The Living Unknown Soldier

by Jean-Yves Le Naour, Penny Allen (Translator)

This is the remarkably powerful and moving true story of a soldier who lost his memory and identity during World War I, and of a people in mourning, who found in him the symbol of a lost generation. Released from a German POW camp with no memory of his name or his past life and no documents or distinguishing marks to identify him, the soldier was given the name Anthelme Mangin, and sent to an asylum for the insane. With the end of the Great War, a newspaper advertisement placed in the hope of finding his lost family found instead a bereaved multitude ready to claim him as the father, son, husband or brother who had never come home. With humane sympathy and the skill of a novelist, Jean Yves Le Naour meticulously recreates the twenty-year court battles waged over the Living Unknown Soldier. Poignant, psychologically penetrating, and profoundly revealing of the human cost of war, this remarkable book portrays not just the fate of one individual but a nation's inconsolable post-war grief and profoundly illuminates the nature of mourning.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, France, World War I, European History

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Historien, né en 1972 à Meaux (Seine et Marne), docteur en histoire, spécialiste de la Première Guerre mondiale et de l'histoire du XXe siècle . Il est l'auteur de plusieurs films documentaires portant sur la Grande Guerre ainsi que sur le XXe siècle.
Deux de ses essais ont reçu un prix : L'affaire Malvy a remporté le prix Henri Hertz 2008, Les soldats de la honte, le Grand-Prix du livre d'histoire Ouest-France-Société Générale 2011 ainsi qu'une seconde distinction : le prix de l'Académie de Médecine Jean-Charles Sournia qui récompense "un travail original récent consacré à l'histoire de la Médecine".

Reviews

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

In February 1918 a group of mentally disabled French prisoners-of-war arrived in Lyons as part of an exchange. Their disabilities varied, but all were incapable of further involvement in the fighting. They included several amnesiacs and photographs of some of them were published in newspapers in an attempt to identify them. By 1937 all but one had either died or been identified; this is the story of that man. It is also the story of some of the many families who thought or hoped he might be their missing son, husband or brother and of the asylum director's tireless efforts to find out who he really was.
The story is told with a great deal of compassion, both for the soldier himself and for the bereaved families, matching the attitude of the asylum director who persevered even in the face of insults from disappointed families. The author is a respected historian and his research is impeccable, he can also write in an accessible way. I think he could have organised his material better, either chronologically or thematically, as the book contains some strange anomalies, such as the expert opinion apparently being given before the experts are appointed, and some repetition. It is, on the whole, a sad and beautifully poignant story, which shows the effect of the war on the families of the missing and on France as a whole. Perhaps the saddest and most poignant aspect is that the living unknown soldier need never have been unidentified; he was transferred from one asylum to another under a misheard version of his name, while the German documentation of his case remained behind at the first.

[Patrick Wakie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is said that we die two deaths; the first being when we pass, and the second when there is no one left alive to remember us. In the case of "Anthelme Mangin", an amnesiac afflicted with "dementia praecox" after fighting for France in the First World War, his death and resurrection cycled endlessly for the better part of twenty years. Without a confirmed identity, "Mangin" was the stand-in son, brother, or father for over 400,000 French families whose loved ones were declared missing at end of the conflict. The living unknown soldier came to symbolize both the hope that a missing soldier might return, as well as the loss suffered by so many. With the finesse of a novelist, Jean-Yves Le Naour's explores, in great detail, the attempts of numerous families to claim "Mangin" as their own, the significance of the living unknown soldier in interwar French culture, and the efforts of several asylum directors and professionals to return "Mangin" to his rightful family.

