The famous writer Samuel Beckett was born in Ireland in 1906. In 1928, at the age of 22, he left Ireland. He moved to continental Europe.
For the rest of his life, he lived in France. Obviously, he did not stay in France each and every day. He made some trips to Ireland and he travelled to other countries on the European continent, including Germany and Italy.
He felt more at home in France than he did in his native Ireland.
He visited Germany both before and after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power. He was there more than once during the years 1928-1932. He returned to Germany in 1936 and this time he stayed for several months.
He spoke the German language well enough to get by and he had friends in Germany. He wanted to see just how bad the situation was in Nazi Germany.
He found that it was much worse than he thought. He was strongly opposed to Hitler and the Nazi party.
In 1939, World War Two began. In 1940, France was defeated by Nazi Germany. Ireland was neutral in the war. As a citizen of Ireland, he could have left France and returned to Ireland.
He could easily have avoided the whole war. But he did not do that. Why not? He felt at home in France. It was his home. He said something like this:
“It is better to be in France and fight against the Nazis than it is to be at peace in Ireland.”
In 1941, Samuel and his partner in life Suzanne joined the French resistance. They worked as couriers. Samuel also worked as a translator.
Important information was collected in France. It was translated into English and passed on to the British government which supported the French resistance in different ways.
In 1942, the group with which they worked was betrayed to the Nazis by a collaborator, a French priest named Robert Alesch, who pretended to be against the Nazis.
Fortunately, Samuel and Suzanne were warned and they managed to escape just before Gestapo agents came to their home. They went into hiding to avoid the Nazis.
They wanted to move from the German-occupied zone to the non-occupied zone (Vichy France). They were lucky. They managed to get to Roussillon, a small village in the southern part of France.
For three years (1942-1945), they lived and worked on a farm in this village.
After the war, Samuel continued his career as a writer, but he did not want to say anything about his experience during the war.
James Knowlson, who knew Beckett, talked to him several times while he was working on his biography of Beckett. According to Knowlson, Beckett always refused to talk about his experience during the war.
There was, however, one exception. There was one occasion when Beckett agreed to talk about this topic.
This is how Knowlson was able to learn the basic facts about what happened to Samuel and Suzanne during the war.
In the twenty-first century, when some French archives were unsealed, Knowlson was able to find additional information about Samuel Beckett and the French resistance to the Nazi occupation.
PS # 1. Paul Léopoldovitch (1893-1942) was a close friend of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. During World War Two, he was arrested by the Gestapo. He died in a concentration camp in 1942.
PS. # 2. Alfred Péron (1904-1945) was a close friend of Samuel Beckett. During World War Two, he joined the French resistance.
When members of his group were betrayed to the Nazis, he was arrested by the Gestapo. He died in 1945, shortly after being liberated from a concentration camp.
REFERENCES
# 1. Items available online
Samuel Beckett's biographer reveals secrets
# 2. Books
Damned to Fame:
The Life of Samuel Beckett
By James Knowlson
(1996)
Samuel Beckett:
The Last Modernist
By Anthony Cronin
(1996)
# 3. Film and video
Silence to Silence
Run time = 77 minutes
(1984)
Samuel Beckett:
As the Story Was Told
Run time = 100 minutes
(1996)
Searching for Sam:
Adrian Dunbar on Samuel Beckett
Run time = 58 minutes
(2019)
# 4. Regarding Paul Léon
# 5. Regarding Alfred Péron
*****
Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil
(1900-1989)
Samuel Beckett's partner in life
1939-1961
Samuel Beckett's wife
1961-1989
*****
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