After Louis' generation came the Young Turks ( Jeunes Turcs), born too late to fight in the First World War, but often fatherless because of it. Henry Coston was their most indefatigable representative, whilst Pierre Clémenti, who reduced Coston's Francistes to ruin and absconded with Coston's wife, was the most criminal. Most of them were former followers of Maurras, la Roque or Coty, but had by the mid-1930s chosen new leaders.
Pierre Clémenti (1910–82): Professional anti-Semite, fascist, journalist, took over Coston's Francistes in August 1934. A suspected arms trafficker, failed politician and client of Fleischhauer, he was often at war with Coston. He joined the LVF and fought on the Russian front. Disputed again with other collaborationists on his return, including Christian de la Mazière, a notable performer in Le Chagrin et la pitié. Throughout he was an informer for the Germans. Sentenced to death in 1948, he was reprieved, and freed after five years to repeat the same performances over Algeria.
Henry Coston (sometimes Henri) (1910–2001): Coston said he came across the works of édouard Drumont in his uncle's attic, and so joined Action Française at the age of sixteen. With fellow anti-Semite and journalist Jacques Ploncard d'Assac he rescued and reissued Drumont's Libre parole in 1928.In May 1930 he founded his Anti-Jewish Youth. In 1933 he formed his own fascist party, the Francistes, not to be confused with Marcel Bucard's party of the same name. The similarity of his approach to Hitler's caused a rift with Maurras. The Nazis financed Coston as early as 1934; in 1935 he stood as an anti-Semitic “France for the French” candidate for the Paris city council as Drumont and Morès had before him, and like them both, but unlike Darquier, he failed. His CDP (Centre de Documentation et de Propagande), and Libre parole poured out tracts, brochures, reviews, books, badges, stamps and stickers. Some of his tracts were notorious for printing an anti-Semitic text on the other side of a hundred-franc note. The names of his organisations, offices and publishing houses changed again and again, but the impetus was always the same. Coston wrote literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of books and pamphlets. By the time Louis met him, in 1934–35, he had already published Parliament Under the Orders of Freemasonry (1931), The Masonic Cartel Against France (1932), The General Directory of French Freemasonry, The Lodges and Their Principal Leaders (1933), Celebrated Freemasons, Nationalist Words and The Mysteries of Freemasonry (1934). The following year his works included The Jewish Conspiracy and Jews and Freemasons Unmasked. Coston left Paris in August 1944, after destroying nearly all his papers. Arrested in Austria in 1946, he was sentenced in 1947 to hard labour for life, confiscation of his assets and dégradation nationale. He spent five years in prison, was released for ill health in April 1951 and granted amnesty in 1959.He never ceased to write and to publish voluminously, using every outlet and form available, and also the services of his wife, so that he became an invaluable archivist and chronicler of the far right in France. His major work was his five-volume Dictionnaire de la politique française, a prodigious work, recording with malice and bias the underbelly of French history in the twentieth century.
Louis Darquier in his footnotes to the Protocols.
Jean to René, undated, probably October 1936.
Le Voltaire, 27 June 1936; BNF JO-77305.
AAPA: 24 February 1937 Herr Feihl, head of the press office at the German embassy in Paris, gives a full account of Castille's visit and Darquier's request for money (Feihl to the German Foreign Ministry, with footnote by Ambassador Welczek, 18 February 1937). Castille showed Welczek a letter from “Baron Darquier de Pellepoix.” Another approach seems to have been made later when Louis planned to visit Dr. Bohle, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and head of the AO, the foreign organisation of the Nazi party. Police reports of Louis' Anti-Jewish Union of France meetings state that they were very ill-attended at this point, and as to lawyers, I have traced only three. Welczek also told the ministry that because of “divisions between the right and the Popular Front, new, radical right-wing parties are being founded and their representatives come to the German embassy asking for money or material support.” He mentioned Bucard, and Renaud of Solidarité Française, and requests for funding from other newly formed extreme right-wing political parties.
