Tag: 1941

A Life in Paris – February 21, 1941

It’s snowing again. But the few nice days we’ve just had were frightening. The planes were beginning to make their rounds again…

IMG_1522Photography print available at Found View Gallery.

It’s snowing again. But the few nice days we’ve just had were frightening. The planes were beginning to make their rounds again. This bad weather gives us some respite, but anxiety never leaves me. The green men whom I pass on the street seem pitiful to me. They have the silly, vapid look of soldiers in every country on earth, dragging their boots around uselessly while they wait to give blood in accordance with the rules of their job.

One feels rather ashamed to eat. The poor people in the neighborhood have no more bread. As of now, they have used up all their February ration tickets. If we’re still eating in our house, it’s because we’re member of the bourgeoisie and can send for packages from Brittany at great expense. […]

In the evening, the Gestapo searched the Musée de l’Homme and arrested fourteen people. Julien Cain, the former administrator of the National Library and a Jew, has been arrested, The grounds: he was too visible.

Jean Guéhenno

Notes:
• From Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944
• Jean Guéhenno was a French writer and intellectual who kept a diary during the WWII German occupation of France.

A Life in Paris – February 10, 1941

Symbolic: every evening at the Opera, I am told, German officers are extremely numerous…

IMG_1366Photography print available at Found View Gallery.

Symbolic: every evening at the Opera, I am told, German officers are extremely numerous. At the intermissions, following the custom of their country, they walk around the lobby in ranks of three or four, all in the same direction. Despite themselves, the French join in the procession and march in step, unconsciously. The boots impose their rhythm.

Jean Guéhenno

Notes:
• From Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944
• Jean Guéhenno was a French writer and intellectual who kept a diary during the WWII German occupation of France.

A Life in Paris – January 23, 1941

Too many of the days when I record nothing in this notebook are days of despair…

i-2Wc9gTT-LPhotography print available at Found View Gallery.

Too many of the days when I record nothing in this notebook are days of despair. I know—one mustn’t let oneself go. And besides, we keep on living. We live out of habit, if that is living. We hold on, we last. But submerged by solitude and sorrow, overwhelmed by the very awareness of our own impotence. We have no temptations, no desires. Very rarely, a thought dares to spread its wings. It sinks as soon as it rises. What’s the use? The snow has melted in Paris; there’s a thaw. We merely think we’re going to be a little less cold.

Jean Guéhenno

Notes:
• From Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944
• Jean Guéhenno was a French writer and intellectual who kept a diary during the WWII German occupation of France.