Lucien Rebatet
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Lucien Rebatet (November 15, 1903, Moras-en-Valloire, Drôme – 1972, Moras-en-Valloire) was a French author, journalist and intellectual, an exponent of fascism and virulent antisemite.
[edit] Early life
As a young man, he was educated in Saint-Chamond. From 1923 to 1927 he studied at the Sorbonne after which he became an insurance agent. It is only in 1929 that he began his career as a writer, becoming a music and film critic (the latter under the pseudonym François Vinneuil) for the far right integralist Action Française newspaper. In 1932 Rebatet became a contributor to the right-wing newspaper Je suis partout for which he wrote for until the Allied liberation in 1944. In 1938 Rebatet became head of information for Action Française and worked closely with the movement's founder, Charles Maurras.
Long before the outbreak of war between France and Nazi Germany, Rebatet expressed sympathy for National Socialism, notably in his articles for Je suis partout in which he accused Jews of wanting a war to topple Adolf Hitler’s régime. In 1940, Rebatet was drafted into the French Army and, although he served, he openly hoped for a "short and disastrous war for France".
[edit] Collaboration
After the fall of France, he became a radio reporter for the Vichy government. He quickly left this post as well as Action Française to join Jacques Doriot's newspaper Cri Du Peuple, and to continue his writings for Je suis partout.
In 1942, Rebatet published a lengthy pamphlet entitled Les Decombres ("The Ruins"), in which he traced the forces he believed to have lead France to its fall. He firmly accused Third Republic politicians and its military leadership, as well as French Jews - whom Rebatet claimed to be the prime cause of France's political and military woes. Les Decombres is the clearest expression of Rebatet's fascism, as well as his most virulently antisemitic work. The same year, Rebatet began writing Les Deux Etendards ("The Two Standards"), his first novel.
In August 1944, Rebatet fled France for Germany, travelling to Sigmaringen (place of refuge for Vichy authorities as well as the more famous French writer, Céline). It was in Sigmaringen that Rebatet completed Les Deux Etendards, which would be published in 1952 by Gallimard. Rebatet was arrested in Austria in 1945.
[edit] After the war
He was sent back to France and, in 1946, received a death sentence, which was commuted to forced labor the next year. Rebatet was released from prison in 1952. In 1953, he returned to journalism, becoming the director of the literary section of Dimanche Matin. In 1954, Gallimard published Rebatet's second novel, Les Epis Murs ("The Ripe Grains"). His final work was a history of music which he began writing in 1965 - published by Laffont in 1969.
Although Rebatet continued to proclaim his adherence to fascism until his death, his antisemitism became less pronounced after the war.
Despite his controversial biography, there are those, such as George Steiner, who claim that Lucien Rebatet was a great writer and that les Deux Etendards in particular deserves to be considered an important novel in French literary history.