Elizabeth Büttner (dates unknown): Women are not easily found without knowing the name of husband, maiden name or date of birth. On Elizabeth Büttner's chequebook there was an address in Berlin, Uhlandastr. 167/8 Berlin-Charlottenberg, now occupied by a company called Frankenstein. This turned out to be Frankenstein, H., publishing director, head of the Prämien Reklame GmbH (Bonus Advertising Ltd.), registered at Uhlandstrasse 167/168.The caretaker there refused to talk, and we could not find any records of old tenancies. Postbank, the legal successor of Postscheckamt Berlin, where Elizabeth Büttner had her bank account, confirmed her address and stated that she cancelled the account on 8 April 1940, but cannot explain how she was not listed at the given address, while Frankenstein was. Many other avenues were pursued, with no result. Elizabeth Büttner, according to l'Humanité, had, like Abetz, been expelled from Britain before the war. Today there are over six hundred Büttners in Berlin. I tracked down a Eugen Walter Büttner, an SS leader in Freiberg, a sadistic commander of various concentration camps—he had three daughters. There was also a Walter Büttner in Ribbentrop's Foreign Office, of whom “Missie” Vassiltchikov gives a good account—inasmuch as she hated him—in her Berlin Diaries. This Büttner, born in 1908, was obviously a Nazi. The Landesarchiv in Berlin confirmed that there was a Walter Büttner married to an Elizabeth Büttner, whose maiden name was Glintzer, but this also proved a dead end.
The file for Louis' trial before the Haute Cour de Justice in 1947 refers to counterfoils from a chequebook. These were taken during a search of his premises at rue Laugier in 1939; they were given back to him in 1942 when he requested the return of his seized property after his appointment to the CGQ J, then seized again when investigating officers from the Haute Cour searched Gérard's home on 12 February 1945. “It seems obvious that these items were gathered up along with my personal effects,” said Gérard. When asked about this in 1945, and again in 1947, Gérard said that when Darquier got back his property in 1942 he was “also given items that did not belong to him,” and denied all knowledge of Elizabeth Büttner. The chequebook belonged to Büttner, resident in Berlin, and the counterfoils detail payments made to several leaders of French extreme right-wing parties (Coston, Bucard, Clémenti, de Gobineau) and two payments made to Darquier de Pellepoix: one of 2,500 Reichsmarks on 4 January 1937, and another of 3,000 Reichsmarks on 25 August 1938. The bank concerned is only referred to by the initials BIC or BIG—possibly the Banque Internationale de Commerce in Paris.
Jean Luchaire (1901–46): Journalist and editor. A member of the Radical Party and supporter of the Popular Front. Like de Monzie he was pro-European, pro-peace and pro-Munich. His Une Generation réaliste, published in 1928, summed up the views of those too young to have fought in the war, Henry de Jouvenel's son Bertrand being one such. During the Occupation he launched Les Nouveaux temps, a leftish, collaborationist daily. Luchaire belonged to the Abetz/Laval camp, like Déat, though without the latter's principles. He was utterly venal, and took money from anyone for anything. He also had much in common with a man like de Monzie, politically and as a bon viveur ; he was, however, more honest and self-knowing. After the Liberation he fled with others to Sigmaringen, where with de Brinon and Darnand he was part of a trio of government in exile. He escaped to Italy, where he was arrested in 1945, condemned to death and shot. His daughter Corinne was a well-known actress of the time.
Fernand de Brinon (1885–1947): First World War veteran. Lawyer and journalist. Rabid anti-Semite and advocate of Hitler: “Hitler has always detested the shedding of blood.” Some sources say he was the son of a marquis. Others suggest that like Louis Darquier, he “borrowed” his title of Comte. Served under Pétain in the trenches. Worked for a Greek millionaire who was an occasional importer of cocaine. Marri
ed the actress Jeanne or Yvonne Ducas, lost her, and his money on racehorses, then married Lisette Franck, a wealthy Jewish woman; through her he worked for the Jewish bank Lazard Frères. Friend of Ribbentrop. First French journalist to interview Hitler (Le Matin and l'Illustration, December 1933). Laval's secretary in September 1940 before becoming chargé de mission in Paris, i.e. Vichy ambassador in the Occupied Zone, at the Hôtel Matignon where Laval spent his time in Paris. To de Brinon's rooms there came thousands of French supplicants, which made him one of the most hated of all French collaborators. From April 1942 he was also in Laval's Vichy cabinet. Lisette de Brinon spent most of the war safe in the countryside, which was just as well, as de Brinon was given to complaints about “Yids” and “Youpins” at his numerous dinner parties, even in her presence. During the Occupation he formed a trio of power with Abetz and Laval. Formed Groupe Collaboration, successor to the pre-war Comité France–Allemagne, and was president of the LVF committee. In Sigmaringen he headed its government in exile. Arrested in Bavaria in 1945, tried in 1947, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. Pierre Drieu la Rochelle (1893–1945): First World War veteran. Fascist intellectual, poet, novelist, essayist and editor of La Nouvelle revue française during the Occupation. Friend of Abetz and for a time a follower of Doriot. Committed suicide in March 1945.