[Shreedevi Gurumurty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthelme Mangin (19 March 1891) aka Octave Félicien Monjoin, was an amnesiac WWI French veteran who was the subject of a long judicial process involving dozens of families who claimed him as their missing relative.On 1 February 1918, a French soldier was repatriated from Germany and arrived at the Gare des Brotteaux in Lyon,suffering from amnesia and lacking military or civil identification documents. When questioned, he gave a name that sounded something like Anthelme Mangin, and this became the name by which he is known to history.He was diagnosed with dementia praecox and placed in an asylum in Clermont-Ferrand.Photos of several asylum patients, including Mangin,were published in the hope that their families would recognise them.Several families responded to Mangin's photo.After a lengthy investigation by the psychiatrists at the Rodez asylum,only 2 claimants seemed plausible:Lucie Lemay,who claimed the man as her missing husband,and Pierre Monjoin, who claimed him as his son.In 1934 Anthelme was taken on a visit to Saint-Maur, Indre, the home of Pierre Monjoin, and permitted to walk around the village.Starting at the railway station, Mangin walked unaccompanied to the Monjoin family home, though he did not acknowledge the old man.He noted the changed appearance of the village church,from prewar to postwar. The authorities determined that he was Monjoin's son, but the Lemay family appealed this decision,which prolonged the case further.The asylum tribunal finally ruled on the Monjoin's favour, but Pierre and his son passed away shortly after.Manjin, therefore,spent his later years in the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital in Paris, where he died on 19 September 1942, apparently of malnutrition.He was buried in a common grave.In 1948, his remains were transferred to the cemetery of Saint-Maur-en-Indre and buried under Octave Monjoin.Everyone was stuck in a limbo between life and death in suspended grief concerning the missing.The vanished leave a void that their relatives fill with guesswork,wishes, frustration,doubts,uncertainty,anxiety, despair and depression.Closure is seemingly elusive and isn't always promising.

[Charles Cavazos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The remarkable and sad story of a French World War I soldier who returned from captivity as an amnesiac, and the years' long struggle to positively identify him and reunite him with his family. As doctors examine him, and various families litigate their claim to him, the soldier, called Anthelme Mangin, lives a passive and apathetic life, seemingly unconnected to the investigations that surround him. Mangin lives as a man who is absent in his presence. But it is the actions of the many who claim him that is extraordinary. This book speaks to the emotional ravages of war that include absence, loss and the overwhelming desire for reunification.

[Diana Starrett]

The reading was a little difficult because I do not know French history very well. But getting through to the last few chapters to find out what happened to this unknown soldier was well worth it. By the end, I wanted to visit the Living Unknown Soldier's grave site in France.

[Robin :] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to praise the author for the narrative skull utilised to tell this non fiction tale. I had no preexisting knowledge of Mangin, and I felt that this book was informative, well paced and successfully intriguing.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking book, so sad although pleased his identity was finally discovered. May he rest in peace. His story should never be forgotten.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un ouvrage fascinant qui se lit comme un roman. Je lis beaucoup d'ouvrages d'histoire, mais il m'arrive rarement de les terminer en deux jours !

Jean-Yves Le Naour explore l'histoire du soldat inconnu vivant, Anthelme Mangin, mais également les thèmes de société du deuil, de la disparition et du devoir de mémoire pendant et après la Grande Guerre. On ne peut s'empêcher de continuer la lecture compulsivement tant c'est intéressant. Chaque chapitre est clos par une série de notes bibliographiques, ce que je recherche toujours dans un ouvrage historique et qui peut permettre d'explorer plus de lecture sur ce thème.

On se prend d'affection pour Mangin, car l'écriture est respectueuse et humaine tout en restant de la recherche historique. Je ne peux que saluer l'exploit réalisé par Jean-Yves Le Naour avec Le Soldat Inconnu, qui se lit presque comme un polar à certains moments.

Une lecture chaudement recommandée !!

Note : j'ai reçu une copie digitale gratuite de cet ouvrage en échange d'une chronique honnête. Merci à Fayard et NetGalleyFR.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, if heartbreaking, read. Gives the reader a powerful glimpse into the emotional wreckage left behind the Great War, as well as a tantalizing taste of what constituted mental-health services in those days. The only bad guy in this story of unending legal wrangling and desperate uncertainty is the War itself.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful and interesting-- also an alarmingly quick read.

[Kati Polodna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my senior history thesis. Really interesting from a social perspective of grief during WWI.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful story, but could have been told in a better organized manner. At times it felt meandering and repetitive. yet, the impact of the story resounds through, leaving is mark on the reader.