JOURNAL DES ANNEES NOIRES:

by Jean Guéhenno

Book by Guehenno, Jean

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Memoir, 20th Century

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Jean Guéhenno, writer and educator, was a prominent contributor to the NRF. He was editor-in-chief of the literary journal Europe from 1929 until May 1936. Guéhenno wrote one novel, 'The Dead Youth', based on his memories of World War I.

During the German occupation of France, Guéhenno refused to publish, believing to do so would be collaboration. Instead he kept a secret journal, chronicling the infringement by the Vichy government of traditional French rights and values, and his own efforts in behalf of the Resistance. This was published in France in 1947.

The first English translation of the journal, by David Ball, was published in 2014 under the title 'Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944.'

According to the translator's introduction, it is "the book French readers have turned to most readily for an account of life under German occupation." The Wall Street Journal included "at the top entry in her list of the Five Best books on the French Resistance "

Jean Guéhenno was elected to the Académie française on 25 January 1962.

Reviews

[Christopher Junker · Rating 4 out of 5]

More political theory and philosophy than one looks for in a diary offering an account of a violent time but very vivid for all that and certainly a caution for the it cannot happen here folks.

[Eugenia Tellechea · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Pj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is what I would call a typically male diary. Little space is given to observations of the eye. Mostly its pages are full of abstract intellectual responses to the war. It’s very interesting to hear what he has to say about Hitler’s speeches, all of which he listens to. His insights into Hitler’s base appeal are incredibly perceptive. They are also eerily similar to things now said about Donald Trump. Also fascinating is his disdain for the slavish capitulation of the majority of the French population – “robots serving the machine to enslave others.” Guehenno was a teacher during the war and among his pupils were informers. In other words he was at the mercy of some of the kids he was supposed to be inspiring. It’s an interesting book though I was hoping to learn more about the daily life of the French people under Nazi occupation.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 'Diary' is not what I expected. It focuses more on his inner thoughts about life, freedom, what a country really is (its values, culture, people vs. just the land). At times it is strong and passionate as he, albeit repeatedly, writes about what freedom and liberty are and should be: not for just oneself but for all. If all are not free, no one is. He focuses on the effects of the severe restrictions imposed by the Occupation with no condemnation spared toward those who sold France out.
This book took forever to read because Guehenno intersperses many very intellectualized literary references (I assume to further illuminate a point he is making) to specific works of several long-gone writers and philosophers. I did not understand many of those or how they related to the thoughts that immediately preceded. That negatively affected the flow and emotion of the book.

[Christopher G. Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chilling diary of a writer living in Nazi occupied Paris. An inside look at the psychological conditions of people under a dictatorship and seeking to find ways to resist and live another day. A compelling examination into the psyche of those who support the repression and those who device means to subvert the occupiers.

[Reese Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive bible on occupied France from a man who was actually there. Not a textbook, but—as the title indicates—a detailed diary on daily life under German rule. Guehenno paints a comprehensive portrait of the shame, the terror, the disgust, and the anger the average Parisian endured during the four years of the country’s confinement. He discusses former colleagues who chose to collaborate with their captors, in order to hold onto their prestige in the community; and he shares the stories of students of his who fled to the countryside to join the rebellious armed resistance known as the maquis. He relates his own subtle methods of rebellion in his role as a university teacher, and the ways he and others like him learned to recognize each other under the constant vigilance of Nazi and Vichy soldiers. Diary of the Dark Years offers a vivid and thorough experience of this pivotal time in history in a way no textbook or research paper could come close to. For anyone interested in World War 2, France, or puppet governments, this is a must-read.

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure what to say about this other than it was exceedingly chilling but also challenging to read this book. The author was an intellectual and mused upon many subjects beyond my experience and comprehension. So while it was engrossing reading, I also felt very stupid.
I wished for more personal information and found it very strange how little mention there was of his daughter who was 18 at the time of the occupation. He also infrequently mentions the roundups of the Jews but spends much time discussing the deportations of non Jewish French to Germany for work details. And also much discussion of communism so I believe I have an inadequate understanding of his specific history and how it coloured his diary entries.
The majority of my reading about the Vichy regime and the Occupation of France has always predominantly featured the Jewish experience and I found this very odd to have that feel secondary in this diary's edition.