Monseigneur Jean Mayol de Lupé (1873–1955): See Chapter 20,n. 5.
This Foreign Office document (TNA: PRO FO 371/31941–Z3005), written by the Foreign Research Press Office at Balliol College in 1942, is not entirely trustworthy, as it couples Baroness von Einem with Elizabeth Büttner as one of Abetz's espionage assistants. If this refers to Elizabeth von Arnim, the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden, then I find it very unlikely. It could however be a reference to another member of the German family into which Elizabeth von Arnim married. As Professor Achim von Arnim, SA Gruppenführer, was president of Abetz's German branch of this organisation, this is probably the case.
If the money did not come from Abetz, it may still have come from Ribbentrop's office through the multitude of Nazi conduits—Fleischhauer, Streicher—available to support men like Louis Darquier before the war. The list of names implies Fleischhauer's contacts.
No. 53, 24 April 1937, Bulletin du Club National AN 26 AS/6.
The vice presidents of the Comité Antijuif de France were Jean Boissel and Philippe Poirson of the Union Anti-Maçonnique de France (Anti-Masonic Union of France), founded in 1895 and revived in March 1935 by a Parisian deputy and war veteran, Dr. Georges Cousin (1886–?), who also founded the parliamentary party group devoted to fighting Masonry, of which Xavier Vallat and Jean Ybarnégaray were members. Darquier met Poirson in 1934, when he was working for le Jour.
Bulletin du Club National no. 53, 24 April 1937.
CDJC CCXIV-78.
La France enchaînée, October 1938, quoted by Crémieux-Brilhac: BBC, 1 July 1942, and also in CDJC CCXIV-78.
CHAPTER 10
On the Rampage
INTERVIEWS AND CORRESPONDENCE: Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, Danny Puddefoot, Alistair Rapley, Pat Smalley, Tasmania J., Teresa. Sources: Darquier family correspondence; AN 26 AS/6; AN 3W142; AN 72 AJ 592: Fonds Vanikoff; AN AG/3(2)326 (BCRA); AN F714781: confidential note of the Sûreté Nationale; AN F714781: dossier of Charles Roze, secretary to Darquier de Pellepoix; APP GA D9, 25 February, 25 November 1935, 5 November 1936, 31 December 1938, 6 January 1939; APP GA R4, 14 April and 30 May 1938; Archives Départementales du Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg, 98 AL698: Fonds Valot; Bibliothèque de Paris, Bottin Mondain; BMO, 5, 7 and 14 April, 30 November 1937; BNF FRBNF-31370526; BNF JO-77305;CAC 880509,art. 15, investigatory file (dossier d'instruction); CDJC CCCLXXIX-3, March 1937; CDJC CCXIV-78; TNA: PRO FO 892/163.Publications: L'Antijuif, 22 May, 3 and 26 June, 17 July, July–August (Special Propaganda Edition), 25 October, 30 November, 4 and 18 December 1937; Ben-Itto, Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion; Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933; Bollmus, Das Amt Rosenberg und Seine Gegner, Brechtken, Madagaskar für die Juden; Bulletin du Centre de Documentation et de Vigilance,no. 59; Byrnes, Antisemitism in Modern France, vol. 1; Cohn, Warrant for Genocide; Le Crapouillot; Le Droit de vivre, 5 February and 16 April 1938; Dubard, “En buvant un verre avec Céline,” la France enchaînée, 15 December 1938; l'Excelsior, 5 March and 5 May 1938; La France enchaînée, 19 April 1938 and 3 August 1939; Gordon, Collaborationism in France; Halls, Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France; l'Histoire,no. 15, October 1992; Hoffman, Change and Tradition; Jackson, The Popular Front in France; Joly, “Darquier de Pellepoix: ‘Champion, ’ ” Darquier de Pellepoix et l'antisémitisme français; Kaplan, Relevé des sources et citations dans Bagatelles pour un massacre; Princess Karadja, King Solomon: A Mystic Drama, www.sacred-texts.com; Kingston, Anti-Semitism in France during the 1930s; McCarthy, Céline; Marrus and Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews; Paxton, Vichy France; Randa, Dic tionnaire commenté de la collaboration française; Le Réveil du peuple, 15 March 1936; Taguieff (ed.), L'Antisémitisme de plume; Vitoux, Céline; BNF: Le Voltaire, 25 April 1936; Weber, Action Française.
