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Abstract
This article explores the political connections that developed between militant Breton nationalists and members of Germanic movements between 1919 and 1945. The adoption of pan-Celticism in general – and the inspiration of Irish Republicanism in particular – has been adequately investigated in recent historical literature dealing with Breton nationalism. The development of Celticism as a racialist concept within the domestic French political context has not received the same level of attention, however, nor have the impacts of the practical, political and material assistance provided to the Breton movement by Germanic autonomist movements in France. In addition to French-language sources, interviews, archival material and contemporary political tracts, this article employs the unpublished memoirs of the chief Breton ‘physical force’ militant, Célestin Lainé (aka Neven Henaff). Where pan-Celticism failed to provide concrete assistance, it is argued, the Flemish and Alsatian movements filled the void, in turn acting as conduits to pan-Germanist and Nazi ideas emanating from across the Rhine. These influences led militant Breton nationalists down a racialist ideological path that guaranteed both the ultimate failure of integral nationalism in Brittany, and their own disastrous collaboration with German forces during the occupation of France.
Notes
1. Bríd Heussaff, interview. The army of the duchy of Brittany was defeated by the forces of the kingdom of France at St-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488. This was the high-water mark of Breton independence, beginning a process of incorporation that culminated in Franco–Breton union in 1532.
2. See CitationLeach, Fugitive Ireland and Mordrel, Breiz Atao, passim.
3. See CitationHamon, Bezen Perrot 1944, among others.
4. See CitationAron, Vichy Regime, 72–3, among others.
5. CitationEllis, Celtic Dawn, 82.
6. CitationReece, Bretons against France, 52.
7. Breiz Atao, April 1923, in CitationFaligot, La harpe, 75.
8. CitationÓ Ciosáin, “La Bretagne et l'Irlande,” 30–1.
9. CitationMcDonald, “We are not French!” 102.
10. CitationGeary, Myth of Nations, 31.
11. CitationBothorel, Terroriste breton, 76.
12. McDonald, “We Are Not French!” 32.
13. See map in CitationDupuy, La Chouannerie, 4–5.
14. See Fañch Debauvais' appeal to the Bezen Perrot, 1944, quoted in CitationCaerléon, Rêve fou, 97.
15. CitationGalliou and Jones, The Bretons, 128.
16. CitationDanio, Histoire de notre Bretagne, 3.
17. Ellis, Celtic Dawn, 66.
18. CitationMaynard, Ideology, Collective Action and Cultural Identity, 31.
19. Camille le Mercier d'Erm quoted in Reece, Bretons against France, 83.
20. Reece, Bretons against France, 29.
21. Caerléon, Rêve fou, 49.
22. CitationHenaff, Biographie, 2.
23. “Jusqu'alors en effet, le qualificatif ‘breton’ avait presque servi à caractériser mon non-Moi; il s'était appliqué au langage que je ne parlais pas, au costume que je ne portais pas, au sol et aux villes, aux paysans et aux pêcheurs, aux ignorants et aux ploucs, aux Autres pour tout dire, mais pas à Moi…”, Ibid., 4.
24. CitationHeusaff, “1916: Ripples in the Celtic Tide: Breizh”, 9.
25. Henaff, Biographie, 11.
26. CitationCadiou, L'hermine et la croix gammée, 12.
27. Henaff, Biographie, 17.
28. CitationMordrel, Breiz Atao, 210.
29. CitationDavies, Welsh Nationalist Party 1925–1945, 38.
30. Reece, Bretons against France, 99.
31. CitationHamon, Nationalistes bretons, 22.
32. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 211.
33. Reece, Bretons against France, 100.
34. Reece, Bretons against France, 76.
35. #9, 4 January 1928, Ministère de l'Intérieure, Direction de la Sûreté Generale, Commissariat Special de Quimper, “Rapport” & 8/1694, 31 March 1928, Directeur des Services Generaux de Police d'Alsace et de Lorraine to Ministère de l'Intérieure, Direction de la Sûreté Generale; both in AN F/Citation7/13244.
36. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 27.
37. CitationBaycroft, Culture, Identity and Nationalism, 21.
38. Citation Triskell , September 1943.
39. Baycroft, Culture, Identity and Nationalism, 162–3.
40. CitationOry, Les collaborateurs, 171.
41. 6.899 a/s de GANTOIS Jean-Marie, 27 Aug. 1928, Ministère de l'Intérieure to Ministère de la Guerre, AN F/7/13244.
42. Lainé wrote an article for Breiz Atao about this trip. It is probable that the Dixmude sub-group of the Bezen Perrot (one of eight such subdivisions) was named in honour of this Flemish nationalist connection. Henaff, Biographie, 60.
43. Gantois was even described as “one of the directors of the Breton separatist movement” by the Minister of the Interior. 6.899 a/s de GANTOIS Jean-Marie, 27 Aug. 1928, F/7/13244, AN.
