Americans in Paris: Life & Death Under Nazi Occupation (73 page)

p. 383 ‘I was in love with the daughter’
Yves Pourcher,
Pierre Laval vu par sa fille d’après ses carnets intimes
, Paris: Le Cherche-Midi, p. 70.

p. 383 The Federal Reserve chief
Sylvia Jukes Morris,
Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce
, New York: Random House, 1997. On p. 17, the author wrote that Clara and Aldebert had dinner in Washington with Eugene and Agnes Meyer in 1932 just before Meyer bought the
Washington Post
. René was living in New York at the time. The author added, ‘Not many years before, Alice’s [Roosevelt’s] husband, Nicholas, Speaker of the House, had been surprised in flagrante delicto with Cissy [Patterson] on a bathroom floor.’

p. 383 There was also an aversion
Clara confessed that, when her cousin Margaret married Pierre de Chambrun in 1895, ‘I could not disguise from myself that I felt badly about Margaret’s marriage, just as two years before I had taken her conversion [to Catholicism] rather hard, not that my own Protestantism was at all of a militant character, for we had all been brought up in the atmosphere of tolerance which is one of the best characteristics of Cincinnati’ (Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Like Myself
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936, p. 29). For Clara, tolerance won out when she married Pierre’s brother, the Catholic Aldebert, six years later. For René to marry a woman of German-Jewish background, though, may have been less acceptable. René’s reluctance to stray beyond family bounds explained, in part, his loyalty to a father-in-law whom the Allies believed incarnated French submission to Germany. Eugene Meyer bought the
Washington Post
at a bankruptcy sale in 1933, and in 1939 Florence Meyer married Austrian character actor Oscar Homulka. Her younger sister, Katharine, married Philip Graham and later became publisher of the
Washington Post
.

p. 384 ‘We had risked spending’
René de Chambrun,
Sorti du rang
, p. 239.

p. 384 ‘Come now! Good’
Will Brownell and Richard N. Billings,
So Close to Greatness: A Biography of William C. Bullitt
, New York: Macmillan, 1987, p. 302.

p. 384
Ibid.
, p. 304.

p. 385–6 ‘Heartbroken as I was … Inside the gardens’
Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen: The Story of My Life
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949, pp. 219–20.

p. 386 ‘Whatever happens … the Führer’
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?
, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965, p. 141.

p. 387 ‘Amateurish barricades sprang’
de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 224.

p. 387 ‘The children engaged’
Sylvia Beach,
Shakespeare and Company
, London: Faber and Faber, 1960, pp. 222–3.

p. 388 ‘We heard that ‘“they”’
Ibid
., p. 223.

p. 388 The area commander
General Aldebert de Chambrun to the Board of Directors of the American Hospital of Paris, 9 December 1944, p. 5 (of a 7 page typescript), in Archives of the American Hospital of Paris, File: American Hospital Report: 1940–1944. Otto Gresser, the hospital’s superintendent of administrative services during the occupation, wrote that the Germans in Neuilly had ‘18 guns, 5 tanks, 60 trucks and a large supply of munitions’.

p. 389 ‘I ask you to consider’
René de Chambrun,
Sorti du rang
, Paris: Atelier Marcel Jullian, 1980, p. 229.

p. 389 On the morning of 19 August
Collins and Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?
, p. 113.

p. 389 ‘a fortress capable’
de Chambrun,
Sorti du rang
, p. 230.

p. 390 ‘It is impossible’
Ibid.
, p. 229.

p. 390 ‘Strange spectacle that’
Ibid
.

p. 390 The French and German soldiers
Interview with Otto Gresser, in Kathleen Keating, ‘The American Hospital of Paris During the German Occupation’, May 1981, 14-page typescript, Archives of the American Hospital of Paris, File: The German Occupation by Kathleen Keating and Various Other Histories.

p. 391 ‘many persons of extremely’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 221.

p. 391 ‘I recognized her’
Ibid.
, p. 221.

p. 392 Clara had promised … ‘arrived safely at home’
Ibid.
, p. 223.

p. 393 The Nazis had sent
Telegram sent (Secretary of State Cordell) Hull to American Embassy London, 14 September 1944, RG 59, Decimal File 1940–1944, Box 1160, Document 351.1121, Jackson, Sumner W./9- 1444, US National Archives, College Park, Maryland.

