The Saboteur
Page 27
171He did the deal with Dohse: Ibid., and Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
171show two German officers résistant compounds: Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
172even more effective than anyone: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
172Roger Landes: Nicolson, Aristide, and Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
172Dohse began to arrest more French agents: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
172roughly 250 fighters: Ibid.
172Landes had to leave the country: Nicolson, Aristide.
172single-handedly wiped out the Resistance: Ibid., and Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
172almost never wore a uniform: Ibid.
172with his mistress: Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
172secretly thought Hitler and the Nazis: Hubert de Beaufort interviews.
173champagne and cognac: Ibid.
173not as terrorists to be tortured: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation, and Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
173the humanity that was their right: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
173“a dangerous adversary”: Ibid.
173his careful interrogation: Nicolson, Aristide.
173he brought in the brutes: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
173a new Resistance group, Actor: Nicolson, Aristide.
173comprised two thousand men: Foot, SOE in France.
174Dohse wanted to nab Landes: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
174were so small and secretive: Foot, SOE in France.
174one of three colored cards: Bordes, Quartier Allemand.
174no crime was more serious: Ibid.
174its twelve holding chambers: Ibid.
174“reception centers”: Ibid.
174“letting off a vile odor”: Ibid.
175light automatically shut off: Ibid.
175French, Czech, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese: Ibid.
175Could he endure more?: La Rochefoucauld recording and La Liberté.
175“feeling at home in the world afterwards”: Semprun, Exercices de Survie.
175even if he couldn’t verbalize it: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. This idea is borne out by how little he says of Auxerre and how he freely admits to wanting to kill himself in Bordeaux, because of what he’d endured under Dr. Haas.
175What a fool, Robert thought: La Rochefoucauld recording. The following discussion is informed by the recording as well as La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté, and the family DVD.
178five sectors that led to the infirmary: Bordes, Quartier Allemand.
178passing cell doors with peepholes: Ibid.
179The guards’ quarters?: La Rochefoucauld recording, La Liberté, and the family DVD informed the rest of this chapter.
CHAPTER 19
181needed to find the fighter: La Rochefoucauld recording, La Liberté, and the family DVD.
182SOE heavy Roger Landes: Nicolson, Aristide.
182“First, I’ll go see him”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. The following discussion is informed by La Rochefoucauld recording, La Liberté, and the family DVD.
184This was likely Ginette Corbin: Nicolson, Aristide.
184Landes’s Resistance group: Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
184the woman coyly said: La Rochefoucauld recording and La Liberté. These sources, and the family DVD, informed the following discussion.
185his Basque beret: Nicolson, Aristide, and Lormier, Bordeaux Brûle-t-il?
185accidentally dropped a suitcase: Nicolson, Aristide.
185too many loose-lipped friends: Ibid.
185thought he was stationed in the Middle East: Ibid.
185“Can I help you Sister?”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. The following discussion is informed by La Rochefoucauld recording and La Liberté.
186twenty-hour days that summer: Nicolson, Aristide.
186the order to execute André Grandclément: Ibid., and Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
186Landes was highly decorated: Nicolson, Aristide.
186Robert said good-bye: La Rochefoucauld recording and La Liberté. The rest of the chapter is informed by these sources and the family DVD.
CHAPTER 20
189one hundred to the railways alone: Léon des Landes military records, and Phillippe Souleau, La Ligne de Démarcation en Gironde: Occupation, Résistance et Société, 1940–1944 (Périgueux: Éditions Fanlac, 2003). The following discussion is informed by these sources.
190nearly one thousand men: Charly’s military records, Ministry of Defense, Paris.
190fifteen years of hard labor: Charly’s fate is spelled out in Courau, Les Poudriers.
190seventy résistants raided: Charly’s military records.
190oversaw a small group of men: Robert de La Rochefoucauld’s military records.
190secretly warned them of a roundup: La Rochefoucauld’s testimony at the Maurice Papon trial.
190“simultaneously intense and limited”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. The rest of this section is informed by La Rouchefoucauld recording and La Liberté.
191refused their patrols: Cobb, The Resistance, notes how the French police state in Paris was virtually nonexistent.
19135,000 FFI fighters: Foot, SOE in France.
191Gen. Jacques Leclerc’s Second Armored Division: Many books recount the fight for Paris. Cobb, The Resistance, offers a good synopsis.
191Hitler’s order to blow up the Eiffel Tower: Ibid.
192Ernest Hemingway: Foot, SOE in France, gives the heroic portrayal of Papa returning enemy fire. But many news sources have since laid out another scenario: That Hemingway drank the afternoon away in the Ritz bar, because the Germans had already left. The Paris website The Local gives a good account of what actually happened. http://www.thelocal.fr/20140822/when-hemingway-took-back-the-ritz-bar.
