December 26th, 1941
Paris, 01:30 - Instructions from the Ministry of Information, published urgently by Havas-OFI formally forbid newspapers and radio stations to broadcast anything about the Tulle tragedy, even if only by allusion. "The President," the ministry says, "reserves the right to comment in due course on these regrettable events, which go against his policy."
As if by compensation, the daily newspapers of the 27th will have to headline: "France will have a feast on New Year's Eve" or "The government has thought of our New Year's Eve". The ticketless largesse of the NEF, to be purchased at taxed prices between December 28th and 31st, do not exceed, however, 200 grams of veal or mutton (with bone), 200 grams of potatoes or 300 grams of carrots per recipient. Beef - 150 grams without bone but with the BN 35 ticket - remains free of charge. To this must be added one egg per person, in principle, a quarter of a liter of milk and 120 grams of flour: the French will be able to eat a cake if the stores' supplies keep their promises - an uncertainty that
stores keep their promises - an uncertainty that journalists are asked, without ambiguity to pass under silence, in the South in particular, less favored than the North and the West by Nature. "The deliveries of rutabagas and Jerusalem artichokes" read the articles, "have exceeded all expectations."
Alger, 06:15 - The news of the Tulle hangings begins to spread thanks to a succession of handling errors - or rather by the deliberate action of Resistance fighters, or even of disgusted NEF supporters or neutrals who discreetly displayed their sympathies. In fact, the Havas-OFI dispatch about the instructions of the Ministry of Information was attached - by pure clumsiness, Gabriel Jeantet will plead: an operator, obeying the only concern of economy of consumables, reused a tape already partially perforated - to a service message emitted at 02:55 for the telegraphic central (the harmo, in technician's slang) of Bern about reception problems of the Stefani agency. According to the standard procedure, this message had transited by the Swiss Telegraphic Agency (ATS-SDA). Coincidentally or not, the ATS (which will also claim a clumsy mistake) included the dispatch, without changing a comma, in its radio ticker service reserved for Swiss diplomatic posts abroad. Havas Libre, in Algiers, openly picks up this service (and sometimes quotes it).
08:15 - Having arrived half an hour ago, Pierre Brossolette prepares the morning's editorial conference by going through the newspapers and dispatches of the night. François (Ferenc) Andréanyi, a Franco-Hungarian head of the Ecoutes* service, bursts into his office without even knocking: "Mr. Director, look at what the Swiss have just thrown out!"
08:20 - Brossolette picks up the phone and dials Jean Zay's direct line. To his surprise, the minister confirms - "Yes, we knew that" - without revealing that the Tulle affair was already known to the 2nd Bureau. It was the subject of an Enigma report sent from Paris to the OKW, which was received and deciphered in North Africa and Great Britain (which Zay himself did not know). "These are the first elements that I have," adds the minister. "Use them as quickly as possible to provide an abundant service if you can."
08:30 - Brossolette, his editor Fernand Pommard and François Andréanyi look to a journalist who is almost a beginner but has a good pen, Marc-Henri Saint-Véran, sitting at his typewriter. The four of them set about writing the service on the Tulle tragedy, which includes two bulletins at 08:32, followed by two urgent ones, all four "from a reliable source". The editorial program then includes a development, a commentary (which, exceptionally, Pierre Brossolette would sign in person), reactions in North Africa and abroad and, if possible, a reconstruction of the film of the events.
It is notified to subscribers at 08:40.
08:45 - The urgent reports from Havas Libre on Tulle are taken up by the international service of Reuters, then by the American agencies.
08:55 - An urgent message from Havas Libre announces that Paul Reynaud would address the French at 20:00 at the microphone of Radio Alger.
09:00 - Brossolette opens the editorial conference: "Gentlemen, you will understand that I am asking you, because of the event that you know, to be brief."
09:50 - The Spanish agency EFE reproduces, in full translation, the two urgent dispatches from Havas Libre. Franco himself, always a balancing act, gives permission.
12:30 - The "spoken news" of Radio Paris is intercepted in Algiers. The announcer announces that "President Laval would address the country this evening at 20:00 to talk to the French about recent events."
Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, etc. - Due to the time difference (five to nine hours), information on the Tulle tragedy is broadcast during the day by all the newspapers and radios in Latin America - even those that generally display a pro-Axis stance.
Paris, 20:00 - Laval's speech attacks the "terrorists manipulated by the foreigners who provoked reprisals that were unfortunately justified". He repeated his already too famous formula: "I wish Germany's victory, I repeat, because without her, the world would be dominated by the Judeo-capitalist plutocracy of the Anglo-Saxons and by the anarchists** who would settle everywhere."
Alger, 20:00 - Paul Reynaud, after having revealed to his listeners the horror of the tragedy of Tulle, calls for the victims to be avenged, before concluding: "France, I say it with utmost seriousness will demand justice from these executioners. To the men who committed the crime as well as to those who gave them the orders. To the generals of the occupying troops as well as to the leaders of Nazi Germany who let the criminals do it, if they did not even encourage them. They will be punished, all of them, as soon as the Victory will have made them fall into our hands. A trial awaits them. Let them begin to prepare their defense. They will need it." ***
The next day, the Parisian "radio checks" indicate that 71% of listeners preferred to listen to Paul Reynaud rather than Pierre Laval.
* At Havas, the Listening Department is dedicated, as its name indicates, to listening to the most diverse news radio stations and to monitoring foreign news agencies. and to follow, in addition, the dispatches of foreign agencies.
** The word "communists" was deleted at the last minute and replaced by "anarchists", which was not likely to bother Berlin.
*** Some historians, including William L. Shirer, consider this speech, which stunned Berlin, as the first step in the process that led to the Nuremberg trials.
