Brasillach: Robert Brasillach (1909–45), French journalist and editor of the fascist newspaper Je suis partout. He was executed as a collaborator in 1945.
Hitler Youth Quex: a 1932 Nazi propaganda novel (Hitlerjunge Quex) based on the life of Herbert ‘Quex’ Norkus.
André Bellessort (1866–1942): French writer and poet.
This, then, was our youth … regained: a quote from Claude Jamet’s memoir of Brasillach before the war.
Julien Benda: (1867–1956): French philosopher and novelist, author of The Betrayal of the Intellectuals.
Maurras: Charles Maurras (1868–1952), a French author and poet, he was the principal thinker behind Action Française, a supporter of Vichy, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Je suis partout: (I am everywhere) a right wing anti-Semitic French newspaper founded by Jean Fayard in 1930. It supported the Nazis during the occupation and, during the war, was edited by Robert Brasillach.
P.-A. Cousteau: Pierre-Antoine Cousteau (1906–58), French far right journalist and contributor to Je suis partout.
Pujo: Maurice Pujo (1872–1955), French journalist and co-founder of the Comité d’Action Française which later became Action française.
Maxime Real del Sarte (1888–1954): French sculptor and political activist involved with the right-wing Action française.
Jean Luchaire (1901–46): French journalist and politician, later head of the French collaborationist press during the Nazi occupation. He was executed for collaborationism in 1946.
Carlingue: the informal name for the French Gestapo, which was headquartered on the Rue Lauriston.
Brinon: Fernand de Brinon (1884–1947), French lawyer and journalist, he was among the principal architects of French collaboration with the Nazis. He was found guilty of war crimes in 1947 and executed.
Abetz: Otto Abetz (1903–58), the German ambassador to Vichy France during the Second World War.
General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs: Commissariat général aux questions juive, the administrative committee tasked with enforcing the anti-Semitic policies of the Vichy Government.
Stülpnageclass="underline" Otto von Stülpnagel (1878–1948), head of the occupied forces and military governor of Paris. He committed suicide while awaiting trial after the war.
Doriot: Jacques Doriot (1898–1945), Communist turned fascist who, with Marcel Déat, founded the Légion des Volontaires Français.
Déat: Marcel Déat (1894–1955), founder of the Rassemblement national populaire (National Popular Rally), a political party in the Vichy Government; later appointed Minister of Labour and National Solidarity.
Jo Darnand: Joseph Darnand (1897–1945), a decorated French soldier during the First World War, Darnand went on to become a leading collaborator during the Second World War, founding the collaborationist militia, Service d’ordre legionnaire, which later became the Milice.
Franc-Garde: armed wing of the Milice. In 1943–44, it fought alongside the German army against the Maquis.
… beautiful lines by Spire: André Spire (1868–1966), French poet, and writer.
L’Aiglon: Napoleon II ‘the Eaglet’ who died aged twenty-one.
Süss the Jew: the eponymous character in the 1940 Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß commissioned by Joseph Goebbels.
The ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied’: song penned by Horst Wessel in 1929, usually known as ‘Die Fahne hoch’ (‘The Flag on High’), it was adopted as the Nazi Party anthem in 1930.
Colonel de la Rocque: François de La Rocque (1885–1946), leader of the French right-wing Croix de Feu during the 1930s and later the French nationalist Parti Social Français.
Brocéliande: in French literature, a mythical forest said to be the last resting place of Merlin the magician.
Tante Léonie: character in Proust’s In Search Of Lost Time at whose house Marcel stays in Combray.
Maurice Dekobra (1885–1973): French writer of adventure novels.
Stavinsky: Alexandre Stavinsky (1888–1934), French ‘financier’ with considerable influence among government ministers and bankers. After his death in 1934, it was discovered that he had embezzled 200 million francs from the Crédit municipal de Bayonne, a scandal which rocked the French government.
Novarro: Ramón Novarro (1899–1968), Mexican actor, one of the great stars of the silent cinema.
the anti-Jewish exhibition at the Palais Berlitz: Le Juif et la France, a notorious anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition staged in Paris during the Nazi occupation.
Bagatelles pour un massacre: title of a collection of virulently anti-Semitic essays by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, translated as Trifles for a Massacre.
Rue d’Ulm! Rue d’Ulm!: the address of the prestigious École Normale Supérieure.
Jallez and Jephanion: the writer Jallez and the politician Jerphanion are the inseparable friends in Jules Romain’s novel Les Hommes de bonne volonté (The Men of Good Will).
to join the LVF: Légion des volontaires français (contre le bolchévisme), the Legion of French Volunteers (Against Bolshevism), a collaborationist French militia founded on July 8, 1941.
Rastignac: a character in Balzac’s La Comédie humaine, Eugène de Rastignac is portrayed as a naïve but fervent social climber — he went by the name ‘Rastignac de la butte Montmartre’.
… to quote Péguy: Charles Péguy (1873–1914) French poet and essayist, he coined the phrase ‘les hussards noirs’ in 1913 to refer to his teachers.
He insisted that … to notice him: parodying the phrase ‘if the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him’ in Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew.
my old friend Seingalt: Casanova, who signed his Memoirs (as he did many other works) Jacques Casanova de Seingalt.
Paul Chack (1876–1945): French Naval officer and collaborationist writer.
Monsignor Mayol de Lupé (1873–1955): Catholic priest who served as chaplain for the Légion des volontaires français and later for the SS.
Henri Béraud (1885–1958): French novelist and journalist. Virulently Anglophobic and anti-Semitic, he supported the Vichy Government. After the liberation, he was sentenced to death for collaboration. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
… attack on Mers-el-Kébir: as a direct response to the signing of the French — German armistice, the British Navy bombarded the French Navy off the coast of Algeria in July 1940, resulting in the deaths of 1,297 French servicemen.
‘Maréchal, nous voilà’: a French song pledging loyalty to Maréchal Pétain.
Romanciers du terroir: a group of turn-of-the-century French novelists best known for their realistic depiction of rural life.