p. 393 The others were Lucienne
Catherine Rothman-Le Dret,
L’Amérique déportée: Virginia d’Albert-Lake de la Résistance à Ravensbrück
, Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1994, pp. 17 and 41.

p. 393 Toquette’s sister, Tat
Letter from Julia Barrelet de Ricou, American wife of Toquette’s brother, to Mrs Franklin Roosevelt, 1 November 1944, RG 59, Decimal File 1940–1944, Box 1160, Document 351.1121, Jackson, Sumner W./9-664.

p. 394 ‘I am full of hope’
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?
, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965, p. 62.

p. 394 ‘his gigantic size …
Nicht Messe
’
Maisie Renault,
La Grande Misère
, Paris: Chavane, 1948, pp. 19–20.

p. 394 ‘Since this morning’
From the journal of Virginia d’Albert-Lake, quoted in Rothman-Le Dret,
L’Amérique deportée
, p. 96.

p. 394 ‘They pitied us’
Virginia d’Albert-Lake,
An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d’Albert-Lake
, New York: Fordham University Press, 2006, p. 144. See also Rothman-Le Dret,
L’Amérique deportée
, p. 97.

p. 394 The trains taking
Renault,
La Grande Misère
, p. 21.

p. 396 His French Second Armoured
Collins and Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?
, pp. 61–2n.

p. 396 ‘It is highly desirable’
John Lichfield, ‘Liberation of Paris: The Hidden Truth’,
Independent
, London, 31 January 2007. See also Olivier Wieviorka,
Histoire du débarquement en Normandie
, Paris: Seuil, 2007.

p. 397 ‘This guerilla warfare … was credibly informed’
Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen: The Story of My Life
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949, pp. 224–5.

p. 398 Clara did not know
Collins and Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?
, pp. 249 and 279.

p. 398
‘He came on his bicycle … and, before Joyce’
Sylvia Beach,
Shakespeare and Company
, London: Faber and Faber, 1960, p. 102.

p. 399 ‘Cannon is roaring’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 225.

p. 399 ‘The hospital found … I am, General’
René de Chambrun,
Sorti du rang
, Paris: Atelier Marcel Jullian, 1980, pp. 230–31.
p. 399 ‘I asked why he’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
,

p. 226. There are accounts of the battle at Neuilly from Aldebert, Clara and René de Chambrun, as well as from Otto Gresser. They conflict on a few dates and times, as well as the exact statements made by the principals. My account emphasizes the points on which they agree and, where they do not, relies on the eyewitnesses, Aldebert and Gresser, more than the two who were told about it, Clara and René. Their versions agree, however, on the main points.

p. 399 ‘The French have to receive’
de Chambun,
Sorti du rang
, p. 231.

p. 400 ‘More wounded have … I did not need’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 226.

p. 400 Leclerc, she believed
Clara was not alone in thinking the Resistance were ruffians. A Free French lieutenant, who ordered his MP not to allow Ernest Hemingway to get ahead of a regular armed column, added, ‘And none of that guerrilla rabble either.’ See Ernest Hemingway, ‘How We Came to Paris’,
Collier’s
, 7 October 1944, p. 65. Despite the fact that the Resistance was providing the Allies with minute by minute intelligence on the location of German tanks and defences, many of the regular officers distrusted them.

p. 401 ‘What you hear is’
Another version of this incident was that von Cholitz was asked by a secretary why the bells were ringing. He is said to have replied, ‘They are ringing for us, my little girl. They are ringing because the Allies are coming into Paris. Why else do you suppose they would be ringing?’ Collins and La pierne,
op. cit
., p. 258.

p. 401 ‘went to the roof’
Otto Gresser interview with Kathleen Keating, ‘The American Hospital in Paris during the German Occupation’, 19 May 1981, 14-page typescript, p. 11, American Hospital of Paris Archives, File: German Occupation by Kathleen Keating and Various Other Histories, 1940–1944.

p. 402 On schedule, a command car … ‘Stack arms’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen
, p. 226.

p. 402 The ‘fanatic’ Major Goetz
de Chambrun,
Sorti du rang
, p. 233.

p. 402 ‘we met within three’
Otto Gresser, ‘History of the American Hospital’, 14-page typescript, 28 September 1978, American Hospital of Paris Archives, unnumbered blue file: ‘Miscellaneous materials’.

