The Cost of Courage (29 page)
Read The Cost of Courage Online
Authors: Charles Kaiser
When we lived in Paris, Joe and I formed cherished bonds with Vincent Demongeot, Mark Trilling, Meredith Artley and Naka Nathaniel, Robert and Barbara McCartney, Jeffrey and Casey O’Brien Blondes, Alan Riding, Pascale Belzacq, David Tanis and Randal Breski. Laure de Gramont is the best friend anyone has
ever had in Paris: she opened her home and shared her friends, and all of her passions. Laure and her sisters, Claire Shea and Isabelle de Lastours, also loaned me their amazing country house so that I could begin to write in solitary splendor. Andrew Jacobs, Dan Levin, Tom Donaghy, and Shaffiq Essajee were equally generous with their Napanoch paradise.
Bob Paxton and Marcel Ophuls freely offered their time and their wisdom. Paxton’s extraordinary books and Ophuls’s brilliant movies remain the essential touchstones for anyone writing about this period. Claire Andrieu is one of the great French historians of her generation. She became my good friend and my essential guide through the French National Archives and dozens of other mysteries of wartime and postwar France. She also gave her blessing for me to borrow long sections from her father’s extraordinary memoir,
Un fou s’évade.
Early readers of the manuscript who spurred me on and offered dozens of corrections included my great friend Rick Whitaker, Janet Suzman, Victor Gurewich, Eugene Gregan, Frank Rich, Rick Hertzberg, Michael and Laura Kaiser, Peter Duchin, Judy Barnett, Walter Isaacson, Nick Rostow, Lisa Chase, Sarah Burke, Russell T. Davies, and Rebecca Kaiser Gibson. Since I first started writing books thirty years ago, Sal Matera, Stephanie Lane, Mark Polizzotti, and Renata Adler have been my essential readers and magnificent supporters.
Mathilde Damoisel was Claire Andrieu’s student when she became Christiane’s assistant on her memoir, and her interviews with Christiane were a source of dozens of insights. Now a brilliant documentarian, she made more contributions to this effort than I could possibly enumerate.
Steve and Nancy Shapiro, Sal Matera and Ann Jensen, Rich Meislin and Hendrik Uyttendaele, Beverly and Eugene Gregan, Katie Hustead, Rick Whitaker and Javier Molina, Michael Finnegan, Judy Knipe, Alice McGillion, Michelle Clunie, Jean Graham,
Paul Goldberger and Susan Solomon, Bryan Lowder and Cam McDonald know that their importance in my life defies definition. The empathy and insights of Gerald Dabbs have sustained me for almost two decades.
I am especially grateful for constant encouragement from Eric Gelman, Maralee Schwartz, Steve Weisman, Mary Stouter, Linda Amster, David Korzenik, Syd Schanberg, Steve Marcus, Henry Bloomstein, Jackie Green, Hope Kostmayer, Craig Zadan, Heyden White Rostow, Will Parker and Stephen Schwalen, Lynn Goldberg, Gordon Wheeler, Peter Wittig and Huberta von Voss-Wittig, Ben Wheeler and Kate Cortesi, Nick and Judgie Graham, David Whitaker, Sam and Andi Shapiro, Roger and Kay Greeley, Steve Kay, Cyd Savage, Martha Fay, David Dunlap, Mary Murphy, Thatcher Barton, Judy Hottensen, Virginia Cannon, Wolf Hertzberg, François Fortin, Michael Butler, Tomas van Houtryve, Tree Adams, Ben Golberger, Mel Rothberg, Alex Goldberger, Anna Wainwright, Kirk Semple, Frank Clines, Alison Mitchell, Shelley Wanger, Steve Rattner, Steve Adler, Bill Carey, Jimmy Hayes, Peter Goldman, Margo and Garth Johnston, Arabella Kurtz and Nick Everett, Lucy Howard, and Zarrina and Antony Kurtz.
Arthur Gelb was my first newspaper editor and my lifelong friend. It is a great sadness that he did not live to see this book published, but we continue to cherish our friendship with his wonderful wife, Barbara.
It has been my great good fortune to have been born into a family of brilliant writers and voracious readers, starting with my magnificent parents, Hannah and Phil Kaiser. My thanks and love go to Charlotte, Emily, Dan, Tom, Josh Thelin, Nick Peterson, Lauren Langlois, Linus Peterson, David and Bob, Hannah and Patti, Tema, Mark, Abe, Ezra and Isaac Silk, Moss and Adelaide Kaiser, Tamara Kaiser, and Sarah Hyams.
