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

Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894.1961)

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

Ten pages, large quarto. Some handwritten corrections.

Minor, marginal defects that do not affect the text.

Copenhagen, November 6, 1946.

"The Jews should erect a statue of me for the harm I haven't done to them and that I could have done to them."

A long and valuable plea in defense of the writer, written from his Danish prison and sent in March 1947 to the President of the Court of Justice of the Seine, to a few journalists and close friends.

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Responses to the accusations made by the French Justice system against me on the grounds of treason and reproduced by the Danish Judicial Police during my interrogations.

I am accused:

Having written two books during the Occupation: "Guignols Band" and "Histoire de Bezons" in the interest and on behalf of German Propaganda.

One only needs to open these two books to realize the absurdity of this accusation. One of these books is fantasy literature, the other: the local history of a village near Paris (…) 

Having 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 believe I have dined at the European Circle a grand total of three times (…) 

From the moment of the occupation of French territory by German forces, I 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. From the moment the Germans arrived, I completely lost interest in the Jewish question , and besides, I hadn't dreamed of war but of peace. I don't recall writing a single anti-Semitic line since 1937. Moreover, I have never, at any point in any line of my books, incited anti-Semitic persecution. I protested against the actions of certain Semites who were pushing us toward war (…) I am probably the only renowned French writer who has remained strictly, jealously, fiercely a writer and nothing but a writer , without any compromise.

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

(…) I absolutely protest against this designation. These are letters, published by chance, and at the risk of their recipient (…) It can also be seen from these various letters written in the midst of the German triumph, well before Stalingrad, that I did not manifest any anti-Semitic beliefs , 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).

Have I, through my gestures, my steps, my actions, collaborated with the Occupier?

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

My literary relations with Germany.

From the moment Hitler came to power, all my novels were banned in Germany, and this ban was strictly maintained throughout the Nazi regime (…) However, under this same Nazi regime (so harsh on my books), many French writers, considered anti-Nazi 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 amusing or serious pieces to collaborationist newspapers and even to Franco-German journals. (…)

The Jewish Question.

It would have been entirely up to me, one suspects, with a little diplomacy, hypocrisy, and complaisance, to become "High Commissioner for the Jews" in France. I might have been tempted, after all, by this position, by this absolute power… All things considered, honestly and dispassionately, taking into account the circumstances, the Jews should erect a statue to me for the harm I have not done them and that I could have done them. They persecute me; I have never persecuted them. I have not taken advantage of their temporary weakness, I have not sought revenge for the countless insults, lies, and ferocious calumnies… The democrat in this whole affair, impeccable, is me .

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

I have never taken a position against the French Resistance. I paid too high a price in blood and martyrdom for my patriotism 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 asked the Germans three years prior for permission to go to Denmark, where I wanted to retire to work quietly and recover my health far from the war and collaboration. (…) I was immediately interned in Baden-Baden and detained (…) I immediately asked to return to France . (…)

What do they ultimately want from me? What is the meaning of all these furious attacks against me?

They want, they desperately seek to make me pay, to atone for my pre-war books, my pre-war literary and polemical successes. That's all. It seems impossible, unimaginable (so great is their desire) that I would have refrained from any collaboration. This abstention appears monstrous, unthinkable to them. For their purposes , I must have collaborated. (...) They count on this "collaboration" to have me condemned and executed, if not legally, then by assassination. (...) Using popular fervor to have the jealous, envied, hated adversary beheaded—this trick is nothing new. It's called punishment. Thus were "punished" in France: Lavoisier, Champfort [sic], Chénier, and a hundred others—great and small. LF Céline .

Bibliography: Céline and current events . Céline Notebook No. 7, p. 245 sq.