Maurice Sachs (born Maurice Ettinghausen, 16 September 1906,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 14 April 1945, Germany) was a French-

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

writer.

Biography

Sachs was the son of a Jewish family of jewelers. He was educated in an English-style boarding-school, lived for a year in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and worked in a bookshop, and returned to Paris. . In 1925 he converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and decided to become a priest, though this didn't last upon meeting a young man on the beach at Juan-les-Pins. After involvement in a number of dubious business activities, he traveled to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where he passed himself off as an art dealer. Returning to Paris, he associated himself with leading

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

writers of the time –

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

, and

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic c ...

– with all of whom he had stormy relationships whose precise nature is unclear. At various times he worked for Jean Cocteau and

Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and Businessperson, businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with populari ...

, in both cases stealing from them. He associated with

Violette Leduc Violette Leduc (7 April 1907 – 28 May 1972) was a French writer. Early life and education She was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, on 7 April 1907. She was the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe Leduc, and André Debaralle, ...

who describes her friendship with him in her autobiography La Bâtarde. She describes the writing, and her reading of the first version of ''Le Sabbat'' in ''La Batarde'' (pages 380–400) and how she tried to get him, unsuccessfully, to remove harsh references to

. Sachs was mobilized at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but was discharged for homosexuality. During the early years of the Occupation, he made money out of helping Jewish families escape to the Unoccupied Zone. He may also have been an informer for the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. He was later imprisoned in

Fuhlsbüttel is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...

Death

In 1945, before the advance of British troops, the prison of Fuhlsbüttel was evacuated and its inmates moved to the city of Kiel. The evacuation consisted of a long march that took many days to complete. On the third day of the journey, April 14, 1945, at 11:00 in the morning, Sachs became too exhausted to continue the march. He was killed by a bullet through his neck, and his body was abandoned at the side of the road with the body of another "companion of the same misfortune." Said Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian about Sachs, "He does not show much compassion for the Jewish people, and deplores their resignation, which seems to be the dominant feature of their character. On the countryside, when passing a herd of sheep, he sighs sadly saying, 'the Jews...' The drama he plays does not escape him. But, trapped in his state of amorality, Sachs does not believe in the existence of innocent victims."

Works

* ''Alias'', 1935. ISBN B0000DQN60. * ''André Gide'', 1936. ISBN B0000DQN0W. * ''Au Temps du Boeuf sur le Toit'', 1939 (illustrated by

Jean Hugo Jean Hugo (; 19 November 1894 – 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he beg ...

) and 2005. . * ''Chronique joyeuse et scandaleuse'' (''Joyous and Scandalous Chronicle''), Corrêa, 1950. ISBN B0000DS4FF. * ''Correspondence, 1925–1939'', Gallimard, Paris 2003 . * ''Histoire de John Cooper d'Albany'' (''The Story of John Cooper of Albany''), Gallimard, Paris 1955. ISBN B0000DNJVG. * ''La chasse à courre'' (''The Hunt''), Gallimard, Paris 1997 . * ''La décade de l'illusion'' (''The Decade of Illusion''), Gallimard, Paris 1950. ISBN B0000DL12G. * ''Le Sabbat. Souvenirs d'une jeunesse orageuse'' (''The Sabbath. Memories of a Stormy Youth''), Éditions Corrêa, Paris 1946. . Translated as ''Day of Wrath'' by Robin King, Arthur Barker, London, 1953 * ''Tableaux des moeurs de ce temps'' (''Table of Manners of This Time''), Gallimard, Paris 1954. ISBN B0000DL12I.

Trivia

A shot of the cover of Sachs's novel ''Abracadabra'' (1952) momentarily occupies the entire screen during a crucial episode of Breathless, a classic film by

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

References

External links

Maurice Sachs
:''This article draws heavily on the :fr:Maurice Sachs article in the French-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of March 27, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sachs, Maurice 1906 births 1945 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French Jews Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism French gay writers LGBTQ Jews LGBTQ Roman Catholics French LGBTQ novelists 20th-century French novelists French male novelists 20th-century French male writers French people who died in the Holocaust French military personnel killed in World War II French people executed by Nazi Germany People prosecuted under anti-homosexuality laws People executed by Nazi Germany by firearm 20th-century French LGBTQ people