This book would never have come about if I hadn’t fallen in love with the story through its telling by my uncle Henry, known
to most as Husky. He and my uncle Jerry Kaiser were two of the greatest men I have ever known.
Everyone at Other Press has been a pleasure to work with, especially Keenan McCracken, Yvonne Cárdenas, Bill Foo, Jessica Greer, Terrie Akers, Charlotte Kelly, and Iisha Stevens. Kathleen DiGrado found a brilliant image and designed a beautiful cover; Julie Fry worked the same sort of magic on the interior of the book.
All my life I have been looking for the perfect professional collaborator. When Judith Gurewich sat down next to me at a lunch she was hosting three years ago, I finally found her. She transformed my life. In short order she became my editor, my publisher, and my very close friend. Her warmth, her brilliance, and her passion are the greatest gifts an author could aspire to.
After thirty-six years my husband, Joe Stouter, continues to astonish me every day with his love, his imagination, and his art. It is hard to imagine feeling even closer to each other after nearly four decades, but we do. I have never done anything important without him.
THE BOULLOCHE FAMILY
| The parents | |
| Jacques Boulloche (b. 1888) | Director, French Bureau of Highways |
| Hélène Boulloche (b. 1888) | Wife of Jacques Boulloche |
| The children | |
| Robert Boulloche (b. 1913) | Inspector, Minister of Finance |
| André Boulloche (b. 1915) | Résistant ; Charles de Gaulle’s personal representative in Paris, 1943–1944; arrested by the Gestapo January 12, 1944 |
| Jacqueline Boulloche (b. 1918) | Résistante |
| Christiane Boulloche (b. 1923) | Résistante |
| The spouses | |
| Alex Katlama (m. 1946) | Résistant , Jacqueline’s husband |
| Jean Audibert (m. 1947) | Christiane’s husband, member of the Free French Navy |
| Anne Richard (m. 1949) | André’s first wife, mother of his three children |
| Odile Boulloche (m. 1959) | André’s second wife, George Orwell’s French publisher ( Animal Farm, 1947) |
| The postwar generations | |
| Eric Katlama (b. 1948) Michel Katlama (b. 1950) Claudine Lefer (b. 1953) | Children of Jacqueline and Alex |
| Catherine Dujardin (b. 1948) Noëlle Audibert (b. 1949) Pierre Audibert (b. 1951) François Audibert (b. 1957) | Children of Christiane and Jean |
| Robert Boulloche (b. 1949) Agnès Boulloche (b. 1951) Jacques Boulloche (b. 1953) | Children of André and Anne |
| Hélène Dujardin (b. 1979) | Daughter of Catherine and Hubert Dujardin |
| OTHERS | |
| Etienne Audibert | Fellow prisoner of Jacques Boulloche at Buchenwald, father of Jean Audibert |
| Harold Cole (b. 1906), code name “Paul” | Resistance member who became a notorious double agent for the Gestapo after he was arrested on December 6, 1941. Betrayed André Postel-Vinay on December 14, 1941; killed by a French police inspector in January 1946 |
| Albert-Marie Edmond Guérisse (b. 1911), code name “Patrick O’Leary” | Résistant, colleague of Postel-Vinay; father of the “O’Leary line,” which rescued 600 allied pilots |
| André Postel-Vinay | Inspector, Finance Ministry; recruited André Boulloche for the Resistance in 1940; arrested by the Gestapo on December 14, 1941; escaped September 3, 1942 |
| André Rondenay (b. 1913) | Résistant ; classmate of André Boulloche who succeeded him as de Gaulle’s military delegate in Paris in January 1944; arrested by the Nazis on July 27, 1944; executed on August 15, 1944 |
| Henry and Suzanne Rollet | Résistants who assisted André Postel-Vinay in his escape from France. |
| Bernard Vernier-Palliez (b. 1918) | Résistant ; later CEO of Renault; French Ambassador to the USA, 1982–1984 |
| GOVERNMENT / MILITARY | |
| Winston Churchill | British Prime Minister, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955 First honorary citizen of the United States, 1963 |
| Charles de Gaulle | Leader of the Free French President of France, 1959–1969 |
| Dwight Eisenhower | Supreme Commander, Allied Forces in Europe President of the United States, 1953–1961 |
| Adolf Hitler | Führer of German Third Reich, 1934–1945 |
| François Mitterrand | Elected first secretary of the Socialist Party, 1971 President of France, 1981–1995 |
| Henri-Philippe Pétain | French hero of World War I Chief of state of Vichy France, 1940–1944 |
| Franklin Roosevelt | President of the United States, 1933–1945 |
| Dietrich von Choltitz | Final German commander ( Befehlshaber ) of German forces in occupied Paris, who refuses to carry out Hitler’s order to blow the city up |
| Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg | Leader of the plot to kill Hitler in July 1944 |
1
“If mankind lasts”: Ophuls,
The Sorrow and the Pity,
introduction by Stanley Hoffmann, pp. viii–ix.
