heard the news, and with immense effort and ingenuity managed to have the warning broadcast to Poirier. Jacques took the train to Martel, high in the Lot, and sought out the Verlhacs who were astounded to see him, because they believed that he had already been taken by the Germans.
Contrary to popular belief, it is never expected that an agent will tell his captors nothing. The most critical achievement that is expected of him is silence for forty-eight hours, until warnings can be circulated and men take to hiding. Then he can begin to reveal small things, odd names and places. Eventually, under extreme duress, it is recognized that he may begin to talk of more vital matters. Peulevé revealed nothing important under torture in Fresnes prison, or later in Buchenwald. But the Germans had a description of Poirier. He vanished into hiding while they combed every possible contact point in Corrèze and east Dordogne for him.
Roland Malraux’s brother André said that the region wasobviously too hot to hold Poirier for the time being. He suggested a cooling-off period, in Paris. This young, still impressionable ex-student found himself hiding in the flat of André Gide, with its window looking out on the courtyard of Laval’s Interior Ministry. He walked by the Seine between Malraux and Albert Camus. To his lifelong regret, he never remembered a word of what either man said.
Of all the extraordinary figures who held the stage in the Resistance of Dordogne and Corrèze in the summer of 1944, none surpassed André Malraux. Young men like Poirier, Hiller, Lake – so worldly about so much in their secret lives – found themselves awed and fascinated by this mountebank of genius who thrust himself upon them. He was already a legend – the author of La Condition Humaine , exotic traveller, film-maker, commander in Spain of the Republican fighter squadron he himself had raised, Malraux-le-rouge who had his uniforms tailored by Lanvin.
Yet his record as a résistant from 1940 to 1944 had not been impressive. After serving with a French tank unit in the débâcle of 1940, he retired to the Côte d’Azur to work – though he wrote nothing of merit – and to reflect, in circumstances of sybaritic ease by the standards of the world in those days. In September 1941, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir cycled the length of France to appeal for his support in Resistance. ‘They lunched on chicken Maryland, exquisitely prepared and served. Malraux heard Sartre out very courteously, but said that for the time being at any rate, action of any sort would be quite useless. He was relying on Russian tanks and American planes to win the war.’ Later, when the Combat résistants also approached him, he asked simply: ‘Have you arms? No? Have you money? No? Then it’s not serious . . .’ Towards the end of 1943, he moved with his mistress Clara to a comfortable little château on the Dordogne. Still he showed no urge to have any part of Resistance.
Yet when his brother Roland was captured – his other brother Claude was also working for SOE – Malraux presented himself to the Resistance of Dordogne and Corrèze, quite withouthumility, as a man ready to take command. He was forty-two. It is a remarkable tribute to his force of personality that ‘Colonel Berger’, as he styled himself after the hero of one of his novels, quickly persuaded Poirier, Hiller and others to treat him as an equal in their counsels. He began to travel with them around the region, addressing maquisards and attending conferences. He created the notion of a joint Anglo-French (and later, with the coming of OSS agents, American) council to bring together the Resistance groups of the region, with himself at its head. Malraux had left behind the mood of 1941, when he wrote that ‘a German defeat would be a victory for the Anglo-Saxons, who will colonize the world and probably France . . .’ But he was still Red enough to give the clenched fist salute.
Contrary to popular belief, it is never expected that an agent will tell his captors nothing. The most critical achievement that is expected of him is silence for forty-eight hours, until warnings can be circulated and men take to hiding. Then he can begin to reveal small things, odd names and places. Eventually, under extreme duress, it is recognized that he may begin to talk of more vital matters. Peulevé revealed nothing important under torture in Fresnes prison, or later in Buchenwald. But the Germans had a description of Poirier. He vanished into hiding while they combed every possible contact point in Corrèze and east Dordogne for him.
Roland Malraux’s brother André said that the region wasobviously too hot to hold Poirier for the time being. He suggested a cooling-off period, in Paris. This young, still impressionable ex-student found himself hiding in the flat of André Gide, with its window looking out on the courtyard of Laval’s Interior Ministry. He walked by the Seine between Malraux and Albert Camus. To his lifelong regret, he never remembered a word of what either man said.
Of all the extraordinary figures who held the stage in the Resistance of Dordogne and Corrèze in the summer of 1944, none surpassed André Malraux. Young men like Poirier, Hiller, Lake – so worldly about so much in their secret lives – found themselves awed and fascinated by this mountebank of genius who thrust himself upon them. He was already a legend – the author of La Condition Humaine , exotic traveller, film-maker, commander in Spain of the Republican fighter squadron he himself had raised, Malraux-le-rouge who had his uniforms tailored by Lanvin.
Yet his record as a résistant from 1940 to 1944 had not been impressive. After serving with a French tank unit in the débâcle of 1940, he retired to the Côte d’Azur to work – though he wrote nothing of merit – and to reflect, in circumstances of sybaritic ease by the standards of the world in those days. In September 1941, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir cycled the length of France to appeal for his support in Resistance. ‘They lunched on chicken Maryland, exquisitely prepared and served. Malraux heard Sartre out very courteously, but said that for the time being at any rate, action of any sort would be quite useless. He was relying on Russian tanks and American planes to win the war.’ Later, when the Combat résistants also approached him, he asked simply: ‘Have you arms? No? Have you money? No? Then it’s not serious . . .’ Towards the end of 1943, he moved with his mistress Clara to a comfortable little château on the Dordogne. Still he showed no urge to have any part of Resistance.
Yet when his brother Roland was captured – his other brother Claude was also working for SOE – Malraux presented himself to the Resistance of Dordogne and Corrèze, quite withouthumility, as a man ready to take command. He was forty-two. It is a remarkable tribute to his force of personality that ‘Colonel Berger’, as he styled himself after the hero of one of his novels, quickly persuaded Poirier, Hiller and others to treat him as an equal in their counsels. He began to travel with them around the region, addressing maquisards and attending conferences. He created the notion of a joint Anglo-French (and later, with the coming of OSS agents, American) council to bring together the Resistance groups of the region, with himself at its head. Malraux had left behind the mood of 1941, when he wrote that ‘a German defeat would be a victory for the Anglo-Saxons, who will colonize the world and probably France . . .’ But he was still Red enough to give the clenched fist salute.
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