One Hundred Twenty-One Days

by Michèle Audin

  March 2

  I looked at Jesus on the cross above my bed. He is wounded, too. I took His cross in my hands. I looked at His unfortunate face and He drank my tears.

  March 3, 1917

  I told Mama that Christian asked if I would agree to marry him.

  I don’t dare think back on the mean things Thérèse uttered. And yet, I will. She said he wants to marry me because we’re rich and we have relatives in high places, and besides, I’m not even pretty. And she also said I agreed because I want to show everyone I’m capable of sacrifice, so that, along with my angelic airs, I would appear patriotic. Mama was angry and made Thérèse be quiet while saying I have beautiful blue eyes and “la beauté du diable” (the beauty of youth), and as for Thérèse, who thinks she’s so pretty, we’ll see how she looks at age thirty after having a few children, if someone still wants her in spite of her meanness.

  Mama trusts my opinion.

  On my table, a moonbeam lights up the white statue.

  Our Lady of Lourdes, please help me.

  March 5, 1917

  I spoke to him. He asked the hospital for leave so that he can come see Mama and make his request. His father is much too far away for this to be done by the rules.

  I will be Madame Christian Mortsauf.

  April 2, 1917

  We have set the date, June 23, a Saturday. It will be at Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, our parish, and Father de La Martinière will marry us. Then we will leave for our “honeymoon” at our house in Normandy.

  Today, the cherry trees there must be in blossom.

  His parents won’t be able to come. Not only is it too far, but, with the Krauts’ submarines ready to torpedo any innocent ships that pass, it would be too dangerous. Jean-Baptiste, his younger brother, will get leave to come. He and Cousin Paul will be Christian’s groomsmen. Major de Brisson and Thérèse will be my bridesmaids. Grandfather will walk me down the aisle.

  You will be there in the church, Mary, full of grace, and you will support me with your love.

  I would have loved a simple ceremony, but Father de La Martinière and Major de Brisson insisted, because of the symbol it will be: Christian will represent all of his comrades lost in combat and will wear the full uniform of the École Polytechnique, with the medals for the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur. He was fitted for a mask in black taffeta, which hides the scars and reproduces the shape of his nose. That way he can go without the bandages and wear the cocked hat—I hope the red lock of hair will show from underneath. Cousin Paul, although he is still in full mourning, will wear the green uniform of the French Academy. This means I had to go and be fitted for a dress that is far more complicated than what I would have wanted. I cried when I saw myself in the dressmaker’s mirror. Is this really me? I feel more myself in my canvas blouse. At least the veil reminds me of my nurse’s uniform.

  Mama is busy doing up the apartment on Rue d’Artois, where we will live.

  He is different, too. His family isn’t from the same background as ours. But Cousin Paul says his career looks very promising, and his family is far away.

  Besides, Papa would have been happy to know I’m marrying a young man with such a bright future, who is a good Catholic and a polytechnician.

  CHAPTER III

  One Polytechnician, Three Murders, Twenty-Two Articles

  (1917-1939)

  A POLYTECHNICIAN MURDERS HIS ENTIRE FAMILY

  (Le Petit Parisien, June 25, 1917)

  Yesterday in Le Chesnay (Seine-et-Oise), Roger Goldstein, former student of the École Polytechnique and lieutenant in the 6th Artillery Regiment, killed his father, his mother, his brother, and one of his aunts, who was a nurse at Hospital 209. The family was gathered around their Sunday lunch when the madman fired the mortal gunshots. Alerted by the racket, a female neighbor went to get the police, whom the murderer obeyed without any difficulties.

  THE AMERICANS ARRIVE!

  (L’Ouest-Éclair, June 30, 1917)

  After General Pershing’s arrival in Paris on the 13th, last Tuesday saw the first American soldiers disembark at the port of Saint-Nazaire.

  THE MURDERER HAD HIS SENSE KNOCKED OUT OF HIM!

  (Le Petit Parisien, July 2, 1917)

  We have been informed that Robert Gorenstein (and not Roger Goldstein, as we printed in error), the polytechnician and officer on leave who was arrested last week for the murder of his uncle, his aunt, and his brother (three and not four crimes as was written in haste in a previous article) was a victim of an artillery shell last January. Almost all the men in his battery were killed, and he himself hit his head.