2
“This is such”: Author’s interview with Eric Katlama March 13, 1999.
3
“it was necessary to turn the page”: Boulloche-Audibert,
Souvenirs.
4
“If an old pair of shoes”: Ophuls,
The Sorrow and the Pity,
p. 71.
5
They are called
gazogènes
: Collins and Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?,
p. 15.
6
a good bicycle can cost: Eparvier,
À Paris sous la botte des Nazis.
7
“taxis hippomobiles”: Ophuls,
The Sorrow and the Pity,
p. 71.
8
The fastest pedicab: Collins and Lapierre,
Is Paris Burning?,
p. 16.
9
four men pedaling: Ibid., p. 18.
10
Huge yellow posters: Permanent exhibit, Paris Museum of World War II.
11
After four years of war: Churchill,
Second World War,
V:ix.
12
Deeply religious: Interview with Raymond Jovignot, conducted by Melle Patrimonio, February 1, 1946, French National Archives, box 72AJ42.
13
Christiane’s clandestine duties: Boulloche-Audibert,
Souvenirs.
14
“We wouldn’t just resist them”: Author’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, Fontainebleau, March 19, 1999.
15
hypnotized and horrified: Mathilde Damoisel’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, February 3, 1997.
16
There is no heat: Ibid.
17
Four months earlier: Madame Grenlet’s interview with André Boulloche, February 1, 1950, French National Archives, box
72AJ68
.
18
In the fall of 1942: Cobb,
Resistance,
p. 160.
19
The STO requires
and
Faced with the prospect: Ibid., p. 162.
20
As one historian put it: H. R. Kedward,
In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942–1944,
quoted ibid., p. 161.
21
“I never felt”: Christiane Boulloche-Audibert interviewed by a French television reporter, March 22, 1999, on the occasion of the unveiling of a bust of André Boulloche.
22
During his brief time: British Intelligence file on Eric Katlama.
23
“Strangle me”: Author’s interview with Dr. René Cler, Paris, March 17, 1999. Cler told me he had heard this story from Jacques’s cell mate. He no longer remembered his name.
24
Instinct propels the Frenchman: His son Jacques said, “I was told that one of them had a submachine gun, and he threw himself on it.” Author’s interview with Jacques Boulloche at this home in Le Havre, February 1, 2004.
25
Jacqueline performs the secret knock
and the rest of this section
: Boulloche-Audibert,
Souvenirs.
26
“Dignity is incompatible with submission”: Letter from André Boulloche to C. Hettier de Boislambert, Grand Chancelier de L’Ordre de la Libération, June 13, 1969, French National Archives, box 72AJ2056.
27
“When will I see them again?”:
Boulloche-Audibert,
Souvenirs.
28
“In general,” Christiane recalled: Author’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, March 19, 1999.
29
Her parents don’t consider themselves: Author’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, March 11, 1999.
30
Those casualties transform: Paxton,
Vichy France,
p. 12.
31
“To continue an enforcement”: Cooper,
Old Men Forget,
p. 199.
32
“Politically Czecho-Slovakia”:
Manchester Guardian,
October 1, 1938.
33
After “immense exertions”:
www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/101-the-munich-agreement
.
34
At one o’ clock:
Argus de la Presse,
Paris, August 15, 1900.
35
As early as 1937: Author’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, March 19, 1999.
36
“A Hun alive”: Martin Gilbert,
Churchill: A Life,
p. 680.
37
“The great day has finally arrived”: Letter from Jacques Boulloche, November 1, 1918, collection of Agnes Boulloche.
38
He regards them as “imbeciles”: Mathilde Damoisel’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, Paris, February 10, 1997; author’s interview with Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, March 25, 1999.