Suite Francaise (51 page)

O.U. den I, VII, 41

Kameraden. Wir haben längere Zeit mit der Familie Epstein zusammengelebt und diese sehr anständige und zuvorkommende Familie kennengelernt. Wir bitten Euch daher, sie damitsprechend zu behandeln. Heil Hitler!

Hammberger, Feldw, 23599 A.
*
¹⁸

I still don’t know where my wife is. The children are in good health, as for me, I am still standing.

Thank you for everything, my dear friend. Perhaps it would be helpful if you could discuss all this with the Count de Chambrun
*
¹⁹
and Morand. Best wishes, Michel.

? to Michel Epstein                                                                                                            27 July 1942

Are there in your wife’s works, apart from the scene in
Vin de Solitude,
passages from novels, short stories or articles that could be pointed out as clearly anti-Soviet?

Michel Epstein to André Sabatier                                                                                                            27 July 1942

I received your letter of Saturday today. Thank you so very much for all your efforts. I know that you are doing and will do everything you can to help me. I have patience and courage. I just pray that my wife has the physical strength necessary to bear this blow! What is very difficult is that she must be horribly worried about the children and me, and I have no way of communicating with her since I don’t even know where she is.

Please find enclosed a letter which I insist be sent to the German ambassador as a matter of URGENCY. If you could find anyone who could approach him personally and give it to him (Count de Chambrun perhaps, who, I believe, is prepared to take an interest in my wife), that would be perfect. But if you cannot find anyone able to do it QUICKLY, would you be so kind as to take it to the embassy or just post it. Thank you in advance. Of course, if this letter will upset the steps already taken, then tear it up, otherwise, I really wish it to be sent.

I fear the same thing might happen to me. In order to avoid material concerns, could you send Mlle Dumot an advance on her monthly payments for ’43? I am afraid for the children.

Michel Epstein to the German ambassador, Otto Abetz                                                                                                            27 July 1942

I know that I am taking a great liberty in writing to you personally. Nevertheless, I am taking this step because I believe that you alone can save my wife, my only hope lies with you.

Allow me therefore to explain to you the following: before leaving Issy, the German soldiers who were occupying the village gave me, in gratitude for the way we treated them, a letter which reads:

O.U. den I, VII, 41

Kameraden. Wir haben längere Zeit mit der Familie Epstein zusammengelebt und diese sehr anständige und zuvorkommende Familie kennengelernt. Wir bitten Euch daher, sie damitsprechend zu behandeln. Heil Hitler!

Hammberger, Feldw. 23599 A.
*
²⁰

And yet, on the 13 July my wife was arrested. She was taken to the concentration camp at Pithiviers (Loiret) and, from there, sent somewhere else, but I do not know where. This arrest, I was told, was a result of general instructions given by the occupying authorities regarding the Jews.

My wife, Madame M. Epstein, is a very famous novelist, I. Némirovsky. Her books have been translated in a great many countries and two of them at least—
David Golder
and
Le Bal
—in Germany. My wife was born in Kiev (Russia) on 11 February 1903. Her father was an important banker. My father was President of the Syndicat des Banques Russes (Union of Russian Banks) and Executive Director of the Bank of Commerce of Azov-Don. Both our families lost considerable fortunes in Russia; my own father was arrested by the Bolsheviks and imprisoned in the Saint-Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. We had the greatest of difficulty in finally managing to flee Russia in 1919 and we then took refuge in France, where we have lived ever since. All this must satisfy you that we feel nothing but hatred for the Bolshevik regime.

In France, not a single member of our family has ever been involved in politics. I was a bank manager and as for my wife, she became a highly esteemed novelist. In none of her books (which moreover have not been banned by the occupying authorities) will you find a single word against Germany and, even though my wife is of Jewish descent, she does not speak of the Jews with any affection whatsover in her works. My wife’s grandparents, as well as my own, were Jewish; our parents practised no religion; as for us, we are Catholic and so are our children who were born in Paris and are French.

If I may also take the liberty of pointing out to you that my wife has always avoided belonging to any political party, that she has never received special treatment from any government either left-wing or right-wing, and that the newspaper she contributed to as a novelist,
Gringoire,
whose director is H. de Carbuccia, has certainly never been well-disposed towards either the Jews or the Communists.

Finally, for many years my wife has been suffering from chronic asthma (her doctor, Professor Vallery-Radot, can attest to this) and internment in a concentration camp would be fatal for her.

I know, Ambassador, that you are one of the most eminent men in your country’s government. I am convinced you are also a just man. And it seems to me both unjust and illogical that the Germans should imprison a woman who, despite being of Jewish descent, has no sympathy whatsoever—all her books prove this—either for Judaism or the Bolshevik regime.

André Sabatier to Count de Chambrun                                                                                                            28 July 1942

I have received this very moment a letter from the husband of the author of
David Golder,
a copy of which I have taken the liberty of enclosing for you. This letter contains details which might prove useful. Let us hope that they will allow you to bring this matter to a positive conclusion. I thank you in advance for everything you are trying to do for our friend.

André Sabatier to Mme Paul Morand
*
²¹
                                                                                                            28 July 1942

I wrote to Monsieur Epstein yesterday saying what we had agreed, thinking it would be better to write than to send a telegram. This morning I received his letter in the post. It clearly contains some interesting details.

Michel Epstein to André Sabatier                                                                                                            28 July 1942

I hope you received the letter I wrote yesterday and that the one intended for the ambassador has been given to him, either by Chambrun or by someone else, or directly by you. Thank you in advance.

