The Great War told from an attic

PLANETE+ – MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11 AT 8:55 PM – DOCUMENTARY

“Go ahead, little one, that’s life/Go happy/to the regiment…”sings Harry Fragson, in August 1914, with a cheerful melody to accompany the pious on the road to a war that promises to be short, since France has one of the best armies in the world. Rue de Berlin, in the Europe district of Paris, is renamed Rue de Liège. A merchant announces in the window: “Reopening after the victory. » The “little ones” will be there for Christmas…

Within weeks, the enemy created unspeakable chaos, looting, robbing and killing in the destroyed homes of the North and East. The “spiked helmets” occupy ten departments. “Our Joffre who is on fire”the generalissimo in favor of the total offensive, praised as God the father, lost 300,000 men between August and December 1914. In November, the front was frozen for more than 700 kilometers, leaving 2 million French trapped in Lille, Cambrai, Lens, Douai . …

Individual destinations

1914, and suddenly the war!Cédric Gruat’s documentary recounts, through the voice of Vincent Lindon, the first months of this deadly global conflict, skillfully interweaving the grand story and individual destinies. Paul Doumer, future President of the Republic, lost four sons in combat. We follow, through letters, the couple formed by Marie-Louise and Raymond Escholier, she taking refuge in Ariège with the children and he in charge.

Precisely in Douai, Achille Bourgin, a postal official, with light eyes and a proudly raised mustache, was discharged for suspicion of tuberculosis. But he decides to hide, despite the risks involved. All French people who are in this occupied zone must declare themselves to the Kommandantur to be registered and even photographed. Keeping a diary can lead to serious accusations of “espionage.” In Those confined from 14 to 18, Frédéric Monteil tells the story of Achilles, played by Renaud Hézèques. It is based on his nine bound notebooks, approximately 2,000 pages of an almost daily history written in pen and supplemented by photographs, newspaper clippings, sketches and maps.

Its discovery was due to the judicious look of an Emmaus volunteer at a bag of rubbish left in 2018 in Essonne. The beautiful notebooks are there, numbered and titled. Memoirs of a postman by the author himself. The article, published in February 2019, by The Parisiancatches the attention of producer Catherine López. Five years later, with the support of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and La Poste, it is a film.

Exceptional testimony

The Douai city council acquired the manuscripts and the archives service dedicated themselves to reading and digitizing them with passion. “One of the archivists realized that Achille’s father was an amateur photographer and obtained Jean Bourgin’s small association magazine.”points out the director. Ophélie Gérard, director of the municipal archives, had already participated in the large collections of the 14th to the 18th with the French, but had never seen such documents. Found descendants. “My greatest emotionshe said, He was discovering Achilles’ face when they brought him the family albums. »

The territory under German authority suffered terribly, threatened by famine, exhausted by requisitions. Achille Bourgin wrote in 1916: “The city is transformed into a big chicken coop. There is hardly a house without chickens, rabbits or ducks. » Registered, of course! His father owns ten chickens and must deliver a certain number of eggs to the occupant. You need 500 per day in the city. The postman, like other inhabitants of Douais, throws his copper or brass objects into a well so as not to fuel the enemy’s war effort. He makes fun of“The Boche poster mania”They publish new regulations every day.

“The French in these occupied territories were treated like Boches du Nord, it is a huge injustice.underlines the historian Annette Becker, while the Germans devastated everything in their path. They even cut down fruit trees. » Specialist in two world conflicts and violence against civilians, M^me Becker authenticated Achilles’ notebooks, but believes they were “cleansed” after the war. However, they remain an exceptional testimony, written in an attic by a willing recluse, that hopes to be read one day.