  In a horrible development, according to information gathered from neighbors, the three Gorenstein children were orphans and had been raised by their aunt and her husband.

  At the time, military doctors considered him recovered, and he was sent back to the front. He is presently undergoing psychiatric exams.

  DEATH OF A FLYING ACE

  (Le Soir, September 15, 1917)

  The aviator Georges Guynemer died on Tuesday in Poelkapelle (Belgium). He achieved more than eighty victories in the “Storks” fighter squadron.

  A PLAGUE VANQUISHED

  (Le Petit Parisien, October 2, 1917)

  Typhoid fever has disappeared from the French front.

  COUP D’ÉTAT IN RUSSIA

  (L’Humanité, November 9, 1917)

  The Maximalists are the rulers of Petrograd. Kerensky has been deposed. The fallen government no longer has the support of the Soviets.

  Lenin has won the Soviets’ acclaim. The new government is calling for peace.

  BOLSHEVIK NEGOTIATIONS

  (Le Matin, December 15, 1917)

  The Bolsheviks have started peace negotiations with the Krauts. If they reach an agreement, the liberated German troops will be free to come reinforce our attackers.

  DERANGED POLYTECHNICIAN SHUT AWAY

  (Le Petit Parisien, January 17, 1918)

  The verdict in the Robert Gorenstein affair was announced yesterday. Readers may recall that he was arrested in June after murdering three members of his family. During the trial, the polytechnician, who had injured his head in battle at the Chemin des Dames, declared that he had wanted to eradicate the dead branches of his family. The psychiatrist deemed him irresponsible and as harmless as a little boy, now that he considered his task accomplished.

  In view of this expertise, the court pronounced a sentence of life internment in a psychiatric ward.

  PIERRE MEYER (interview, December 18, 2006). Marguerite never spoke about Gorenstein to anyone, I believe. Until 1945, when her daughter Bernadette left home. She went to get her notebooks from the bottom of the big wardrobe and gave them to Bernadette, asking her to read and save them. The newspaper clippings about the triple murder and the trial were slipped into the notebooks. She had stopped writing when she got married. She gave them to her daughter and died not long afterwards.

  The article on typhoid was also among her papers. It appeared right around the time her sister died of typhus. She was eighteen. Marguerite named her first daughter, Thérèse, after her.

  Bernadette was the fourth. Why she was the one Marguerite gave her diary to, I’m not sure I really ever knew.

  THE G. CASE: A FIRST REPORT

  BY J. MEYERBEER, PSYCHIATRIC DOCTOR, SAINT-MAURICE

  (Gazette of the Association of Psychiatric Doctors of France, Vol. 28, 1920)

  One may recall the bloody criminal story that the daily newspapers had a field day with in 1917–18, probably after being tired of publishing news from the front passed through the sieve of military censure. A multiple family murder, a matricidal (or almost) polytechnician—none other than a journalist would have more reason to celebrate. The goal of this article is to present the patient and his current state, two years after he was hospitalized.

  HISTORY

  Let us briefly recall the facts. On June 24, 1917, Robert G., then 22 years of age, killed his uncle and aunt, Monsieur and Mad
ame H., and one of his sisters, Cécile G., during a family meal. More specifically, as he himself confessed and as the investigation confirmed, he started by shooting his youngest sister, then his aunt, and only killed his uncle when the latter interposed. Monsieur and Madame G. died in an accident when their son Robert was only two years old. Madame H. was his mother’s sister. She and her husband, who had no children, took on the responsibility of raising Nicole, Robert, and Cécile G., then aged four, two, and one. The three children did brilliantly in school; only Cécile, the youngest, was still living with her adoptive parents.

  A student of the École Polytechnique, Robert G. had been mobilized as a second lieutenant of artillery. The only one from his battery to survive after a violent German attack in February 1916, he was hospitalized for a head injury, then sent back to the front in April. During the events of June 1917, he was on a few days’ leave.

