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2 months ago
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A stash of never-before-seen correspondence and artefacts belonging to the former French president Charles de Gaulle, including coded letters he wrote to his mother while he was a German prisoner in the first world war and messages from the American singer Josephine Baker, is to go on sale after its unexpected discovery earlier this year.
The correspondence is part of a “treasure trove” of documents and personal belongings belonging to de Gaulle, found in a safe in a bank vault, that will be auctioned in Paris next month.
To accompany the historic sale, the auction house Artcurial is to display the handwritten manuscript of the general’s celebrated appeal, broadcast by the BBC, that urged the French to resist Nazi rule and sparked the French resistance. The manuscript was also in the safe but is outside the sale.
The auctioneer Stéphane Aubert said that, when asked by the former president’s family to examine the safe held by de Gaulle’s son Philippe, who died in March this year, neither he or anyone in the family had any idea of the quantity or importance of the letters, documents and personal affairs inside.
“It was a complete surprise. Only the Adm Philippe de Gaulle had access to the safe so when we opened it we really had no idea what we would find. It was a fabulous treasure trove. A history of the life of General de Gaulle, the saviour of France.”
He added: “These unique objects and personal letters have never been seen by the public before and they retrace the life of the general from his childhood through his time at the St Cyr military school and his time in London during the war when he was organising the resistance.”
As well as a letter from Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, there is correspondence to de Gaulle from the American-born singer, dancer and actor Josephine Baker, who was a member of the French resistance and who signed her missives to the general: “Your loyal and dirty resistant”.
“There is some very unusual correspondence with Josephine Baker … we also have these coded letters the general sent to his mother while he was a prisoner in the first world war. We are still trying to establish what code he used and what he said,” Aubert said. “They were able to communicate, but only de Gaulle and his mother knew the code.”
De Gaulle was captured by the Germans in March 1916 and spent 32 months in captivity, during which time he attempted to escape five times to rejoin French forces. While held prisoner, he wrote to his mother, Jeanne, via the Red Cross. He returned to France in December 1918.
In June 1940, after the Nazis entered Paris and the collaborationist Philippe Pétain was named leader of France’s puppet Vichy regime, General de Gaulle escaped to London where he appealed for the French to continue fighting.
The text of his famous “appeal”, broadcast by the BBC on 18 June 1940, included the words: “I invite all French people who wish to remain free to listen and follow me.”
The handwritten document, covered with crossings out and corrections, reveals the original version and will go on display at the auction rooms at Hôtel Marcel Dassault just off the Champs-Elysées between 7 and 15 December.
The 350 lots to be auctioned on 16 December include short stories written in 1908 by a young Charles de Gaulle, previously unpublished notebooks containing his thinking, political analysis and literary appreciations, a LIP watch worn by de Gaulle in the 1960s and a clock presented to him by the US president John F Kennedy’s sister Eunice.
Part of the sale proceeds will go to the Anne de Gaulle Foundation set up in 1945 to support people with disabilities in the name of Anne de Gaulle, the youngest daughter of de Gaulle and his wife, Yvonne, born in 1928 with Down’s syndrome.