[Johannes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it pencil in my hand, and spent quite a lot of time marking thought-provoking, historically interesting, extremely funny or immensely beautiful passages. I'll give some, chosen randomly:
"J'ai employé à me battre pour l'amour de l'humanité les années qui m'avaient été offertes pour gentiment et modestement aimer quelques créatures." (p.84)
"Nous n'avions pas assez conscience de la chance que c'était d'être né dans un noble pays dont toutes les paroles trouvaient un écho dans le monde." (p.125, France of course)
"Le seul moi qui vaille se construit et se veut." (p.142)
"Et notre curiosité m'a paru vaine, et je me suis demandé si nous ne donnions pas trop de nous-mêmes aux événements; si grands qu'ils soient, notre vraie vie n'est pas là." (p.312)

[Luc Antoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4ème de couverture :

3 mars 1942

On les avertit dès le matin du lundi qu'ils allaient être fusillés. Vildé vit sa femme dans la matinée et eut la force de ne rien lui dire. L'après-midi, on les conduisit de la prison de Fresnes au mont Valérien. Ils traversèrent tout Paris entassés dans un camion avec leurs gardes. Ils chantaient. On épingla à chacun un carré de papier blanc à la place du coeur et ils furent tués presque à bout portant. Vildé, comme il l'avait demandé, fut exécuté le dernier.

" Une prise de conscience " (Gaétan Picon).

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for a book that chronicled the daily life under occupation. Unfortunately, this book was not that. There were some references to what life was like but there was also quite a bit of philosophy and rumination, which I really distances the reader from the experience.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read this book but accidently gave it five stars, a mistake which Giodreads will not allow me to undo on my mobile.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Amazon review -

http://www.amazon.com/review/R138E6WN...

[Bsldavio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nonfiction-history

[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The French just surrendered - how are we ever to understand why? Are they that weak and spineless???? And why did Eisenhower let the French go in first to free Paris??? Startling.

[Dan G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The detailed diary of an anti-Nazi French intellectual during the German occupation of France.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

intense read!! history unfolding!!

[Adrian]

Academic Guehenno's diary for the years of Nazi-occupied France was published there in 1947. Only in the last few years has it been translated into English. He made his living as a university lecturer in philosophy or French literature and was demoted in 1943 to teach school children. He committed himself to not publish anything in Vichy France. Interesting when he deals with the repression of those years or his view of German soldiers in the street many entries involve the life of the mind. Being more of a life of the belly kind of guy I skipped a lot reading in total perhaps half the book. So a very qualified recommendation here.

[Alonzo Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this age of Trump, the temptation is to look at this diary as a guide to our future, or at least, a warning of what our clownish administration might be planning for us. That, quite honestly, is a silly thought, coming mostly from the Trumpian Opposition's appropriation of the word "Resistance". This diary stands on its own terms, as a sensitive intellectual's attempt to deal with a dictatorship imposed by an invading power. The book has lessons for us, particularly in it's depictions of all the ways intelligent people deal with an immoral and intolerable state of affairs, and the way people you think friends and comrades in arms will collaborate and then justify themselves, and how that process inexorably marches on (in some cases), or somehow reverses itself (in others).

The diarist describes daily living in a country being looted by the enemy, engages with French philosophical history in an effort to simply understand, and describes how the state deals with people like him, who are not actively involved in subversion, but who do seem to be trying to resist Vichy propaganda. The sheer terror of it all becomes intermittently apparent, as the diarist notes, somewhat blandly, episodes where the Nazis take hostages (because of certain actions by the Resistance) and shoot them.

If you pick this up because you figure to have all your fears of Trump exposed, pick another book and go back to your twitter feed. If you want to see what an occupation and a resistance really looks like to a teacher at the academy, pick this up. It's about as vivid a view as you will get.