ARAGON Louis [Paris, 1897 - Paris, 1982],... - Lot 6 - Varenne Enchères

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  3. ARAGON Louis [Paris, 1897 - Paris, 1982],... - Lot 6 - Varenne Enchères
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ARAGON Louis [Paris, 1897 - Paris, 1982],... - Lot 6 - Varenne Enchères
ARAGON Louis [Paris, 1897 - Paris, 1982], French writer and poet. 3 autographed pieces signed. 1 page in-4° signed "Aragon", 2 pages in-4° signed "François la colère", 1 page in -4° signed "François la colère". - On the occasion of the thousandth "Le soir" I was about to write an article to present our newspaper to our readers. But I find in my mail this morning, the following letter. It comes from one of our collaborators of five years ago, from whom I had not had anything since the day I was mobilized on September 1, 1939. Better than anything I could say, it expresses the French team spirit and independence that made the success of "le soir", today the biggest evening paper, the first paper by sales in the Paris area. I therefore give the floor to our theatrical columnist, Claude Briac, an escaped prisoner from Germany, and through him to all those who have not yet joined us, and who are our poignant, our bleeding concern. Aragon". - For four years, men betrayed France. They sat in the Vichy councils, they administered our cities, they ransacked our countryside. They were clothed in the signs of the dignity that commands, they [...] the language and the flag of France. They were not children, and the fact that they were commanded by an old man does not excuse what would be considered blindness today. One of them was prefect of Lyon. Under his authority, the police in the service of the enemy hunted down patriots in this city that General de Gaulle called the capital of the resistance. I have just been sentenced to death, before the regular court, by a French jury. Now, in the morning paper, an editorialist who is a distinguished writer defends this prefect. This prefect, he says, is not a traitor, because no characterized act of treason has been retained against him. But a little further on he adds "that Angeli prefect was severe, conforming to the directives of Vichy". These directives, this severity in the application of these directives, is not characterized treason? [...] Should I tell him that I believe he is mistaken if he believes himself bound by truth and gratitude to come and give his testimony? I, too, received (from a police lieutenant, for my part) an indirect notice of the same kind, [...] of the intentions of the Gestapo towards me. Many men in the Resistance received similar notices. But, in fact, it was always men like us, I mean writers, people of a certain notability... The small fry of the Patriots were not advised of anything. For these prefects, these police lieutenants, let's make no mistake about it, were taking insurance on the future. - Let's speak French - We were not at war with Hitler, although we had declared war on him. The Fifth Column was everywhere. In the academies, at the Censorship, in the army and even in the government councils. Slander was rife against those who said that our best friends were the Russians. The French people were considered as a bunch of thugs, rioters and common people, and they were made to feel it. Nothing was done to develop war production. The big bosses, seeking revenge for '36, were preparing for defeat in their idle factories. The mobilized workers understood a little less every day what they were doing tramping around in the mud, many of them without walking shoes; no propaganda against fascism was made to them. This went on for several months. Then one fine day, on the borders of Holland and Belgium, Hitler attacked with his panzer decisions. The front was broken... This was not in 1944, but in 1939-40, and this is what we call the phoney war. Whoever wants to see another phony war again, raise your hand".
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