Hidayat spoke rarely about the period of his life at the beginning of World War II. We stroke a friendship from a common dislike that would eventually inspire this research. When I meet Hidayat Inayat Khan for the first time, as I introduced myself, he responded in French. His first words as he questioned me were “What is your opinion of General de Gaulle?”

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I was certainly surprised by his boldness in asking such a question. I chose the path of honesty: “I am a child of May 1968. I studied in Nanterre and participated in the French demonstrations in Paris. The young students of my generation wanted freedom from authoritarian leadership exemplified by De Gaulle and often our own father at home. I can say that I did not like De Gaulle at that time in my life. Later on, I read about De Gaulle during World War II and understood why my father liked him so much as he spent five years in Germany as a prisoner of war.” Hidayat’s response surprised me: “Then we can be friends.” We did become friends for many years until his passing at 99 years old. Both Hidayat and his second wife Aziza stayed multiple times in my home in Montclair, New Jersey where we had many intimate conversations in French and English as Aziza did not speak French and was constantly reminding him to switch back.

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Hidayat told me that he was with the French resistance in the South of France on the Vercors and was still upset that De Gaulle did not fully support the resistance and organize more timely airdrops for ammunition and arms. De Gaulle did not want to strengthen the communists. He did not want to risk having them strong enough to be able to create the new French government after the German defeat. The communists were a powerful organization in France and were well represented in the Vercors “maquis” resistance group.

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For instance, Luis Aragon (1) lived in the Beauvallon (2) boarding house in Dieulefit (3) where Hidayat ended up with Helena. Aragon wrote in Beauvallon visitor’s book his appreciation for his hosts “les fées de Beauvallon” who provided refuge for him and his wife Elsa Triolet (4) originally Russian and Jewish. In March 1937, Aragon was asked by the PCF (Parti Communiste Français) to direct the evening daily, ‘Ce Soir’, along with the writer Jean-Richard Bloch. Outlawed in August 1939, ‘Ce Soir’ was re-opened after the Liberation and Aragon again became its lead. After the May 1940 French defeat Luis Aragon took refuge in the Southern Zone including Dieulefit at the Beauvallon boarding house in Drome. He was one of several poets with René Char, Francis Ponge, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Jean Prevost, Jean-Pierre Rosnay and more to join the Resistance, both through literary activities and as an organizer of the armed Resistance. Watched closely by the police, Aragon and Triolet could not stay there and came back once more in Dieulefit in November 1942 when the Germans invaded the Free Zone. Jean and Josephine Bauer gave them refuge benefiting of the sympathies of farmers in Comps on a farm called “Le Ciel.” One of the facilitators in Dieulefit was Marguerite Soubeyran, one of the three “Demoiselles de Beauvallon”. Marguerite Soubeyran was communist and protestant (5) and directed the Beauvallon school in Dieulefit. 

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For their own security, Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet did not spend much time in Dieulefit. However; they were in an area where most of the armed resistance was leftist and many with communist sympathies. 

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On July 3, 1944, the Free Republic of Vercors was proclaimed. It was short-lived. Maquisards appealed to Free French in London and Algiers to supply with more arms and heavier weaponry to counter German action. The FFI (French Forces of the Interior) commander wrote bitterly to London of feeling abandoned, as help was explicitly denied (6). The bloody suppression of the Vercors' insurrection further inflamed the resistance movement in the region. (7)

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Aragon symbolized, by his presence in Dieulefit, that the communist movement was a well-organized force fighting in France early on. Once France was going to be liberated from German occupation, General De Gaulle was concerned about the communist growing political and military power.

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It is not surprising that Hidayat was upset with De Gaulle. Hidayat was not communist in any way. However, Hidayat was at the center of this happening in Dieulefit not far from Vassieux, village assaulted by the German army where almost a quarter of its civilian population and 91 resistants were killed (8). Other villages around Dieulefit had suffered a similar fate. Dieulefit by some miracle escaped such attack thanks to the Allied landing in Provence August 15, 1944, and the rapid advance on Montelimar at the end of August, thanks in part to the French resistance.

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Hidayat participated in the “maquis”, helped receive airdrops, and had to hide in caves with other resistants. He told the story to many people about stealing a German horse but not able to eat horsemeat, he exchanged it against a farmer’s chicken. Born after the war, it was common to eat horsemeat in my French family. That was more affordable and my memories were that it was good. When Hidayat recounted that story, it always made me laugh at such an unequal exchange when confronted with starvation.

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Hidayat must have learned later on that the German army planned to attack Dieulefit in August 1944 as they did in Vassieux. His wife Helena, nicknamed Leny was six months pregnant and they had two young children. They lived rue du Bourg, in the center of Dieulefit and Hidayat taught music at the local school of music. The rapid Allied troops advance after the Provence landing liberated Montelimar (twenty miles away) and Dieulefit in August 1944 and saved Dieulefit of a disastrous fate. (9)

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This common dislike against De Gaulle, for our own different reasons, marked the beginning of a friendship that would last decades. To be fair, I told Hidayat that I read De Gaulle’s memoirs and historical books about him and gave him credit for great achievements during and after the war. My father had been a prisoner of war in Germany since 1939, captured as he was part of a regiment of sacrificed troops north of Dunkirk where my uncle was killed. For my father, De Gaulle was the hero of the liberation, side by side with US troops, who opened his prisoner of war camp’s doors to freedom. My revolt in May 1968 inspired by De Gaulle and my own father’s authoritarian personalities tempered in time by understanding but I remained fiercely convinced never to follow blindly anyone. 

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The ideal of spiritual liberty, as exemplified in Hazrat Inayat Khan's message, united us for a lifetime. From that perspective, Hidayat as his sister Noor were compelled to resist the oppressive Nazi ideology.

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