Patrick Forbes, Champagne: The Wine, the Land and the People, p. 216, who said he had been told that Himmler had also planted dynamite in the cellars of Epernay. The explosives were to be detonated if the Germans were forced to evacuate the city. Himmler’s motive was to give Sekt producers in Germany a headstart after the war.
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The liberation of Alsace was described at length during interviews with Georges, Johnny and André Hugel.
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NINE Eagle’s Nest
”It will be terrible for my men”: from a letter quoted by André Martel in Leclerc: Le Soldat et le Politique.
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“One minute they were here”: Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, p. 272.
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The decision by the Americans to take the autobahn, ibid., p. 273.
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“It was . . . a fairy-tale land with snowcapped mountains”: ibid., p. 273.
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The legend of Barbarossa is told by Robert Payne, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, p. 354.
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Hitler’s efforts to turn Berchtesgaden into a fortress, ibid., pp. 351–54.
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“It occurred to Hitler”: ibid., pp. 352–53.
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Bernard de Nonancourt’s exploits were described to us during a lengthy interview at his home in Champagne.
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Hitler’s reluctance to visit Eagle’s Nest, Payne, Life and Death of Adolf Hitler, p. 353.
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General Haislip’s anger at having been beaten by the French is reported by Martel in his biography of Leclerc.
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“It’s been a long and hard road”: ibid.
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TEN The Collaborator
Much of the information about Louis Eschenauer’s personal life came from an interview with Bordeaux journalist and winegrower Florence Mothe, whose stepfather worked for Uncle Louis. She expanded on that information in interviews with us and with Dr. J. Kim Munholland of the University of Minnesota. She also described it in her book, Toutes Hontes Bues.
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“You couldn’t get in unless”: quote from Mothe.
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Much of the information about the German departure from Bordeaux was discovered in the archives of Sud-Ouest.
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“I had only one goal”: Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944, p. 368.
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“coiffure ’44”: from Gertrude Stein, who was quoted in Corinne Verdet’s Summer of ’44, p. 70, as saying, “Today the village is tops-turvy, because they are going to shave the heads of the girls who compromised themselves with the Germans. It’s what they call Coiffure 44 and it is terrible because they are shaved in public.”
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“No Resistance historian should try”: H. R. Kedward, Occupied France: Collaboration and Resistance, 1940–1944, p. 77.
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Statistics concerning those charged with collaboration, ibid., p. 77.
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“Not all of it is of the same character”: from government documents obtained by Dr. J. Kim Munholland.
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The charges against Eschenauer and his contention that “I am not a collaborator” are contained in the November 10 and 12 editions of Sud-Ouest, 1945.
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Details of Eschenauer’s closed trial were discovered in government documents obtained by Florence Mothe, copies of which were shared with Dr. J. Kim Munholland.
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ELEVEN I Came Home Not Young Anymore
Huet’s liberation from a POW camp was described to us by Huet during an interview.
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Mother Nature’s conspiracy against winegrowers is depicted in a wartime diary kept by the Lawton brothers of Bordeaux.
Robert-Jean de Vogüé’s survival and return home were described to us by his son, Ghislain.
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Claude Fourmon was still visibly shaken and could barely speak as he struggled to tell us how he survived.
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Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s return to Mouton and his wife’s arrest by the Gestapo were recounted to us by their daughter, Philippine.
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“I can never look at the road”: Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Vivre la Vigne: Du Ghetto de Francfort à Mouton Rothschild, 1744–1981, p. 70.
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Jean Monnet and France’s economic recovery program: Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties, pp. 590–91.
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The eradication of hybrids by Hitler Youth brigades was described by Georges Hugel in an interview.
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Court action declaring that the gift of the Clos du Maréchal be null and void is cited in the Bulletin of the Centre Beaunois d’Études Historiques, No. 37, November 1990.
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In an interview with Robert Drouhin, we learned how the gate of the Clos was torn down.
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The auction of Pétain’s wines conducted by Georges Rappeneau is cited by the Beaune Historical Society.
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Most of the information about the Chapitre de Résurrection came from the archives of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.
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