North (59 page)

"Kracht! Kracht! tapioca!"

"Wo? wo?
where?"

"In the tank!"

Just the thing! . . . halt! . . . halt! for the wagon to stop! we yell too! . . . stop! stop! . . . Kracht runs . . . and three
bibels
. . . they're back! they've found it! . . .

"Quick, to the wagon! . . .
für die kleine!
for the little girl!"

One of the
bibels
takes off his shoes and runs barefoot in the mack . . . he's floundering . . . rough going . . . but he's eager, he's an athlete . . . he's catching up, they've gone quite a ways . . . he's made it! . . . he hands the packages to Inge, she doesn't thank him! . . . and they all start up again . . . the cows, the wagon, Nicholas, the SA escort . . . Harras remarks . . .

"You see, my dear Destouches, the retreat from Russia in reverse . . . back again! back again!
oh-ho-ho!"

Göring interrupts . . .

"I beg your pardon, Harras! I beg your pardon! they never came this way! never!"

"Oh, I thought they did!"

"No! No, dear Harras! quite mistaken! . . . only a few came back by way of Stettin! . . . a handful!"

"But . . .!"

"Oh no, Harras! Stop right there! . . . I know!"

The Surgeon-General was sure . . .

"Let me sit down a while . . ."

And he sits down right there in the snow . . .

"Just a minute! just a minute, Harras!"

He was getting excited . . . for the first time . . .

The nasty business with the
Landrat
. . . the death of the
Rittmeister
. . . I'd detected no sign of interest, he'd done his duty, no more! . . . the retreat from Russia was something else again, he didn't take it lightly! . . .

"But Göring, i thought . . ."

"Don't think! . . . wait . . . wait!"'

Sitting there in the snow, pondering . . .

"Not Stettin, Harras! not Stettin!"

His head in his hands . . .

"Interburg . . . that's it! and then Elbing! and Gumbinnen . . . Thorn! . . . that's the itinerary! . . . and Plock! . . . Landsberg! . . . those were their stops! . . . and Neuenkirschen! . . . hardly any via Stettin! . . . Neuenkirschen! . . . many sick and wounded . . . Neuenkirschen! not so long ago . . . still traces! . . . in the hospital! I served there as a medical officer . . . names in the wood, in the beams . . . names . . . carved . . ."

3.
CLASS OF 1912
. The age group which became subject to conscription service in 1912, i.e., born in 1892. Actually Céline was born in 1894 s0 belonged to the class of 1914.

5.
SCHLACHT BANK
. An elaborate German pun alluding to Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, banker and president of the Reichsbank from 1933 to 1938.
Schlacht
= battle.  
Schlachtbank
= slaughter or shambles.

7.
HUMA
. Nickname of the French Communist daily
l'Humanité.

7.
BIBICI
. Phonetic French spelling of B.B.C.

7.
CHAUX-DE-FONDS
. A small town in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. There seems to have been a well-informed radio station there.

7.
BALLETS ROSES
(pink ballets). Refers to a scandal that came to light at the end of 1958. In a fashionable country house near Paris, belonging to the French Senate, a group of girls aged 15 to 17 performed "ballets" attended by prominent figures of the political and social worlds, notably, André le Troquer, then president of the Senate. The performances ended in orgies.

9.
DES GRIEUX
. Manon's lover in the novel
Manon Lescaut
, by the Abbé Prévost (1731). 

11.
TRAVELS OF THE NATIONS
.
Voyages des nations.
Celine's whimsical and literal translation of the German
"Völkerwanderungen,"
normally known as "migrations'' both in French and in English. German
Wanderung
in familiar modern usage = a hike. 

11.
LE VIGAN
. Robert Coquillaud, screen name Robert Le Vigan. Outstanding motion-picture actor
(Pépé-le-Moko, Le Quai des Brumes, Coupi-Main rouges).
A friend of Céline, he collaborated under the Occupation. Spent several years in prison after the Liberation, went to Spain in 1950 and to the Argentine in 1951, where he played in several mediocre films and died.

11.
TINTIN
. Probably Charles de Gaulle, who after the French defeat in 1940 jumped at the last minute into a London bound plane. Lourdes, the famous place of pilgrimage, is an almost-anagram for Londres (London), where de Gaulle sought "salvation." According to André Malraux in
Les Grands chênes qu'on abat
(1971), de Gaulle likened himself to Tintin.

12.
PÉTIOT
. Dr. Petiot (1893-1946). Between 1942 and 1944 he murdered 27 persons, for the most paît Jews, whom he lured to his premises by promising to smuggle them out of the occupied zone of France. He was tried, convicted and executed in 1948.

