An English scientific genius, an English comic genius, and a French singer blessed with a beautiful voice. What on earth have they got in common? Nothing at all except that they were all pilloried in different ways, and to different degrees, in their lifetime and sometimes beyond.
Whenever we are tempted to look back nostalgically on the post-war years and to disparage our own times as cold and unfeeling (as they sometimes are), we should recall that in the decades after the war homosexual acts were a criminal offence and that the despicable treatment meted out to someone who played a crucial part in the winning of the war, in the process saving countless lives, was largely if not solely responsible for Turing's death.
The same mindless jingoism that helped to get us into the war in the first place, later changed direction to harry and hound such an essentially innocent person as Wodehouse and chase him from our shores.
Jean Ferrat, whose Jewish father was deported and killed in Germany, never disguised his Communist sympathies but at the same time was never one to tow the party line. His reward? He was for many years denied access to French radio and television.
So far, so "bleeding heart" good. But where do we go from here? Please see my next post!
Whenever we are tempted to look back nostalgically on the post-war years and to disparage our own times as cold and unfeeling (as they sometimes are), we should recall that in the decades after the war homosexual acts were a criminal offence and that the despicable treatment meted out to someone who played a crucial part in the winning of the war, in the process saving countless lives, was largely if not solely responsible for Turing's death.
The same mindless jingoism that helped to get us into the war in the first place, later changed direction to harry and hound such an essentially innocent person as Wodehouse and chase him from our shores.
Jean Ferrat, whose Jewish father was deported and killed in Germany, never disguised his Communist sympathies but at the same time was never one to tow the party line. His reward? He was for many years denied access to French radio and television.
So far, so "bleeding heart" good. But where do we go from here? Please see my next post!
Had no idea that Jean ferrat was shunned. I would have said it was always quite ok to be an outspoken communist in France, no?
ReplyDeleteLovexx
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I didn't mean to suggest that Ferrat suffered in the same way as some did in the USA during the McCarthy witch hunt. For one thing, as you say, he could rely on the support of a large number of "Communist" sympathisers and one cannot say that he knew financial hardship, but it is also true that he was for many years less than welcome for many years on French TV which, it should not be forgotten, was long a state monopoly.
DeleteThe French Wikipedia entry gives details.