Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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I had an
uncomfortable moment when I thought the avenue Bosquet was named for a man
convicted of crimes against humanity. Fortunately,
that is not the case. The avenue was
named in 1864 for Pierre François Bosquet (1810-1861), maréchal de France. Before that, it
was called the boulevard de l'Alma. In
the Haussmannization process, the avenue Bosquet absorbed the rue de la Vierge,
which ran from the quai d'Orsay to the rue Saint-Dominique; the rue Neuve de
la Vierge; and the rue du Champ de la Vierge, which ran from the rue de
Grenelle to the avenue de la Motte-Picquet.
In 1951, the end of the avenue Bosquet from the rue Cognacq-Jay to the
quai d'Orsay became part of the place de la Résistance. Given that it
starts at the place de la Résistance now, it would have been too ironic if
the avenue Bosquet had been named for that criminal. But that guy’s name is spelled differently. René Bousquet
was the secretary-general of the police in the Vichy regime from May 1942 to
December 1943. He was indicted finally
in 1991 for his “leadership” role in rounding up Jewish children, women, and
men in the Vélodrome
d’Hiver in July 1942. Just as his
trial was about to begin in 1993, he was assasinated by Christian Didier. When Bousquet
was appointed to that job in 1942, he gained “autonomy” for the French police
by promising to collaborate with the Germans.
How that can be called “autonomy” is beyond my comprehension. When the
Germans surrendered, Bousquet was in Bavaria.
He claimed the status of “deported person” in order to return. Now that is truly ironic. In 1949,
Bousquet was convicted of “national degradation” and sentenced to 5 years in
prison. But the sentence was
immediately lifted because of his supposed aid to the French Resistance. As a
consequence of his role in the Vichy government, Bousquet was supposed to be
ineligible for government jobs. But
that didn’t last long. In 1957, his Legion d’Honneur award was returned to
him, and in 1958, he was given amnesty, whereupon he got right back into
politics and government. I can see how Christian
Didier would be extremely frustrated by this. Bousquet helped
Mitterand win the presidency from d’Estaing.
He was a friend of the composer Edgar Faure and Maurice Faure. After Mitterand was elected in 1981,
Bousquet would visit him to chat about politics. Those visits
ended in 1986 when human rights groups began crying out for real justice to
be served against Bousquet. In 1991,
the wheels of justice began to turn, but Didier stopped them in 1993. Didier did have
a difficult childhood and a history of mental illness; nevertheless, the
courts ruled that he was sane. He was
convicted of assasinating Bousquet and was sentenced to 10 years. Didier was released after five years of
prison life. This year,
Christian Didier is 70. An article
from a Lorraine newspaper last year said that he lives in
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, which I think is or is near where he grew up. To some, like the author Laurent Binet,
Didier is a “spectacular idiot” because he deprived France of a judicial
“process of the century,” according to the French Wikipedia. According to
Wikipedia, Didier himself says he regrets killing Bousquet and therefore
retarding the judicial debate on the responsibility of the Vichy regime for
its participation in the Nazi “Final Solution.” The author
Alain Minc called Didier “crazy” in his book, L’homme aux deux visages (The
Man with Two Faces, a biography of Bousquet). For that, Didier filed a defamation
complaint against Minc. After all, the
courts had decided that Didier was sane and therefore convicted him of the
assasination. The court
decided in Didier’s favor in the defamation case earlier this year. But the named responsible entity is the
publisher, Grasset, with Minc considered as an accomplice in the defamation. Didier was awarded 10,000 euros in damages
and interest. This amount
Didier donated, in its entirety, to the Roger McGowan
foundation. Roger is an
African-American on death row in Texas. Minc has other
troubles: he has also been accused of
plagiarism. “Now, perhaps
the next ones will reflect and think twice before they write rubbish,” said
Christian Didier, according to Gregoire Hallinger of Vosgesmatin.fr. “Think twice
before you write” is always a good idea.
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Wednesday, August 28, 2013
A
door to the church of Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre.
Sculpture
by Tomasso Gismondi in
the courtyard in front of the church Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre. The door, at the top, was also by Gismondi. Below, a
chapel in the same church.
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