12.
FUALDÈS
(1751-1817). French magistrate assassinated in 1817. An accomplice of the assassins played the barrel organ outside the ill-famed hotel to which he had been lured, in order to drown out his cries. The incident was the theme of a popular song.

17.
RADIO-SOTTENS
. The most important radio station in French Switzerland.

22.
MILICE
. Founded by Darnand in January 1942. A French police force collaborating with the Germans, it was responsible for any number of crimes. When it went to Germany with the retreating German army, it provided itself with a "treasury" by requisitioning bank funds. Disavowed by Pétain in August 1944.

22.
SCALP
. Immediately after the Liberation in 1944, women and girls who had had German lovers were sheared, painted with swastikas, and chased half-naked through the streets by indignant neighbors.

25.
CONSTANTTNI
. Pierre Constantini. In 1940 he issued a protest against the British attack on the French naval base of Mers-ed-Kebir and "declared war on England." In 1941 he founded the "French League for Purification of the Race, Social Mutual Aid and European Collaboration," and founded the weekly
L'Appel.
Co-founder of the L.V.F., League of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism. In 1942 founded the European Social Movement Arrested at the Liberation and found mentally irresponsible.

25.
AMERY
. Upper-class Englishman famous during the last war for his German propaganda broadcasts in English. Though their propaganda value was negligible, they were very amusing and drew a large audience.

28.
LITTLE COFFINS
. During the German occupation, many known collaborationists received parcels through the mail containing little coffins, usually accompanied by threatening messages. In many cases, if the recipient did not desist from his activities, the threats were carried out.

28.
LOUBET
. Emile Loubet (1838-1929), President of the French Republic from 1899 to 1906.

28. 
ACHILLE
. Pseudonym for a well-known French publisher.

29.
COMPACT REVIEW
. Presumably the
Nouvelle Revue Française
(N.R.F.), a monthly literary magazine founded in 1909 by a group of writers including André Gide. Many of the leading Writers of the century were first made known in its pages.

33.
BRINON
. Fernand de Brinon, journalist. In 1933 published the first interview with Hitler to appear in France. President of the Comité France-Allemagne. In December 1940 Laval appointed him delegate general of the French government in the occupied territories, with the title of "Ambassadeur de France." Set up a "Government Cpmmission for the Interests of French Subjects in Germany," which was disavowed by Pétain and Laval. At the Liberation was condemned to death and executed.

33.
RESTIF
. An unidentified character in
Castle to Castle
, leader of the "Special Teams," a gang of professional murderers being trained for guerrilla activity after the predicted Allied victory. In the meantime they lived by looting and extortion.

33.
NANTERRE
. Refers to the old people's home in Nanterre, a city in the Paris suburbs, originally a
"dépôt de mendicité,"
 where elderly beggars were interned They were allowed tosgo out at regular intervals, but in uniform and with the provision that they were not to beg. But beg they often did.

35.
COURT OF MIRACLES
. A name formerly given to various back alleys where underworld figures and beggars congregated The most famous, of them is described in Victor Hugo's
Notre-Dame de Paris.
The beggars often simulated infirmities from which they recovered "as though by a miracle" when they returned to their headquarters.

39.
CHARITÉ
. La Charité, a well-known hospital in Berlin, founded in 1710 by French Huguenot emigres.

40.
GRAY MICE
. Nickname given to the women auxiliaries of the German army because of their gray uniforms.
Souris
(mouse) = woman, in French slang.

44.
VLASOV
. Andrei Vlasov, Soviet general (1900-1946). Military adviser to Chiang-Kai-shek from 1938 to 1940. Defended Kiev in 1941 and fought in the battle of Moscow. Taken prisoner by the Germans in 1942, he rallied to them, issued a pro-German manifesto in Smolensk and raised a so-called "Army of Russian liberation,'' which was sent to France and Belgium. In 1945 Vlasov was captured by the Americans in Prague, handed over to the Russians and hanged.

54.
COQUILLAUD
. Robert Coquillaud See
LE VIGAN
note to p. 11.

62.
BONNOT
. Joseph Bonnot (1876-1912). Leader of a group of anarchists (
Bande à Bonnot
) who specialized in bank robberies for the benefit of the cause. Bonnot and three others were killed at the time of their arrest in 1912.

62.
FORT CHABROL
. Nickname for the headquarters of the Anti-Semitic League on the rue de Chabrol, where Jules Guérin, leader of the League, held out for 38 days against the police who had come to arrest him for the inflammatory campaign he had launched when the verdict in the Dreyfus case was reversed in 1899.

62.
GUÉRIN
. See preceding note.

63.
VILLA SAÏD
. Name of a street in the fashionable 16th arrondissement of Paris. A mansion situated on it was used by the Gestapo for questioning and torturing Résistas.

