Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE responds, from his jail, to his accusers.

“The Jews should raise a statue to me for the harm that I did not do to them and that I could have done to them. »

1.900€

Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE (1894.1961)

Corrected and signed typescript – Responses to the accusations made against me.

Ten pages large in-4°. Some autograph corrections.

Slight marginal defects without affecting the text.

Copenhagen, November 6, 1946.

“The Jews should raise a statue to me for the harm that I did not do to them and that I could have done to them. »

Long and valuable defense plea for the writer, written from his Danish prison and sent in March 1947 to the President of the Court of Justice of the Seine, to several journalists and relatives.

__________________________

Responses to the accusations made by the French justice system against me for treason and reproduced by the Danish Judicial Police during my interrogations.

I am accused:

To have written two books during the Occupation: “Guignols Band” and “Histoire de Bezons” in the interest and on behalf of German Propaganda.

It is enough to half-open these two books to realize the inanity of this accusation. One of these books is fantasy literature, the other: the local history of a village near Paris (…)

To have been an Honorary Member of the “European Circle”.

I have never been a member of the “European Circle”, nor of any other circle, society, party, etc. I think I have had a total of three dinners at the Cercle Européen (…)

To have, since the occupation of French territory by German forces, further accentuated my political position, pushing both through my words and my writings towards an aggravation of anti-Semitic persecution.

This accusation is the exact opposite of the truth. As soon as the Germans arrived, I completely lost interest in the Jewish question , and besides, I had not dreamed of war but of Peace. I do not remember having written a single anti-Semitic line since 1937. Moreover, I have never at any time in a single line of my books pushed for anti-Semitic persecution. I protested against the action of certain Semites who pushed us to war (…) I am probably the only renowned French writer who remained strictly, jealously, fiercely a writer and nothing but a writer , without any compromise.

To this assertion I received four private letters, signed with my name and published by certain newspapers.

(…) I absolutely protest against this denomination. These are letters, published by chance, and at the risk of their recipient (…) We can also see from these various letters written in the midst of the German triumph, well before Stalingrad, that I did not manifest any anti-Semitic faith , and that Vichy, on the other hand, had my books seized by its police (just as Hitler had them seized at the same time in Germany).

Did I, through my gestures, my steps, my actions, collaborate with the Occupier?

I never set foot in the German Embassy, neither before nor during the occupation (…) I have never belonged in my life to anything at all, except to the French army, and gloriously (…)

My literary relations with Germany.

As soon as Hitler came to power, all my novels were banned in Germany, and this ban was strictly maintained throughout the Nazi reign (…) However, under this same Nazi regime (my books were so severe), a good number of French writers, so-called anti-Nazis and “resistance fighters”, were very well received. MAURIAC, MAUROIS, MARTIN DU GARD, JULES ROMAIN, etc. During the occupation other well-known French authors, such as La Varende, H. Bordeaux, Guitry, Montherlant, Simenon, Giono, Chadourne, (...) constantly provided an amusing or serious copy to the collaboration's newspapers and even to the Franco-German magazines. (…)

Jewish Question.

However, it would have been up to me, one suspects, with a little diplomacy, hypocrisy and complacency, to become “High Commissioner for the Jews” in France. I could have been tempted after all by this function, by this absolute power (…) All things considered, honestly considered, without passion, considering the circumstances, the Jews should raise a statue to me for the evil that I did not cause them done and that I could have done to them. They persecute me, I never persecuted them. I did not take advantage of their temporary weakness, I took no revenge for the countless outrages, lies, ferocious slander (…) The democrat in this whole affair, impeccable, is me . (…)

I am accused of having publicly and violently taken a position against the French Resistance.

I have never taken a position against the French Resistance. I paid too dearly for my patriotism with my blood and my martyrdom not to respect it in others . (…) I have always maintained very cordial relations with them, and most of my patients belonged to the Resistance (…)

I am accused of having fled Paris in August 1944 under the protection of the Germans and of having been treated in Germany as a friend by the Nazis.

In truth, I had already asked the Germans for three years for permission to go to Denmark, where I wanted to retire to work quietly and heal myself away from war and collaboration. (…) I was immediately interned in Baden Baden and sequestered (…) I immediately asked to return to France . (…)

What do they ultimately want from me? What is the meaning of all these furious attacks to which I am the subject?

They want, they are desperate to make me pay, to atone for my pre-war books, my pre-war literary and polemic successes. That's all. It seems impossible, unimaginable) to my enemies (so great is their desire), that I have abstained from all collaboration. This abstention seems monstrous to them, unthinkable. For their purposes must have collaborated. (…) They are counting on this “collaboration” to have me convicted and executed, if not legally, not assassination. (…) Using popular trances to decapitate the jealous, envied, hated adversary, the trick is not new. This is then called punishment. Thus were “punished” in France: Lavoisier, Champfort [sic], Chenier and a hundred others – young and old. LF Celine. »