The Sorrow and the Pity Page #8

for our country.

He has come to speak simply,

as only he can,

in a modest school in the town of Prigny.

You may sit down now.

You don't have to stand to listen.

Young pupils of our French schools,

the reason I wanted to speak to you today

on this day

as you begin a new school year,

is that it's important for you

to know that I am counting on you

to help me rebuild our country, France.

So work hard, stand firm,

and do your best.

Il rise.

I had to pass through Vichy

to reach my posting in Billancourt

in the first two weeks of August 1940.

Many people told me

that Marshal Ptain was very tired,

and was only lucid for two hours a day.

Imagine my surprise when I met this man,

who, although elderly, stood bolt upright,

with his look of steel,

which many people have commented on,

and with the greatest of ease,

politely asked me to sit down

and make myself comfortable,

then said, "Mr. Lamirand,

there's been much talk about you here."

The secretary general of youth,

Mr. Georges Lamirand

recently visited Lavalette camp,

the main goal of which

is to train the men of tomorrow.

He visited these young men

who are united by a common ideal,

and live life

in continual contact with nature,

work and simplicity,

these values upon which

we must rebuild our country.

We talked and I thought to myself,

"What bad luck.

"They say he's only lucid two hours a day,

and I chance upon those two hours."

The problems of youth are fascinating,

but I had absolutely no idea that,

in the position

Marshal Ptain wanted to grant me,

there were so many fascinating

subjects and problems to solve.

Repeat after me:
Long live France!

Long live the Marshal!

Louis Renault finally agreed

to give me leave,

saying to Ptain,

"I'll lend him to you for a month."

and Marshal Ptain,

in his infinite cleverness,

"Fine, one month.

"But if you don't mind,

let's make the job renewable."

and he renewed it 30 months.

Mr. Lamirand is inaugurating

an exhibition of drawings

sent to Ptain by French schoolchildren.

The little ones wanted

to answer the Marshal's call,

they wanted to show the Marshal

their towns, villages and homes,

hence sharing a piece

of their daily lives with him.

school girl, perhaps the youngest

in France, had the luck

of being allowed to give Ptain

her lovingly written letter in person.

It was about adding a new element

to the famous triptych of the time:

Work, Family, Nation.

Honor your work, your family,

and your nation.

national revolution?

You said it.

Marshal Ptain has already told you

several times

what he meant by social revolution.

He feels that our social system is unfair.

There is too much poverty,

too much injustice.

and that is what he wants to change.

He is bound and determined

to bring happiness to France,

and asks us all

to join in a communal effort.

Dear friends, this is his social revolution.

That was when he started

planning his escape.

He grew his beard, shaved it off,

grew it out again,

and one fine day, he left.

I must admit I'm not very athletic,

but I prepared myself by working out

for several months beforehand.

I was high up,

so I had to jump off a high wall.

But I had to run the risk.

and once I had jumped,

I would be a free man again.

Just as I was about to jump...

There were trees planted along the avenue.

I heard the unexpected sound of voices.

I tried to see in the semi-darkness.

There was a couple sitting under a tree.

You can imagine

what they were discussing.

He knew what he wanted,

but she hadn't decided yet.

It seemed to last an eternity to me.

She ended up saying yes,

but I had the impression

she had put up a great deal of resistance.

Finally, they left. and so I jumped.

and let me assure you

that I was even happier than he was.

I'd really like to meet him someday

and let him know

how much I experienced

with the two of them that night.

How you admired his audacity.

Yes, and how her lack of audacity

struck me as being so untimely.

Anyway,

Love, fate and escape

eventually won the day.

Did you disguise yourself?

I was disguised, but not very well.

You see, many people back then

who wanted to disguise themselves

would let their beards grow.

So, bearded men

automatically arose suspicion!

I let my moustache grow,

I gave myself a new hairstyle,

parted straight down the middle.

I got a pair of glasses.

and of course,

I changed the way I dressed and so forth.

The next day,

I went for my daily visit with him,

to see if he had escaped or not.

I arrived and saw all these people

with decameters in hand,

taking all sorts of measurements.

They were hysterical.

They asked me what I wanted.

I said I was there to see my client.

They asked if I knew

Pierre Mends-France had left. I said no.

I burst out laughing,

which made them angry.

They carried out a huge security check

of all the roads and trains.

But my plan was to not contact anyone,

to not count on anyone,

to be cut off from everything and everyone.

I must say that life in France at that time

is very difficult to imagine,

and even more so to describe.

You had an old pair of shoes

you hoped would last.

If they got a hole,

there was no leather to fix them.

There were no plates,

there were no matches, there was nothing.

It is very difficult, in hindsight, to describe

what it was like living in a country

where everyone was always

searching for everything.

The new rage in Paris

is silk stockings without the silk.

Il you have to do, ladies, is dye your legs.

It's easy and practical. great idea.

The ladies are trading in

their garters for paintbrushes.

Worried about what will happen

when you bathe?

No problem.

Paint-on stockings are waterproof.

On top of that,

Elizabeth Arden guarantees they won't run!

That's a Parisian habit

which will disappear.

Where is France headed?

Where is Europe headed?

Some 3,000 people in Chaillot will hear

Mr. Alphonse de Chateaubriant

discuss The French Drama.

t this very moment,

a huge continental unit

is slowly taking shape.

It will be one gigantic geographical piece

in the puzzle,

with one single political

and economical doctrine,

stretching to the very tip of Europe,

the very tip of which is France.

Therein the importance of France

becomes clear,

as France becomes,

in this new division, the outer edge,

the last bastion on the Atlantic

of this immense continent,

faced with another large continent,

America,

which is ready to take over

the ancient order of things,

the ancient riches and capitalist creeds,

the ancient gold and the ancient man,

in order to make it their last refuge,

their last fortress,

and their last army.

I sincerely hope

that everything I have said tonight

will give the word "collaboration"

new meaning in your eyes.

It's not surprising that, at first,

such poison won over many new converts.

Little by little,

people began to realize it was propaganda,

and to see that

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