In reply to your note of yesterday: I think that in
David Golder,
the chapter where David does a deal with the Bolsheviks to buy oil rights cannot be seen as very kindly towards them, but I don’t have a copy of
D. Golder
here, could you check? You have a copy of the manuscript of
Les Échelles du Levant,
*
²²
which appeared in
Gringoire,
and which is more savage towards the hero, a charlatan doctor who comes from the Levantine, but I can’t remember whether my wife specifically made him Jewish. I think so.

I see in chapter XXV of her biography of Chekhov, the following sentence: “The short story ‘Ward 6’ contributed greatly to Chekhov’s fame in Russia; because of it, the USSR claimed him as their own and stated that, had he lived, he would have joined the Marxists. The posthumous fame of a writer is filled with such surprises . . .” Unfortunately, I can’t find anything else and this is very little.

Is there really no way at all to find out from the French authorities whether or not my wife is still in the camp at Pithiviers? Ten days ago, I sent a telegram, with a prepaid reply, to the commandant of the camp and have had no reply. Is it possible that just knowing where she is would be forbidden?

I was told that my brother Paul is in Drancy,
*
²³
why am I not allowed to know where my wife is? Alas . . .

Goodbye, dear friend. I don’t know why I have faith in my letter to the ambassador. Michel.

André Sabatier to Mme Paul Morand                                                                                                            29 July 1942

Here is the letter I told you about on the telephone. I think you are better placed than anyone to decide if it is best to send this letter to the person its author wants to have it. On the content, I can hardly comment, as for the details, it seems to me there are certain sentences which are rather unfortunate.

Mavlik
*
²⁴
to Michel Epstein                                                                                                            29 July 1942

My dearest. I hope you have received my letters but I fear they may have been lost for I wrote to Julie and our aunt misunderstood her name on the telephone. My dearest, once again I beg you to stay strong for Irène, for the girls, for everyone else. We do not have the right to lose heart since we are believers. I was mad with grief but I am in control again, I spend all day long trying to find out some news and seeing people in the same situation. Germaine
*
²⁵
got back the day before yesterday, she will be leaving for Pithiviers as soon as she has everything she needs. Since it seems that Sam is at Neaune-la-Rolande, near Pithiviers, she is desperate to try to get some news to both him and Irène. We’ve heard nothing except that Ania is at Drancy and she is asking for some clothes and books. There have been several letters from Drancy where people say they are being treated and fed properly. My darling, I beg of you, have courage. The money is late because the name was misunderstood. I’m going back to see Joséphine
*
²⁶
tomorrow. Germaine saw the gentleman whose maid is at Pithiviers. I must also see Germaine before she leaves. She had a note from Sam but it was still from Drancy. I will write to you the day she leaves but I would like to hear from you, my dear. As for me, I don’t know how, but I’m still standing and still hoping. I send you and the girls my love always.

Mme Rousseau (French Red Cross) to Michel Epstein                                                                                                            3 August 1942

Dr. Bazy
*
²⁷
left this morning for the Free Zone where he will spend a few days; he is going to look into the case of Mme Epstein once there and will do everything in his power to intervene on her behalf. As he didn’t have time to reply to you before leaving, he asked me to let you know he received your letter and that he will do everything possible to assist you.

Michel Epstein to Mme Rousseau                                                                                                            6 August 1942

I was happy to hear that Dr. Bazy is taking steps to help my wife. I wonder if it might not be a good opportunity to coordinate his efforts with those already taken by:

1                  My wife’s publisher, Monsieur Albin Michel (the person who is dealing with this matter is Monsieur André Sabatier, one of the company directors).

2                  Mme Paul Morand.

3                  Henri de Régnier.

4                  Count de Chambrun.

Monsieur Sabatier will be receiving a copy of this letter and he can give you any information you might need (tel: DAN 87.45). It is particularly painful not knowing where my wife is (she was at the Pithiviers camp—Loiret, on 17 July and since then I haven’t had a single word from her). I would like her to know that the children and I have not been affected by recent directives and that we are all in good health. Could the Red Cross get the same message to her? Is it allowed to send parcels?

Michel Epstein to André Sabatier                                                                                                            6 August 1942

Enclosed is a copy of the letter I sent to the Red Cross. Still not a word from my wife. It’s hard. Was it possible to contact Ambassador Abetz and give him my letter? Michel.

P.S. Could you send me the Count de Chambrun’s address?

Michel Epstein to André Sabatier                                                                                                            9 August 1942

I have just learned, from a very reliable source, that the women (and men and even the children) interned at the Pithiviers camp were taken to the German border and from there sent somewhere further east—probably Poland or Russia. This is supposed to have happened about three weeks ago.

Up till now, I thought my wife was in some camp in France, in the custody of French soldiers. To learn she is in an uncivilised country, in conditions that are probably atrocious, without money or food and with people whose language she does not even know, is unbearable. It is now no longer a matter of getting her out of a camp sooner rather than later but of saving her life.

You must have received the telegram I sent yesterday; I pointed out one of my wife’s books,
Les Mouches d’Automne,
first published by Kra, deluxe edition, and then by Grasset. This book is clearly anti-Bolshevik and I deeply regret not having thought of it sooner. I hope it is not too late to stress this new piece of evidence we have to the German authorities.

I know, dear friend, that you are doing everything you can to save us, but I beg of you, find, think of something else, speak again to Morand, Chambrun, your friend and in particular to Dr. Bazy, President of the Red Cross, 12 rue Newton, tel: KLE 84.05 (the head of his section is Mme Rousseau, same address) pointing out the new evidence of
Les Mouches d’Automne
. It is absolutely inconceivable that we, who lost everything because of the Bolsheviks, should be condemned to death by those who are fighting them!