  At the court’s request, he was the subject of a psychiatric appraisal performed by our esteemed colleague, Doctor Bergamotte. The latter shared with us his remarks on the report he submitted to the judicial authorities, for which we are grateful. Briefly:

  -the subject was perfectly conscious during the crime,

  -he acted for reasons of eugenics,

  -he declared himself satisfied with having eradicated the deficient branches of the family.

  From the doctor’s interviews with the patient and the exams he performed on him, Doctor Bergamotte concluded that Robert G. would be harmless from that point forward.

  The judge—acting very prudently where a combatant was concerned, one who, moreover, was wounded in the war—was lenient and decided to have him interned. He has been at the Saint-Maurice Hospital, in our unit, for three years.

  We would like to highlight the fact that Robert G.’s eldest sister, Nicole, who is two years older than he, was not present at the fatal lunch. She is very attached to the patient. She was also a witness at the trial. Her love for her brother, in spite of the crime committed against the family, stupefied the jury and bore weight on the decision as well.

  REMARKS ON THE HOSPITALIZATION

  Robert G. is living in a locked room that has been furnished for a long-term stay.

  He is a calm and amiable patient. For this reason, he is well-liked by the staff. He demands far less attention than the noisy, agitated patients who are brought in here wrapped up like dolls.

  He seems to be very satisfied with his situation. Dressed in a hospital gown and a black velvet cap, he spends his days reading and writing.

  He willingly goes along with our questions, enduring them with a look of indifference, which might be feigned.

  He asked to be allowed to use books. He wrote a list of the ones he needed himself, and we asked his sister to bring him the desired volumes. With the exception of Goethe’s Faust, they are all books on mathematics. A bookshelf and a table have been set up in his room so that he can write.

  He has returned to studying mathematical science, to which he had had little time to devote after he left the École Polytechnique, on the very eve of the war. He asked permission to correspond with mathematicians from France and other countries (but not Germany), to which we agreed.

  As he himself has made us note, he can work peacefully, without having to be preoccupied with teaching classes or engaging in other lucrative activities needed to earn a living.

  We will add that he reads a passage from his copy of Faust every evening. This act of reading and the evocation of hell make him cry. Each time we ask for an explanation of these tears, he launches into a long series of reflections which are unclear (and repetitive), with recurring mentions of succubi, which are, according to G., demons with blue eyes.

  He receives regular visits from his sister, sometimes accompanied by her husband.

  A VISIT TO VAL-DE-GRCE

  (L’Humanité, July 14, 1920)

  Here, faces are remade. Just a glimpse at the two photos included in this article will allow you to judge the doctors’ work completed on the broken faces of our soldiers.

  THE SOLEMN HOMAGE OF THE GRATEFUL HOMELAND

  (Le Petit Parisien, November 12, 1920)

  The coffin of the “Unknown Soldier,” placed on a cannon, preceded by the chariot carrying Gambetta’s heart, arrived at the Arc de Triomphe yesterday.

  DID YOU SEE THE ECLIPSE?

  (Le Petit Parisien, April 9, 1921)

  The extreme clarity of the atmosphere allowed curious amateur astronomers to contemplate yesterday’s solar eclipse in all its beauty. The classic method? Good old cheap smoked glass.

  PIERRE MEYER (interview, December 18, 2006, cont.). She felt a tremendous amount of compassion for her husband. His injury caused him to suffer for his entire life. He must have not been very easy to live with. Terrible temper. And that huge household she had to look after, six children! They were very close in age: the youngest, Ignace, was born in 1924. They named him after Mortaufs’s brother, who was killed in 1918. Such an atrocious war…

  It was at that time, when Ignace was born, that they bought the house in Chatou. Marguerite had a personal fortune, and Mortaufs was earning a good amount of money, with all those courses he was teaching in various places.

  ANNOUNCEMENTS

  (Le Figaro, October 24, 1922)

  The professor Christian Mortaufs

  and Madame,

  née Marguerite Janvier,

  announce the birth

  on October 18, 1922, of

  BERNADETTE MARIE BAPTISTINE

  The baptism will take place

  on Tuesday at 10 o’clock in the morning

  at the Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule

  22, Rue d’Artois, Paris, 8th arr.

