Arendt in dark weather

The years that Hannah Arendt spent in France between 1933, date of her exile following the coming to power of the National Socialist Party in Germany, and 1941, when she obtained her visa for the United States, undoubtedly constitute “ dark weather According to Bertolt Brecht’s formula.

History knows many eras where the public domain darkens, where the world becomes so uncertain that people stop asking politics something other than to unload them from the care of their vital interests and their private freedom.

In such periods however, according to Arendt can arise a particular form of humanity, a fraternity which is specific to peoples and persecuted people, “ heat in human relations “Who makes these” dark weather »Substable.

These reflections from a conference that the philosopher gave in 1959 in Hamburg on the occasion of the Lessing prize ceremony, illustrate some of the central themes of Parias. Hannah Arendt and the “ tribe »In France (1933-1941) by Marina Touilliez.

If it is not strictly speaking a question of political theory, the work sheds light on the way in which Arendt’s life during its few years in France has strongly marked its subsequent thought. Faced with the tests of exile, friendship takes the place of a base for Hannah Arendt: this is the thesis defended by the author. Where the very large place made in this work to the members of the “ tribe “, His friendly circle in Paris. These other refugees, “ parias Like her, because mostly Germans, Jews, intellectuals or political opponents of the Nazis.

Arendt, from the student to the activist

To properly grasp the shock that constitutes the arrival in France, Mr. Touilliez first depicts the young woman that is Arendt in the early 1930s: the originality of her personality, her first love, her friendships during her philosophy studies, her promising university career and above all her intellectual journey, from her apoliticalism to clandestine political action on the eve of his departure for France. His discovery of the Jewish question is decisive in this evolution. The premises are first played in the field of thought with a job of authorization on the woman of letters Rahel Varnhagen which held a famous living room in the romantic era.

A second meeting, not literary, but friendly, with the Zionist leader Kurt Blumenfeld, also contributes to the gradual consciousness of his own Judeity. Like many German Jews at the time, Arendt grew up in a secular environment. It was ultimately violence against the Jews from the beginnings of Hitlerian Germany who constitutes the detonator: “ (…) I felt responsible. This means that I became aware of the fact that we could no longer be content to be a spectator “, She says (p. 64). She then participated in the exfiltration of political opponents and brings together documents, evidence of the anti -Semitism of civil society, on behalf of the organization of Blumenfeld. But the real trauma comes from the rallying of intellectual circles to the Nazis, especially among his friends and acquaintances. Faced with the danger that awaits it, the flight is essential.

France then represents the country of all hopes for many exiles. It is not so much the Light City, its mythical reputation in the arts and letters that bases the choice of Paris. Arendt is settling in the homeland of human rights, and even more in that of the Dreyfusards. It is therefore not entirely part of the tradition of German scholars which are established in the French capital in the face of the political repression which rages at home. Paris was thus the first time “ German literary capital »At the beginning of XIX^e A century with Ludwig Börne and Heinrich Heine in particular, then in the 1930s with Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Joseph Roth, to name a few.

Arendt, she does not in writing her experience in Paris, she does not analyze through the description of her host country, the situation in her country of origin. There too it is the Jewish question that guides his choices in Paris. She stands out somewhat away from French intellectual circles, however, frequented her first husband, Günther Stern, and prefers political action. Although she is critical of Zionism, she takes care of the reception and training of young Jews before their emigration to Palestine. She is now convinced of the failure of the assimilation of the Jews, whether that of the Germans, based on the ideal of Bildunghuman education and training process advocated by Wilhelm von Humboldt at the turn of XVIII^e century. The situation in Germany has demonstrated the illusions. Or that of the French, long -established, who for fear of the explosion of anti -Semitism, refuse to take the official position against the Hitlerian regime and for a massive reception of foreign Jews. Arendt’s struggle against Nazism goes through international Jewish solidarity.

There “ tribe “: Friendship in” dark weather »»

The early days in Paris are harsh. Arendt knows the precariousness and humiliation of the downgrading: the moves from one unhealthy chamber to the other with Günther Stern, the search for livelihoods, whether in aid to refugees or in small jobs unrelated to his qualifications, not to mention administrative hassles. Exile exacerbates tensions within the couple and Stern finally left France, alone, for the United States in 1936. But meetings, however, brighten up Arendt’s daily life.

The other red thread of these Parisian years, with the Jewish question, is friendship. As Martine Leibovici pointed out in her preface, Mr. Touilliez’s book could have been called “ 10 rue Dombasle ». This is the address that Arendt and Heinrich Blücher, his second husband met in Paris, occupied in the 15th^e borough. This is where their “ tribe As they call it. There is the doctor Fritz Frankel, who in Berlin as in Paris heals the poor, the pediatrician Rudolf Neumann, as well as his wife Franziska, the sisters Heinemann, the journalist Arthur Koestler, the writer Walter Benjamin, the young couple Ekstein. Then there are all those who revolve around: those close to each other, Dora Benjamin, Lisa Fittko, friends, like the bookseller Adrienne Monnier, the young Lotte Sempel, from a rich German family, the lawyer Erich Cohn-Bendit, the painter “ degenerate Carl Heindenreich, the Polish of the shtetl Chanan Klenbort, the doctor Minna Flake … The tribe embodies this “ heat of human relations “, Born from friendship in inhuman times. Now we know the importance of the concept of friendship in the philosopher, considered by some as “ matrix of his political thought ».

“” Parias »: From precariousness to hunting for exiles in France

One of the merits of this work is precisely to open the focal length to this set of personalities and to show destinies of exiles in France in the 1930s. Many people encountered over the pages whose tragic route is rebuilt, even if it means moamously moving the reader of Arendt’s life. These “ banned from Hitler “According to Gilbert Badia’s expression had to face an increasingly severe policy from 1938 towards foreigners, listed in” welcome “,” suspect ” Or “ unwanted ». The latter are intended to be interned in camps. With the outbreak of war, the internment policy intensifies and changes in nature. It is no longer just a question of controlling the influx of foreigners, but of applying an exclusion logic. Nationals of enemy countries of France are now considered “ enemy subjects ». The members of the “ tribe “, Although anti-fascists and Jews for many, are arrested, because they are declared dangerous for national security. This is how combatants of international brigades, Jews and convinced Nazis rub shoulders in camps. By relying on numerous testimonies, some of which are unpublished, Mr. Touilliez’s work retraces the deep misery in these camps, the wandering from one camp to another, the despair due to the separations, the feeling of being trapped, the fear of being delivered to the Germans and the leaks, again, to escape death. We follow the different members of the “ tribe In this survival and resourceful journey, their reunion in a small village in the Southwest, before their last leak, outside of France and their separation. France, which had been the host country of these “ parias From Nazi Germany, and which in turn was going to make it uninitiated, excluded from the company.

Arendt made this experience of “ pariah »A political concept. Deprived of their rights, their nationality and their heritage, invised in the public sphere, the parias are nonetheless proud of their condition. They make it a source of challenge to the established order and the injustices of their time. In his speech on Lessing, Arendt claimed to be of these outsets which sought by their writings to “ Resist as much as possible to the disturbing unreality of pure humanity (…), and even to reconcile in thought with the intellectual and political monstrosities of a dislocated time. »»

Reading this book not only brings new light on a part of Hannah Arendt’s life, but moreover it contributes to restoring a memory of exiles in France between the end of the III^e Republic and the Vichy regime. We cannot also fail to underline his resonance with certain current speeches on foreigners in France. They curiously echoed those of the 1930s from which the term “ replacement ».