GUY-ROBERT DU COSTAL 1887-1945 Directeur honoraire à la Préfecture de la Seine VICTIME DE LA BARBARIE NAZIE – Early memorial booklet in honor of Guy-Robert du Costal (1887–1945), who served as honorary director of the civil administration of the Seine department (the district in which Paris is located). A “victim of Nazi barbarism”, he survived the death camps but passed away shortly thereafter – “Published under the auspices of the City of Paris, which he loved so dearly, as a gesture of gratitude and affection.” France, 1947. In French.
Early memorial booklet commemorating Guy-Robert du Costal (1887–1945), who in his youth was a respected French poet. In 1914, he received a senior appointment in the Paris municipal government. He was initially placed in charge of the city’s promenade district and later headed the administrative department overseeing Paris’s technical schools. With the outbreak of World War II, du Costal joined the Resistance operating in the Seine department. He held numerous secret meetings at his home on Rue Boissière. On May 24, 1944, he and his wife were arrested in their home by collaborators, members of Darnand’s Milice. They were handed over to the Gestapo and, after being tortured during interrogations, he was deported by the Germans to the Buchenwald and Ravensbrück camps. Du Costal managed to survive until the arrival of the American liberators. He even gave testimony about the horrors he and his comrades had endured in the camp and submitted names of fellow Resistance members in hopes that they might be located. However, severely wounded and weakened, he died shortly afterward—on May 17, 1945. His wife was murdered in Ravensbrück before the liberation.
The booklet includes a poem written by du Costal and transcripts of the eulogies delivered at his funeral by Édouard Tong, Deputy Director of the Seine department; Jean Texcier, a member of the French Resistance; and Marcel Flouret, Governor of the Seine. All speakers express the deep sorrow that followed the brief moment of joy when it was learned that he had survived the horrors of the camp—only to succumb soon thereafter: “A comrade has just left us… After enduring the horrors of Buchenwald, he returned to his beloved Paris only to die there a few days later…”. At the beginning of the booklet appears a portrait of du Costal. During the Nazi occupation of Paris (1940–1944), many French civil servants suspected of opposition to the regime, of supporting the Resistance, or of being Jewish, were arrested, deported to camps, or executed.
Rare – only three copies recorded in the WorldCat global library catalog, held in libraries in Germany and France.
24 pages. Very good condition.
