Robert Brasillach, novelist, critic, and flamboyant graduate of the
prestigious Rcole Norwall Supereiure, was the only writer of any
distinction to be put to death in France for wartime collaboration
with the Nazis. An anti-semite and editor of the notorious fascist
weekly 'Je Suis Partont', he was executed by firing squad in Paris
on 6th February 1945 after his appeal for clemency was turned down
by the then head of the provisional government, Charles de Gaulle.
His trial, which took place in the violent period of score-settling
known as the purge that followed the liberation of Paris in early
1945 became a 'cause celebre', a monumental courtroom drama that
revolved around violently conflicting conceptions of justice and a
case which still touches a raw nerve in France today. The trial
raised important ethical issues: was Brasillach guilty of treason
under the strict meaning of the term; should he have been executed
for mere words uttered while others responsible for the deaths of
thousands were set free, or is 'Irahison des clercs' the worst
treason of all; was homophobia a factor in the verdict and was the
jury (four Jurors from the working class suburbs of Paris)
'packed'? Kaplan has exhaustively researched his trial and the
events that led up to it and has uncovered many new sources,
including the files used by de Gaulle in considering Brasillach's
plea for clemency. Her painstaking handling of the moral and
political issues involved and her scrupulously argued conclusions
make this a book of rare value, not only the definitive account of
Brasillach's trial and punishment but a genuine addition to our
understanding of a divisive and painful period in French history. A
scholarly book in the best sense. (Kirkus UK)
On February 6, 1945, a 35-year-old French writer and newspaper
editor named Robert Brasillach was executed for treason by a French
firing squad. He was the only writer of any distinction to be put
to death by the French Liberation government during the violent
days of score-settling known as the Purge. In this book, Alice
Kaplan, author of the memoir "French Lessons" tells the story of
Brasillach's rise and fall: his emergence as the golden boy of
literary fascism during the 1930s, his wartime collaboration with
the Nazis, his dramatic trial and his afterlife as a martyr for
French rightists and Holocaust revisionists. A prolific novelist
and critic, Brasillach was a witty, flamboyant product of France's
prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure. He was also an anti-Semite,
an acerbic opponent of French demnocracy, and the editor in chief
of France's infamous fascist weekly "Je Suis Partout". His trial
and execution, carefully reconstructed in "The Collaborator",
remain one of the most controversial episodes in the history of
20th-century France. In the charged days of January 1945 - with
Paris liberated but France still at war - a monumental courtroom
drama pitted a fierce government prosecutor against a florid
defence lawyer for what each considered justice on both a personal
and a national scale. Paris in 1945 is also the venue for Kaplan's
ethical examination of the questions raised by Brasillach's trial.
Was he in fact guilty of treason? Was he condemned for his
denunciations of the resistance or singled out as a suspected
homosexual? Was it right that he was executed when others who were
directly responsible for the murder of thousands were set free? The
verdict on these momentous issues was left to four jurors from the
working-class suburbs of Paris, whose stories Kaplan presents here
for the first time. In recreating the trial, she also uncovers more
material never before published: damaging writings by Brasillach
omitted from his "Complete Works", and the file that Charles de
Gaulle used to reach his decision not to pardon the writer.
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