192“Paris!”: Cobb, The Resistance. De Gaulle’s speech has been widely reprinted.
192“whose destiny does not seem likely to be a nunnery”: Peter Matthews, House of Spies: St. Ermin’s Hotel, the London Base of British Espionage (Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2016).
192Western armies had lost 500,000 men: Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
192made a bonfire on the streets: The liberation of Bordeaux and photos from that day can be found on the website of the Musée d’Aquitaine: http://www.musee-aquitaine-bordeaux.fr/fr/evenement/exposition-la-liberation-de-bordeaux.
192“and crossed the same squares”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
193Napthalenes: Nicolson, Aristide.
193the people of Maillé: Cobb, The Resistance.
193124 people in all: Ibid.
193“A punishment for terrorists”: Lizzy Davies, “64 Years after Massacre, Villagers of Maillé May Get Some Answers at Last,” The Guardian, July 15, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/16/secondworldwar.france.
193felt only savagery and oppression: Cobb, The Resistance.
193guerrillas became de facto mayors: Ibid., and Jackson, France: The Dark Years.
194miniature coffins: Jackson, France: The Dark Years.
194“like feudal lords”: Ibid. Cobb, The Resistance, is also fantastic on the purges.
194French killed in the purges: Cobb, The Resistance.
194had their heads shaved: Ibid.
194“proud when you compare them”: Ibid.
194“lofty coldness”: Jackson, France: The Dark Years.
194the role the Resistance played: Ibid.
194de Gaulle told the SOE boss Roger Landes: Foot, SOE in France.
195reserve officers’ school in Bordeaux: Robert La Rochefoucauld military records.
195“natural sense of command”: Ibid.
195“Will be an excellent reserve officer”: Ibid.
195“very ‘cavalier’”: Ibid.
195“combat that I’d acquired myself”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
CHAPTER 21
197as many as nine thousand soldiers: France
Histoire, chronicled the local fight in the fall of 1944 through 1945: http://www.france-histoire-esperance.com/poche-de-royan-et-pointe-de-grave/.
197no fewer than 218 casemates: Ibid.
197280-millimeter guns: Ibid.
197“pockets”: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation.
197long lines of nasty fortifications: Malise Ruthven, “Hitler’s Monumental Miscalculation,” NYR Daily, June 5, 2014, http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2014/06/05/hitlers-mighty-miscalculation/.
197210,000 mines in Royan alone: http://www.france-histoire-esperance.com/poche-de-royan-et-pointe-de-grave/.
197an impressive defense for its submarine bases: Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation. The Germans called it impregnable, in fact.
197These nine thousand Germans: Some accounts placed it higher: at ten thousand or as high as sixteen thousand troops. Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation, has the higher figure.
198forced eight thousand: Royan’s municipal website has a good page dedicated to what happened toward the end of the war: http://www.ville-royan.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219&Itemid=562.
198Edgard de Larminat: http://www.france-histoire-esperance.com/poche-de-royan-et-pointe-de-grave/.
198with a hierarchy of command: Royan and FFGR military records, Ministry of Defense, Paris.
198nearly twenty-four thousand soldiers: Ibid.
198Col. Jean de Milleret: Robert de La Rochefoucauld and FFGR’s military records.
198not far from Saint-Vivien-de-Médoc: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
199Christmas Day 1944: http://www.france-histoire-esperance.com/poche-de-royan-et-pointe-de-grave/.
199250,000 German troops: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge.
199Soldiers in clogs: http://www.ville-royan.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219&Itemid=562.
199oversaw his troops’ parachute training: Robert de La Rochefoucauld’s military records.
199a nom de guerre for him, Maxim: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
200a fleet of 350 British planes: Howard Zinn, The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997).
200killing 442 civilians: Ibid.
200“I do not have the least desire”: La Rochefoucauld recording.
200no adequate explanation: Zinn, The Zinn Reader. Zinn gets somewhat angry recounting all this.
200Forgotten French Forces: http://www.ville-royan.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219&Itemid=562.
200planning for this mission began: FFGR military records.
200“So I stated my name”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
201“burst out laughing”: Ibid.
201detailed by the twenty-second: FFGR and Point de Grave military records, Ministry of Defense, Paris.
201“badgered the enemy on its lines”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
201“precious information on enemy terrain”: FFGR military records.
201Operation Venerable: http://www.ville-royan.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219&Itemid=562.
202“460,000 gallons of liquid fire”: Zinn, The Zinn Reader.
202a viscous fiery gel: Robert M. Neer, Napalm: An American Biography (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2015).
202“a fantastic concentration of fire”: Zinn, The Zinn Reader.
202“under ceaseless fire”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. The rest of the chapter is informed by La Liberté, La Rochefoucauld recording and family DVD, and La Rochefoucauld’s military records.
CHAPTER 22
209“seized with rage”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté. This paragraph is also informed by the La Rochefoucauld recording.