p. 402 ‘Telegraph exact location’
Telegram, Hull to Harrison, Berne, 25 August 1944, RG 59, Decimal file 1945–1949, Box 1710, Document 351.1121, Jackson, Sumner W./8-744, US National Archives, College Park, Maryland.

p. 407 ‘It was Saturday’
Adrienne Monnier, ‘Americans in Paris’, in
The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier: An Intimate Portrait of the Literary and Artistic Life in Paris Between the Wars
, translated by Richard McDougall, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976, p. 416.

p. 408 ‘Sylvia ran down’
Ibid
., p. 416. Hemingway did not write of his reunion with Sylvia Beach in his
Collier’s
articles about the liberation of Paris, but Sylvia and Adrienne did. Most of their accounts are in Adrienne’s ‘Americans in Paris’ and in Sylvia’s
Shakespeare and Company
, London: Faber and Faber, 1960, pp. 223–4. Sylvia discussed it with Niall Sheridan for the documentary film
Self Portraits: Sylvia Beach
, Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE), Dublin, 1962. She was in Dublin for the dedication of the Martello Tower, where the first chapter of
Ulysses
opens, on 16 June 1962, the fifty-eighth anniversary of Bloomsday.

p. 408 ‘I flew downstairs’
Shakespeare and Company,
p. 220.

p. 408 ‘War correspondents are’
Ernest Hemingway, ‘Battle for Paris’,
Collier’s,
30 September 1944, p. 83.

p. 408 ‘I couldn’t say’
Ernest Hemingway, ‘How We Came to Paris’,
Collier’s
, 7 October 1944, p. 17.

p. 408 ‘For the moment’
Monnier, ‘Americans in Paris’, p. 417.

p. 409 ‘We went up to Adrienne’s’
Shakespeare and Company
, p. 220.

p. 409 ‘Hadn’t I, Adrienne’
Adrienne Monnier, ‘Americans in Paris’, p. 417.

p. 409 ‘He brought his men’
Interview by Niall Sheridan with Sylvia Beach,
Self Portraits: Sylvia Beach
, documentary film for Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE), Dublin, 1962.

p. 410 When Hemingway brought
Beach,
Shakespeare and Company
, p. 224: ‘We heard firing for the last time in the rue de l’Odéon. Hemingway and his men came down again and rode off in their jeeps–“to liberate”, according to Hemingway, “the cellar of the Ritz”.’

p. 410 At the American Embassy
‘Caffery Thanks Aids Who Held U.S. Embassy’,
New York Herald Tribune
, Paris, 11 January 1945, p. 4.

p. 412 Anderson folded his newspaper
William Smith Gardner, ‘The Oldest Negro in Paris’,
Ebony
, vol. 8, no. 2, February 1952, pp. 65–72. Charles Anderson, then 91, told Gardner he had courted Eugénie Delmar for a year and a half before they married in 1922. She took him afterwards to meet her family in Calais. ‘They have never once even
mentioned
the fact that I’m a Negro,’ Anderson said. Anderson supplemented his income from de Brosse by teaching chess, English and music. Although a good musician who lived in Montmartre, he did not frequent its American black jazz clubs before the war. This may have been because he neither drank nor smoked and was devoted to his wife.

p. 414 ‘We eat quantities … She is sad’
Letter from Sylvia Beach to Holly Beach Dennis, 4 October 1944, Sylvia Beach Papers, Princeton University, CO108, Box 20, Unnumbered folder.

p. 414 ‘closed for the time being’
Sylvia Beach, ‘French Literature Went Underground’,
Paris Herald Tribune
, 4 January 1945, p. 2.

p. 415 ‘I must say’
Longworth de Chambrun,
Shadows Lengthen: The Story of My Life
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949, p. 233.

p. 416 At the Prefecture … Miss Comte took Aldebert
Eric Hawkins, ‘Elder Chambruns Questioned in Paris Collaborationist Purge’,
New York Herald Tribune,
11 September 1944.

p. 416 ‘Chambrun situation’
Letter from Edward A. Sumner to Dr David H. Stevens, Rockefeller Foundation, 12 March 1945, American Library of Paris Archives, File: Correspondence.