L'Honneure Des Poetes

by Various Artists

During the Nazi occupation, some French writers refused to submit to the invaders and fought to preserve France's cultural inheritance. Each in his own way, the four writers presented on this CD were deeply influenced by their resistance to the Germans. Louis Aragon was a famous French communist poet and writer. Drafted into the military in 1939, he took refuge in the southern "free zone" after France's defeat and participated in the Resistance, both through literary activities and organization of resistance actions. His postwar poems also reflect his memories of the Resistance. Paul Eluard was one of the founders of surrealism movement. During World War II, his work became more political. Eluard joined the Resistance and fought the enemy with his poetry. His most famous writings during this period are his 1942 poem "Liberty" and Les sept poemes d'amour en guerre in 1944, which is included on this CD. Listeners are also introduced to the editorials by Francois Mauriac and Albert Camus that appeared on August 25, 1944, and caused a bitter dispute between the two authors. Camus edited the Resistance paper Combat, while Mauriac wrote a column for Le Figaro . Camus argued that newly liberated France should purge all Nazi collaborator elements. Mauriac, though, warned that such considerations should be set aside in the interests of national reconciliation, because he doubted that justice would be impartial or dispassionate given the emotional turmoil of liberation.