209the battle for liberation: Zinn, The Zinn Reader.
209consoled themselves with horoscopes: Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
209“would have been more logical”: Zinn, The Zinn Reader.
209“l’aspect moral”: Ibid.
210an estimate of civilians killed or wounded: Ibid.
210“of continuing the fight”: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
210“at the forefront of the squadron”: Robert de La Rochefoucauld’s military records.
210released him from their care: La Rochefoucauld recording. The rest of the chapter is influenced by the recording, La Liberté, the family DVD, and Robert’s military records.
EPILOGUE
213so many evenings in Robert’s life: Conversations with La Rochefoucauld children, in particular Constance Guillaumin.
213just after their marriage in 1955: Constance Guillaumin directed me to her parents’ marriage certificate.
213Pont Chevron: Constance Guillaumin gave me a tour of the house, and I also spoke with Jean de La Rochefoucauld, Robert’s son, who rents out some of the rooms.
213four adult children, seven grandchildren: Conversations with Constance Guillaumin.
214still a striking blond: Robert’s children shared with me many photos of their parents.
214“What’s going on?”: La Rochefoucauld recording.
214didn’t describe the images: Ibid. His children said Robert never spoke about what he endured and how it troubled him—not until his last confession with Constance Guillaumin.
214like something out of another century: Photos of the Legion of Honor event, which the family shared with me.
214in the same social spheres: La Rochefoucauld recording, and conversations with La Rochefoucauld children.
214four other commendations: La Rochefoucauld military records. The medals are kept by La Rochefoucauld’s daughter Constance Guillaumin.
215official government statement: Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d’Honneur, Paris.
215left breast pocket of La Rochefoucauld’s jacket: Photos of the event, courtesy of the family.
215résistants who died alongside him: Conversations with Constance Guillaumin.
215he’d only shared fragments: Conversations with La Rochefoucauld children.
216met Papon in the 1960s: La Rochefoucauld testimony, Papon trial. Also conversations with the La Rochefoucauld family.
216he would ultimately serve: Douglas Johnson, “Maurice Papon,” The Guardian, February 18, 2007, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/feb/19/guardianobituaries.france.
216began discussing the war: La Rochefoucauld testimony, Papon trial.
216“There’s no mystery to it”: Ibid.
217no longer believed that the documents he’d found: Johnson, “Maurice Papon.”
217Robert met with the lawyers: Conversations with François Vuillemin, Papon’s lawyer.
217in 1998: La Rochefoucauld testimony, Papon trial.
217“I left for England in 1942”: Ibid. The following discussion is informed by La Rochefoucauld’s testimony.
218the young man who spit on him: Conversations with Constance Guillaumin.
218an eternal France: La Rochefoucauld, La Liberté.
218“and even the end of another era”: Ibid.
218Charles de Gaulle had perpetuated the myth: Jackson, France: The Dark Years; conversations with scholars like Claude Delasselle, and other Resistance scholars in Paris; Papon trial coverage, in English and French; and The Sorrow and The Pity (1969), which changed perceptions of the Occupation in France.
219“an orgy of collective repentance”: Jackson, France: The Dark Years.
219“his trial acted as a kind of proxy”: Ibid.
219sentenced to ten years: Craig R. Whitney, “Ex-Vichy Aide Is Convicted and Reaction Ranges Wide,” New York Times, April 3, 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/03/world/ex-vichy-aide-is-convicted-and-reaction-ranges-wide.html.
219Robert secretly gave Papon his passport: La Rochefoucauld recording and La Liberté say surprisingly little about this, perhaps because with the passage of time La Rochefoucauld grew contrite. In the moment, however, during two television interviews, he was far more bullish. TF1 broadcast, October 25, 1999; and Third Channel F
rance broadcast, October 24, 1999.
220“I lent him my passport”: TF1 broadcast.
220“I was terribly scared”: Third Channel France broadcast.
220“Whatever they say”: Ibid.
220Swiss authorities extradited Papon: Jon Henley and Peter Capella, “Swiss Extradite Nazi Collaborator Papon,” October 22, 1999, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/oct/23/jonhenley.
220served his sentence in Fresnes: Robert O. Paxton, “The Trial of Maurice Papon,” New York Review of Books, December 16, 1999, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1999/12/16/the-trial-of-maurice-papon/.
220overturned the French court’s ruling: Whitney, “Maurice Papon, Convicted Vichy Official, Dies at 96.”
220ignored by the press: Conversations with La Rochefoucauld family members.
221Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s: Conversations with Constance Guillaumin.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAUL KIX is a deputy editor at ESPN the Magazine. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, New York, Men’s Journal, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. This is his first book. He lives in Connecticut, with his wife and children.
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THE SABOTEUR. Copyright © 2017 by Paul Kix. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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