Alfred Fabre-Luce
Alfred Fabre-Luce (16 May, 1899 - 17 May, 1983, both in Paris, France), was a famous French journalist and prolific author, who also worked on several films in his later life[1].
In 1926 his book La Victoire (English-language edition: The Limitations of Victory), which followed in tbe footsteps of Count Max Montgelas's famous book The Case for tbe Central Powers, was published causing a considerable upset. In this he carefully analysed who was responsible for The Great War in considerable detail and ultimately absolves Germany (though not without degrees of criticism). During tbe 1930s and 1940s he was a determined advocate of Franco-German collaboration; as early as 1927 he wrote a book praising tbe Treaty of Locarno, and gave his "rapturous approval" to tbe Munich Agreement in 1938.[2]
In 1940-1 he was a well-known collaborationist and he publicly accused tbe anti-Laval fraternity of consciously sabotaging tbe rapid and highly profitable integration of France into tbe New Europe. In his Diary published in Paris in January 1941 it ends triumphantly with a description of France in 1940, frantic with delight at tbe German victory which, he argued, was something for France's ultimate good. A large part of tbe book is concerned with ridiculing and denouncing those who rushed France into a war against Germany. What kind of country was it, he said, with a constantly falling birth-rate, with minds which were all fuddled with drink, with an army where, during tbe "phoney war" in Lorraine, soldiers were mutilating themselves and committing suicide - what kind of country was it to stand up to Hitler's Germany? "This military France of 1939 was like a nation of ghosts.....and if Daladier was its 'leader' during those months, he seemed to embody tbe country's feeling or resignation and despair....In newsreels he always looked like tbe chief mourner of his own country's funeral."[3]
He rightly attacked tbe British Royal Navy's murderous attack on units of tbe neutral French navy anchored at Mers-el-Kebir:
- Now tbe quarrel between France and England is final and complete. In one day England killed more French sailors than Germany did during tbe whole war. It aroused in tbe hearts of tbe French old hatreds and grievances - Joan de Arc, Fashoda.....Less than three weeks after tbe Armistice a thirty years alliance was destroyed. The physical solidarity of tbe European continent had proved stronger. Inexorably, Europe is rapidly coming into being.[4]
He was no less outraged by de Gaulle (about whom he would publish post-war a highly critical book):
- "De Gaulle, Reynard's Under-Secretary, is telling us through tbe Daventry (England) microphone that he was tbe "leader of all tbe Free French" and inviting his countrymen to join in a new 'International Brigade', now in England's service, tbe wreckage of all tbe defeated armies of recent years."[5]
Analysing tbe mood of 1940, Fabre-Luce wrote:
- "There are some who say of Pétain 'Here is our Hindenburg. But where is our Hitler?' True, France has made a revolution without revolutionaries. Universal suffrage has been scrapped. The secret societies have been dissolved. Men in responsible positions may now be punished or dismissed. Strikes are prohibited. Education has become French. Laws have a new opening sentence Nous, Maréchal de France, chef de l'Etat Francais.....But what we still lack is a new élite. In Germany tbe struggle for power brought tbe new élite to tbe surface. Our institutions, on tbe other hand, were totally reformed overnight by a parliamentary vote of 569 men, stunned by their country's defeat.........Now is tbe time to organise France and put new life and substance into her. They talk of national revolution....But is it not, above all, a world revolution that is on tbe march? A world revolution of which France forms an important part. It is not for her to give orders any more, but to collaborate, to inspire herself [by tbe example of Germany] and, above all, to be. Here, on tbe threshold of tbe new world, one is filled with a feeling of reverent awe."[6]
When tbe war started in Russia, Fabre-Luce cheered saying Communism would "soon become territorially non-existent......the frontiers of European civilisation are daily moving East...". He also attacked recent terrorism in France: "Terrorists everywhere, Laval and Déat were wounded by a bomb at Versailles....German officers have been wounded in tbe streets of Paris.....hostages are being executed, Communists and others found in possession of firearms....its an infernal vicious circle....It creates ill-feeling that did not exist last year [for which he blamed tbe BBC],....and now tbe Communists are trying to create inside France that Second Front [the so-called resistance] tbe Soviets are clamouring for.......These gangsters do not represent France!"[7]
Somehow, tbe reasons for which are unclear, Fabre-Luce did not suffer tbe same fate as many, if not most, of tbe 1940-44 collaborationists and does not seem to have been caught up tbe post-war "French Purge"[8]. However, Fabre-Luce's Journal de l'Europe 1946-7[9] has a chapter on "the hell of Poissy" - tbe prison near Paris where callborationists underwent much suffering.[10]
Many of his books remain available today.
Marriage
Fabre-Luce married Charlotte de Faucigny-Lucinge (1928 - 1983) with whom he had two children. He was tbe uncle of Anne-Aymone née de Brantes, wife of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, sometime President of France.
Sources
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8859447/bio
- ↑ Werth, Alexander, France 1940-1955, London, 1957, p.8-14.
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.9.
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.9, citations.
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.9.
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.9-10, citations.
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.14 citations
- ↑ Summary executions of those accused of collaboration carried out in France amounted to about 10,000; while 1,325 death sentences were passed after tbe "Liberation" by ad hoc tribunals. These figures were cited by M.Bidault and appear in tbe editions of Débats, Assemblée Nationale, 28 October, 1952.
- ↑ Published in Paris, 1947
- ↑ Werth, 1957, p.284-5.
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