44. Triskell, September 1943.
45. Full linguistic conformity with the Netherlands was adopted by the Flemish Cultural Council in 1973. See CitationDeprez, ‘The Language of the Flemings,’ 96.
46. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 80–1; CitationCaerléon, Complots pour une république bretonne, 152.
47. Ory, Les collaborateurs, 169.
48. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 214.
49. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 61.
50. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 36
51. Cadiou, L'hermine et la croix gammée, 47.
52. Reece, Bretons against France, 109.
53. Caerléon, Reve fou, 71–4.
54. MI5, “Report on Abwehr up to March 1942”, June 1942, KV3/7, National Archives, Kew, England.
55. Contrast the efforts of “Burgundian” writer Johannès Thomasset, who advocated the division of France and the cession of Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy and Champagne to the Reich. His work was reviewed favourably by the SS in 1940, but no serious efforts to inculcate a Burgundian national consciousness were undertaken by the Germans in France. See CitationBurrin, Living with Defeat, 362.
56. 15163/527 BOURSON, Strasbourg, n.d. 1928, AN F/7/13244.
57. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 213–4.
58. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 43.
59. CitationMayo, Roots of Identity, 25.
60. Reece, Bretons against France, 83.
61. Henaff, Biographie, 13.
62. CitationGras and Gras, Révolte des régions, 156.
63. Henaff, Biographie, 13.
64. Henaff, Biographie, 47.
65. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 143–4. It is perhaps for this reason that, outside of the formal ties through the National Minorities of France, links with the Corsican, Occitan or Catalan movements were never as strong as those with Germanic or Celtic movements. Relations with the Basques, however, were relatively healthy, especially after the fall of Bilbao in 1937 and the subsequent flood of Spanish Basque refugees into France.
66. “Hanternoziz omp bet a-viskoazh. Kerkent ha distaget diouz Bro-C'hall, ouz an Hanternoz hon eus sellet, evel eun nadoz-vor diverglet a gav dioustu an tu mat.” Quoted in Cadiou, L'hermine et la croix gammée, 38.
67. Writing in Stur, July 1937, quoted in Gras and Gras, Révolte des régions, 159.
68. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 27.
69. Ory, Les collaborateurs, 171.
70. CitationCucarull, “Identité et commemoration,” 125.
71. See CitationDouglas, Irish Book, xvii–xviii.
72. Quoted in Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 23.
73. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 164.
74. La Liberté quoted in CitationDéniel, Mouvement breton, 153.
75. 19913, 20 December 1938, Contrôle générale de la Surveillance du territoire, Autonomistes bretons divers 1936-1939, AN F/Citation7/14686, “Autonomistes bretons (suite)”; Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 173–4.
76. Ory, Les collaborateurs, 180.
77. Hamon, Bezen Perrot, 28.
78. Lainé refers to von Tevenar as “our great friend” in “Fransez Debauvais et les siens, by Anna Youenou”, Review, Carn, 19 (Autumn, 1977), pp. 8–9: 9. CitationLouis Feutren further confirmed the “paganism” of both von Tevenar and Hielscher at this time. (Interview).
79. MI5, Jun. 1942, NA KCitationV3/7, “Report on Abwehr up to March 1942”.
80. 90a full report, Oct. 1944, NA KCitationV2/303, “Guy Vissault de Coëtlogon”.
81. 90a full report, Oct. 1944, NA KV2/303, “Guy Vissault de Coëtlogon”.
82. Faligot, La harpe, 76.
83. CitationAziz, Livre noir, 205.
84. Hamon, Nationalistes bretons, 39.
85. See CitationLeach, “Bezen Perrot”, passim.
86. CitationFréville, Archives secrètes de Bretagne, 40.
87. CitationFrelaut, Les Nationalistes bretons de 1939 à 1945, 25.
88. CitationArzalier, Les perdants, 104.
89. Henaff, Biographie, 39.
90. Arzalier, Les perdants, 120.
91. Arzalier, Les perdants, 102.
92. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 310.
93. CitationHitler, Mein Kampf, 613.
94. CitationLe Boterf, La Bretagne sous le gouvernment de Vichy, 27.
95. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 177, 203, 517–37.
96. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 614.
97. CitationLebra, Japanese-trained armies, 74.
98. Aziz, Livre noir, 200.
99. CitationHeusaff, “Neven Henaff: Activist and Druid”, 11.
100. CitationHenaff, “Fransez Debauvais”, 9. Henaff claimed he had always insisted “on the need to treated [sic] collectively” with the Germans.
101. Aziz, Livre noir, 200.
102. CitationGijsels, Vlaams Blok, 10; CitationJames, “Flemish Interior Minister exposed”.
103. CitationGeldard and Craig, IRA, INLA, 41; CitationHenry and Lagadec, FLB-ARB, 141.
104. CitationHeussaff, “Neven Henaff”, 11.
105. “Un fil directe au Dieu le Père”. CitationYann Fouéré, interview.
106. CitationPer Denez, interview.
107. Mordrel, Breiz Atao, 385.
108. Henaff, Biographie, 8.