A Forgotten Collection of Charles de Gaulle’s Personal Letters, Speeches and Manuscripts Has Been Discovered in a Safe
Most of the documents are heading to the auction block, where they could fetch more than $1 million. They were found in a bank vault owned by the French statesman’s son
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Letters from Winston Churchill, a short story written under a pseudonym and a gold electronic wristwatch are some of the items once owned by Charles de Gaulle that will be up for auction next week.
Together, the 372 lots are valued at about €1 million (roughly $1.05 million), according to the London Times’ Adam Sage.
The impressive stash of items was in a safe owned by Philippe de Gaulle, son of the famed military general and former French president. Philippe died in March at the age of 102. According to auctioneer Stéphane Aubert, nobody in the de Gaulle family knew how valuable the safe’s contents were.
“It was a complete surprise,” Aubert tells the Guardian’s Kim Willsher. “Only the admiral Philippe de Gaulle had access to the safe, so when we opened it we really had no idea what we would find. It was a fabulous treasure trove. A history of the life of General de Gaulle, the savior of France.”
That treasure trove included the handwritten manuscript of de Gaulle’s celebrated 1940 speech in which he called upon the French to resist the Nazis. The then-brigadier general broadcast the appeal from London, where he had fled after the French agreed to collaborate with Nazi Germany. He met with Churchill, who granted him permission to deliver his speech on the BBC.
“Honor, common sense and the interests of the country require that all free Frenchmen, wherever they be, should continue the fight as best they may,” de Gaulle said. He concluded the address: “I call upon all Frenchmen who want to remain free to listen to my voice and follow me. Long live free France in honor and independence!”
The historically significant manuscript is not for sale, but it is on display at a public exhibition hosted by the auction house Artcurial.
Other valuable manuscripts are up for auction, including one for The Enemy’s House Divided (1924), de Gaulle’s first book. The auction features a short story he wrote at just 14 years old, as well as another short story written several years later under the pseudonym Charles de Lugale.
The collection also includes “unpublished notebooks containing philosophical reflections, political analyses and literary commentary,” per a statement from the auction house, “offering rare insight into General de Gaulle’s ongoing intellectual development.”
A number of de Gaulle’s private letters are for sale, including notes he sent his wife during battle in 1940 and coded missives he wrote to his mother while in captivity as a prisoner of war during World War I.
“We are still trying to establish what code he used and what he said,” Aubert tells the Guardian. “They were able to communicate, but only de Gaulle and his mother knew the code.”
There are letters from Churchill in which he expresses concern about Soviet expansionism in 1946, according to the Times, and messages from dancer and singer Josephine Baker signed “your loyal and dirty resistant.”
Along with the stash of written artifacts, a number of personal trinkets and mementos will be on sale, including de Gaulle’s wristwatch, a table clock and a toy soldier from his childhood.
A portion of the auction’s proceeds will be donated to the Anne de Gaulle Foundation. Named for de Gaulle’s daughter, who had Down syndrome, the foundation provides housing and support to people with disabilities.