  —

  Claude Duvivier

  lawyer at the Paris Bar,

  and his wife Nicole,

  née Gorenstein,

  have the joy of announcing

  the birth of their daughter

  MIREILLE ANNE

  on October 17, 1922

  9, Rue de Médicis, Paris, 6th arr.

  THE CLIMB TO THE PANTHÉON

  (Le Petit Parisien, November 23, 1924)

  The final arrangements for the ceremony marking the transfer of Jean Jaurès’s ashes to the Panthéon began yesterday and were completed that very night. This morning, everything will be ready.

  LAWS OF POPULATION FLUCTUATION OF SEVERAL COEXISTING SPECIES IN THE SAME AREA

  BY V. VOLTERRA

  (French Association for the Advancement of the Sciences, Lyon, 1926)

  Let there be two species (of animals, for example). The first gets its food from its natural habitat, and, if it were alone, would grow exponentially. The second does not find food in its natural habitat, and, if it were alone, would decrease exponentially. If the second species were to eat the first, what would happen? […] The fluctuations of the number of individuals of each species are thus periodic. […]

  Let us suppose some animals in each species are destroyed (by fishing). […] We see that, when the intensity of fishing grows, the number of individuals in the first species grows and the number in the second decreases, which is to say that fishing, as verified by statistics from the Adriatic, has a favorable effect before, during, and after the war.

  ELECTROCUTED! A SCIENTIFIC KILLING…

  (L’Humanité, special edition, August 23, 1927)

  Boston, August 23, 12:30 a.m. local time. How to burn a man in an electric chair.

  Madeiros was put in the chair at 12:02. He died at 12:09. Sacco was placed in the electric chair at 12:11. He died at 12:19. Vanzetti was put in the chair at 12:20. He died at 12:26.

  This is not a judicial error. It is an “example.”

  For the proletariat, it’s an open declaration of war!

  THE G. CASE

  BY J. MEYERBEER, PSYCHIATRIC DOCTOR, SAINT-MAURICE HOSPITAL

  (French Review of Psychiatric Medicine, Vol. 11, 1930)

  Twelve years later, we return to the case of G., a former
polytechnician who injured his head in combat, and who was hospitalized after having murdered his aunt, his sister, and his uncle. We refer back to our article in the Gaz. Assoc. Psy. Doc. Fr. (Vol. 28, 1920).

  As we then reported, G. is a calm patient who is well-liked by the staff. In this short note, we revisit his relations with the outside world.

  FAMILY SITUATION

  G.’s oldest sister—who during the first few years visited him regularly and brought him newspapers, and, depending on the season, fruit, cakes, or chocolate—stopped visiting when she gave birth to a baby girl. Apart from the fact that the Saint-Maurice Hospital is not a place for a child, G.’s brother-in-law, a lawyer, thought that her visits could be dangerous for the little girl and thus for her mother as well. She has therefore replaced the visits with regular written correspondence. G. kindly replies to all of her letters.

  CURRENT EVENTS

  Apart from the epistolary exchanges with his sister, G. maintains extensive scientific correspondence with several mathematicians. He also receives periodical mathematics journals and monthly newsletters.

  During our interviews, he never fails to comment on the events he knows something about. His analyses are sometimes surprising in their acuity. Of this we will give but one example, that of the transfer of Jean Jaurès’s remains to the Pantheon (in 1924), which he told us represented a change of mentality, since this act established Jaurès as the war’s first victim.

  MATHEMATICS

  We sometimes think it quite a shame that G. cannot teach mathematics, because he possesses remarkable teaching abilities, which he only has the chance to show during our interviews. We view as evidence the way he summarized an article he was reading on sardine fishing. Here are a few lines from the notes we took during this particular interview:

  “Look at this, Doctor Meyerbeer, during the war, there was less fishing in the Mediterranean, of course, but in what they were catching, there were more and more sharks, in proportion, you see? Well, there’s an Italian scholar who explains this with differential equations. And he proves that, the more sardines are fished, the more sardines there are in the sea.”