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several old black and white photos of men in suits and tiesan old book with a lot of papers and a pen on top of ita group of six old books with handwriting on themfour open notebooks with writing on them sitting on top of each otherseveral old letters are stacked on top of each other on a white surfacean open book with writing on it sitting on top of a tablea bunch of old letters are stacked on top of each otherseveral old papers are stacked on top of each other on a white surfaceseveral papers are stacked on top of each other on a table
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142 - René Benjamin’s personal archives, 1940–1948
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Estimate €3,000 - €6,000
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Description
René Benjamin’s personal archives, 1940–1948 Lot comprising manuscripts and correspondence FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE 6 handwritten notebooks, 21 x 13 cm, The War : notebook no. I 25 September 1939–April 1941 ; no. II April 1941–March 1942 ; March 1942–June 1943; No. IV June 1943–March 1944; No. V March 1944–September 1944; No. VI September 1944–June 1946 [22 July 1948], over 870 pp.; accounts of what is being said, daily or weekly notes by René Benjamin on what he has heard, read or experienced (...) 29 April 1944 (...) I am never at ease. Never. The other day a German car pulled up at the gate—a yellow one. Four Germans in green uniforms got out. My heart was pounding. I thought straight away: they’ve come to arrest me. Why not? Two of them came out and entered the courtyard. I went out. I must have looked pale. I had plasters on my legs. I had time to think: these abscesses are going to be a real nuisance in prison! They were two very young Germans, 18 years old each, it’s true. They greeted me very timidly and asked me if I had any eggs!! (...) It’s shameful, shameful—this ransacking, this complete plundering of the flats and houses of certain Jews (as Miss Bogaval writes to me regarding Louis Schmoll’s possessions). Where is all this stolen wealth going? To Germany (...) The moat at Villandry is full of leaflets dropped by the British, indicating the forthcoming landings in the Balkans, particularly from Italy, with arrows showing the troops’ advance. That’s what you’re going to see! (...) 17 May 1944 Yesterday at the Métadiers’, the Prefect stated clearly: “I do not believe in a landing. I believe in civil war. They wanted it. They are waging it. They are succeeding. They can do without the landing. Within two months the situation will be untenable: 1/ In the Dordogne, Corrèze, Jura and Savoie, terrorism is on the rise. Officially, there are 1,200 attacks per decade. 2/ We are beginning to face insurmountable problems. The gas problem (coal, transport). The electricity crisis. When life becomes impossible, the Allies will no longer be able to survive. What will they do? As for the others, do they need to land before this tragic situation arises? We are, and they are, at the end of their tether. No more raw materials. Everything is worn out. I already have 28,000 refugees in my department. What is admirable are the young people and the social workers. Young men and young women! As for the Marshal, he does not quite grasp what has happened. When, on 28 April, he said in his message: “When the current tragedy has come to an end and, thanks to Germany’s defence of our continent and Europe’s efforts, our civilisation is definitively safe from the danger posed by Bolshevism, France will regain and assert its place. That place will depend on the discipline she has shown in the face of adversity and the order she has managed to maintain at home...” he did not write that spontaneously, of his own accord. It was the price he paid for the trip to Paris, where the Germans were furious that he had spoken… first of all, and that he had spoken without saying what they wanted. The Prefect recalls hearing him say: “I hate the Germans.” The message seems to him to have been demanded by them. And the trip to Voisin, too. And the way in which Brinon, two days later, told the journalists: ‘The Marshal leads a life identical to that in Vichy’ is clear proof that they wanted to respond to all the rumours spread by Tracou and others: “He is a prisoner of the Germans. Deep down, he cannot help but be one. I was in Vichy. He is in Voisin. In the terms of the armistice,” said the Prefect (who knows everything, and in great detail), “it was stipulated that all bridges must have a mine chamber. And it was we who paid for it, for all the bridges. Dezarrois confirms to me the shameful plundering of French Jews by the Germans. Everything was sold or sent to Germany for the benefit of the Reich. Utter banditry. And when, at the end of 1940, Dezarrois saw that the Jeu de Paume was becoming an exhibition of the plundered masterpieces (the place where they were valued and distributed. Marshal Goering helped himself to some), he tendered his resignation. Henri de Rothschild’s Chardins were taken to Frangins in Switzerland. But Edmond and Robert were completely stripped of their possessions. Another disgrace. The story of the Van Eyck from St Bavo’s in Ghent, which had found refuge in Pau, was seized by the Germans, whilst the curator stood by helplessly – with no protest from Bonnard!! The Germans believe there are paratroopers in the forests of Amboise and Chinon and that fighting will take place between Amboise and the Cher because there are draft-dodgers in that area. The paratroopers would be used to rouse the population and make them fight...” FIND THE FULL AND DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS LOT IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION CATALOGUE
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About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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