For the past two weeks, I’ve been exploring some incredible primary sources shared with me by Adam in Washington, who happened to be the God-son of Virginia Vernon, Chief Welfare Officer of ENSA. I’m very grateful for Adam’s generosity and it all came about because of this blog! There are so many rabbit holes to explore, but, dear reader, I thought I’d share one that I have peered down this week.
Germaine Sablon is another one of those remarkable women, who seems to have been some how forgotten in the popular history of the Second World War. I came across references to this important figure made by Madame Vernon whilst in North Africa. Sablon was a famous French singer and actor, but perhaps most significantly, she was known for the official French Resistance song, Le Chant des Partisans. If the powerful and visceral Song of the Resistance is new to you, I recommend listening to it on YouTube before reading further:
YouTube Video link: Le Chant des Partisans - French Resistance Anthem (Fr/En Lyrics)
According to Virginia Vernon’s unpublished autobiography, the Le Chant des Partisans:
‘was written on a Sunday afternoon early in May 1943, in a garden at Coulsdon, England. Words by Joseph Kessel and his nephew Maurice, music by Anna Marly, Germaine Sablon helping with both words and music.’[1]
The song was first performed by Germaine in an Ealing Studios film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti entitled, Trois Chansons de la Resistance. This 8-minute film was distributed to the Free French troops to raise morale and was adopted by Les Partisans as a call to arms. You can hear the passion and anger in Sablon’s delivery of the song – it is all about rising up and fighting the occupiers. Occupation was a favourite theme of Cavalcanti, who had directed the earlier propaganda film Went the Day Well (1942).
Inspired by the song, I tried to find out more about Germaine Sablon. There are not many English sources, but plenty are available in French, of course. At the start of the war, she was 40 years old with two sons who both joined the French Air Force. Whilst in France, she won the Croix de Guerre in June 1940 for driving an ambulance under fire from the invading Germans. Escaping occupied France, Sablon eventually found her way to England, where she entertained Free French, Canadian, and British troops. After recording Le Chant des Partisans at Ealing Studios, she flew out to Algiers in June or July 1943 with a party of other French artists to put on shows for the Free French Forces in North Africa, serving under Major General Leclerc. This is where Virginia Vernon met her and witnessed the emotional moment she was reunited with her two sons.
As the Croix de Guerre suggests, Sablon didn’t just attend to the spiritual needs of the soldiers through her singing; she performed the duties of a nurse as well.
According to Jim Cottrell in his oral history in the IWM, Madame Sablon joined the Hôpital Chirurgical Mobile 3 Ambulance Hadfield-Spears (HCM) as a nurse but often sang to the soldiers to entertain them as well.[2] The HCM was a volunteer unit made up of a variety of nations with orderlies provided by the Quakers Friends Ambulance Unit. This unit was attached to the French First Division and followed them from North Africa into Italy and France. By the way, if you want to explore another rabbit hole, the history of the HCM is fascinating (read more here).
For her services during the war, Germaine Sablon received the Legion of Honour and the Military Medal from General de Larminat at the Invalides, Paris, on May 26, 1951. Another figure that should not be forgotten for her services to the Allies during the Second World War. If anyone has recommendations for further reading about Germaine Sablon, please let me know.
[1] Virginia Vernon, ‘Virginia Vernon Private Papers’, p. 250, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin.
[2] Cottrell, Henry Frederick, Cottrell, Henry Frederick (Oral History), 4 vols, IWM, 80011916 <https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80011916>.