Lot n° 59
Estimation :
4000 - 5000
EUR
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Result
: 6 856EUR
KESSEL Joseph (1898 - 1979)
19 autograph MANUSCRIPTS, 2 signed "J. Kessel", [July-August 1945]; 155 pages in-8.
Joseph Kessel's judicial chronicles of the trial of Marshal Pétain.
War correspondent for France-Soir since 1943, Joseph Kessel followed, at the request of Pierre Lazareff, this trial which was held for three weeks, from July 23 to August 15, 1945, before the High Court of Justice and a jury composed of members of parliament and non-parliamentarians from the Resistance. On August 15, 1945, after 22 days of hearings and deliberations, Philippe Pétain was found guilty by a large majority of intelligence with the enemy and high treason, and sentenced to death and national degradation, a sentence commuted by General de Gaulle to life imprisonment. Philippe Pétain was interned on the island of Yeu where he died on July 23, 1951 at the age of 95.
Kessel's articles are written in black ink or blue pen, or in pencil, for three of them, either on sheets of lined paper with a serrated upper edge, or on sheets with the letterhead of France-Soir. They present numerous erasures and corrections, and were used for the printing, with annotations of the typographers; 11 sheets were cut at the printing house, then pasted back. Some chapters are untitled; the titles were added when the diary was written, and sometimes changed when they were reprinted in volume.
In a feverish and rapid writing, Kessel puts here all his knowledge of men and facts, as well as his gifts as an observer, to describe the quite extraordinary atmosphere of such a trial, the confrontations between the old and new servants of the State, the course of the hearings and the depositions which follow one another daily in an intense and sometimes dramatic way. In a lively and precise style, Kessel paints the portrait of the main protagonists of this historic trial, who came to testify for or against the actions and responsibilities of Marshal Pétain.
After their publication in France-Soir (often in a special edition), these articles were reprinted in Terre d'amour et de feu (Plon, 1965) and in the volume Les instants de vérité (Témoin parmi les hommes, 1969). They are again available in the "Texto" collection of Tallandier in the volume Jugements derniers (2007) for the most part or in L'heure des châtiments (2009), with the exception of only one of them which was not included in these volumes, Spectres de Vichy, but which was published in France-Soir (August 9, 1945)
An old man in an old chair (published July 24). Kessel describes the atmosphere of the first day of the hearing, the expectation of the spectators, the silence at the entrance of the old marshal... "Your client" (July 25). Second hearing, where Paul REYNAUD comes to testify.
The Marshal does not want to answer (July 26). Third hearing, with the deposition of DALADIER. To the question of the President of the Bar asking him if, in his opinion, Pétain had betrayed France, Daladier replied that, in his opinion, the Marshal had betrayed his duty as a Frenchman: "M. Daladier often and profoundly moved the audience by passionate movements, by obvious sincerity and also by a skilful violence, by a voice that was either rumbling or broken, while heavy drops of sweat ran down the deep folds that surround his lips".
The shadows of the hostages begin to appear (July 27). The memory of the blood shed by the Vichy regime is revealed for the first time, through the testimony of Jules JEANNENEY, former president of the Senate, evoking the hostages shot and in particular those of the Châteaubriant camp in Brittany. And Kessel notes the sleepiness of Marshal Pétain during this deposition.
Léon Blum wrung a gesture from Marshal Pétain (July 28), and Le mystère du Maréchal (July 29). At the fifth hearing, it was Léon BLUM who presented himself: "Under his words, in his transcription, everything became new, frightfully alive. All the shame, all the horror, all the despair of those weeks were there again. [...] M Léon Blum shows the people of France struck in the vital centers, knocked out, crushed. An unhappy people who asked, begging, for a light, a guide. [...] And the marshal of France used his glory to lead the unhappy French people to shame. [...]
Only Mr. Léon Blum, of all the witnesses, was able to break through the invisible defenses behind which the accused was entrenched. He tore him from his impassivity. He made him respond, if not with his voice, at least with his gestures. And only among all the statesmen who testified, M. Léon Blum was able to erase the walls of the narrow, overcrowded room and give the trial its true framework, which is the whole of France, with its misfortune and its honor, and the full measure of the crime of which Marshal Pétain is accused, that is to say, the very measure of his glory"...
The crimes after the armistice (
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