63.
COUSTEAU
. Paul-Antoine Cousteau, born in 1906, not to be confused with Jacques-Yves, the oceanographer. Journalist Contributed to
Je suis partout
, an extreme rightist weekly published in Paris, from 1933 to 1939 and from 1941 to 1944. Taken prisoner by the Germans in June 1940, he was set free in 1941. Became associate editor of
Je suis partout
, which had been suspended at the outbreak of the war but was now relaunched under the German occupation, and of
Paris-Soir
. Replaced Brasillach as editor-in-chief of
Je suis partout
in 1943. Fled to Baden-Baden in 1944, then to Landau, where he broadcasted for Radio-Patrie. Condemned to death in 1946, then reprieved, after which, if Céline is to believed, he turned against his former associates.

63.
THE MAN FROM NOWHERE
. In
Le Quai des Brumes
(1938), a film directed by Marcel Carné after a novel by Pierre MacOrlan, Le Vigan played the part of a painter who called himself "the man from nowhere."

64.
VERSEGOUL
. Apparently a Célinian corruption of Danish
vaer sä god,
meaning "please" or "you're welcome."

67.
T.O. = S.T.O.
Service du Travail Obligatoire, Compulsory Labor Service. According to a decree promulgated in 1942 by the Vichy government, all men aged from 18 to 50 and unmarried women from 21 to 35 were subject to mobilization for labor in Germany.

75.
FELCHER
= German
Feldscher
or
Feldscherer
= army doctor.

76.
JUANOVICI
. Joseph Joinovici or Joanovici, known as Monsieur Joseph. Rumanian Jew, camé, to France from Bessarabia in 1925. Founded his own scrap-metal firm. In a 939 Joinovici Frères was a thriving concern. After the French defeat, transferred nominal ownership of his business but remained effectively in charge and supplied metal to WIFO, a Berlin firm. Obtained forged records proving his Aryan origin. Operated on black market, purchasing metal for the Germans. Later confessed to haying made 25 million francs under the Occupation. Member of the Bonny-Laffont police group, workrag for the Germans. At the same time worked for the Resistance, helped Jews, hid American parachutists, and worked for Honneur et Police, the Resistance group in the French police.

Well-known Resisters later testified in his favor. R&. sponsible for the arrest of Bonny and Laffont after the Liberation. He, too, was arrested but soon released. The authorities decided again to arrest him. Fled to the American zone of Germany but gave himself up in 1947. Trjed in 1949, condemned to five years in prison, a fine of 600,-000 F and confiscation of his holdings to the amount of 50 million francs. Freed in 1951, placed under house arrest at Mende, whence he escaped to Israel

After the French government opened proceedings against him for tax fraud in 1957, Israel refused him the status of immigrant and he was expelled in December 1958. Imprisoned in Marseille. Tried, acquitted of tax fraud but held on two other charges. In 1961, condemned to two prison terms of one year each for issuing bad checks. Released in 1962, he died in Clichy in 1965 at the age of 63.

82.
SANS-SOUCI
. A small palace on a hill near Potsdam, built between 1745 and 1747 for Frederick the Great It was here that he received Voltaire.

86.
KOMITADJL
. Macedonian nationalists who fought against Turkish domination in the early nineteenth century. More recently applied loosely to various groups of Balkan guerrillas.

91.
BIBELFORSCHERS
. A radically pacifist sect similar to Jehovah's Witnesses. Literally, "Bible studiers."

104.
SIGNAL
. Illustrated propaganda weekly distributed by the Germans in the occupied countries.

105.
MONTLUC
. Fort-Montluc, a prison near Lyons where many Resisters were imprisoned.

107.
PLACE DU TERTRE
. A square at the iop of Montmartre in Paris. It still looks like a village square and is a great tourist attraction.

114.
FERDONNET
. Paul Ferdonnet, schoolteacher. Member of thie fascist "Francist" movement founded in 1933 by Marcel Bucard. During the war he broadcast German propaganda in French at the Stuttgart radio station.

124.
CARBUCCIA
. Horace de Carbuccia, French journalist born in 1891. Founder of
Gringoire
(1928-1944), a weekly with fascist tendencies.

134.
RUSSEL
. Bertrand Russell. The misspelling of names is one of Celine's many ways of indicating contempt.

134.
LUCHAIRE
. Jean Luchaire, French journalist (1901-1946). In 1927 he founded the weekly
Notre Temps
, which he directed until 1939, and in 1940 the evening daily Les Nouveaux Temps. In 1944 he called on the Germans to exterminate the Resistance. Commissioner of Information in Brinon's "Government Commission" in Sigmaringen. Fled to Italy in 1945 and was arrested. Condemned to death and executed. His daughter Corinne was a film actress. Sentenced to 10 years of "national degradation." Died shortly after of tuberculosis.