BMO, 30 November 1937.
Tasmania J.
Ibid.
Taguieff, p. 398.
APP GA R4, 14 April 1938.
Tasmania J.
Neither Danny Puddefoot nor Alistair Rapley believe Elsie could speak French, but Pat Smalley, a neighbour in Hazel Crescent, is certain of it. Elsie worked for other members of the upper classes before she came upon the Darquiers: this may be how she learned it.
“In order to mark the foundation of the Anti-Jewish Union of France with a gesture of solidarity and to make more efficient the battle that we are leading to create a France for the French, we have decided to combine the Bulletin of the National Club and the Bulletin of the Centre for Information and Propaganda in a single publication… l'Antijuif.” L'Antijuif, 20 May 1937.
Joly, Darquier de Pellepoix,pp. 109–110 quoting l'Antijuif of 3 June 1937.
Brechtken, pp. 50, 69, 70.
There were various predecessors of l'Antijuif, including the newspaper of Father E. A. Chabauty in 1881 and that of Jules Guérin, disciple of Drumont, during the Dreyfus case.
Joly, Darquier de Pellepoix,p. 127.
Bernard Lecache (1895–1968): First World War veteran, joined the Communist Party, wrote for l'Humanité but left both. In 1927, horrified by the pogroms in the Ukraine, founded the Ligue Internationale contre l'Antisémitisme (LICA) and the newspaper Le Droit de vivre (The Right to Live). An anti-fascist and lifelong militant, he remained president of LICA (now LICRA, the added “R” being for “Racisme”) until his death.
Five Nazi organisations were funding men like Louis Darquier in these years:
The German Foreign Office. Louis applied to them by way of Ambassador Welczek in January/ February 1937. Another approach seems to have been made later when Louis planned to visit Dr. Bohle, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the AO, the foreign organisation of the Nazi Party. See extract from a note sent by the Interior Ministry on 9 July 1938 in Goebbels' note below.
The Ribbentrop Bureau, established in 1934, until Ribbentrop himself became Foreign Minister in 1938. Ribbentrop had much more money at his disposal than Rosenberg. Louis received money from Abetz/Büttner or Fleischhauer/Büttner; reports differ. Sources: a) in Louis Darquier's trial dossier AN 3W142; b) CAC 880509,art. 15, investigatory file (dossier d'instruction) of the Cagoule for the correspondence between Louis Darquier and Emilie Vasticar; c) Crémieux-Brilhac used information from Manfred Simon (1898–?) in his BBC “Ici Londres” programmes in 1942—AN AG/3(2)326 (BCRA). Simon was a German-Jewish industrialist and expert on international law; emigrant to France, pacifist, philanthropist, contributor to educational and Jewish causes. A lawyer and economist with a doctorate of law from the Sorbonne; an anti-Nazi, he had good contacts with German resistance groups and those in exile. He fed important intelligence to the French Resistance and British gove
rnment, and to de Gaulle and the Free French in London. Simon reported that it was Fleischhauer, not Abetz, who funded Darquier. Sources for Simon: interview with Crémieux-Brilhac, 8 October 1998; Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933, which gives the following sources: Institut für Zeitgeschichte and Privatarchiv Hanns G. Reissner, Princetown, USA; also CV written by his sister, Sofie van Neyenhoff-Simon, at Institut für Zeitgeschichte, München. First Büttner cheque: 4 January 1937. For Manfred Simon's thesis: BNF FRBNF-31370526.
Rosenberg's Foreign Office of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg funded Fleischhauer, who funded Louis Darquier, Coston et al., but we are in a more unfathomable area here, and it may well be that the Büttner connection was by way of Rosenberg and not Abetz, though the British Foreign Office was certain of the Abetz connection. See Bollmus, pp. 121–2 and throughout. See also extract from a note sent by the Interior Ministry on 9 July 1938 in Goebbels note below. During the Vichy years Rosenberg's other activity, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in Paris, was the official state agency for looting Jewish possessions, so Louis Darquier had much to do with this office then. Grau (see below) worked there. Coston met Fleischhauer and Streicher in 1934; Louis connected with Coston in 1935.
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