Dieulefit town hall

                        Dieulefit 1942

 Page 4                                              20 miles east of Montelimar

​

In his “official” resume, Hidayat listed only Dieulefit as a professor at the "Lycée de Music." Since the school semester usually starts early September, he could be deducted that he moved to Dieulefit around that time.

​

Dieulefit is situated in the Drome department twenty miles east of Montelimar. Pierre Emmanuel writer and poet sang the merits of Dieulefit. Called by his poet friend Jean Jouve to spend a few days in Dieulefit in July 1940, Pierre Emmanuel stayed four years (25). His description is beautiful:

​

« Toutefois, je ne puis finir sans évoquer cet admirable village français, dont le nom est à lui seul une promesse, et qui fut, dans l’extrême division des consciences, une image de l’unité de la patrie : j’ai nommé Dieulefit, dans la Drôme. J’y vins en juillet 40 : Jouve s’y était installé ; je me proposais de passer quelques jours auprès de lui ; je devais y rester quatre ans, ne quittant Dieulefit que pour de brefs voyages, à Lyon, Avignon ou Paris. C’est, à trente kilomètres du Rhône, un gros bourg qui s’accroche à la terre aride, tout entouré de monts en éventail. Ni Dauphiné, ni Provence : un paysage en cul-de-sac, fermé par le trapèze du Miélandre, croupe de bête puissante, derrière laquelle se lèvent les grands soleils d’été. Si rude que soit le sol, il est partout à la mesure de l’homme : l’air est net, la lumière concise ; aucun détail n’échappe à l’œil ; tout est en vue. Peu d’ombres, des arbres robustes, mais tassés dans l’effort de surgir : l’olivier est plus bas, à vingt kilomètres ; mais le châtaignier n’est pas moins tourmenté, ni le chêne trapu des montagnes. Dans la perspective, parfois, une haie de peupliers, dont le jet surprend, approfondit derrière elle l’espace. Le vent ne cesse jamais : il faut s’y faire non sans peine ; mais il est d’essence lumineuse, la vigueur des lignes en est accusée. Ici se vérifie, sur le mode le plus austère, la loi du paysage français : rigueur, mais presque musicale ; magistère de l’esprit, mais flexion harmonieuse du cœur. Terre de sensibilité profonde et pudique, pénétrée loin par la conscience, méditée, retenue longtemps, jusqu'à ne se distinguer de l’esprit ».

« I cannot call upon this admirable French village, which name is in itself a promise, and which was, among extreme division of consciousness, one picture of unity of the country: I named Dieulefit, in Drome. I came in July 1940. Jouve settled there; I was ready to spend a few days with him; I stayed four years, leaving Dieulefit for short trips to Lyon, Avignon or Paris. It is twenty miles from Rhone River, a big village attached to barren earth, surrounded by an array of mountains. Nor Dauphiné or Provence, a scenery in a dead-end, closed in by the Miélandre’s trapeze, powerful animal’s rump, behind which the summer sun rises. As tough as the ground is, it is everywhere at the human scale: the air is neat, the light concise; no details escapes the sight; all is visible. There are little shade and sturdy trees, but crammed in their attempt to surge: the olive tree is found fifteen miles south; but the chestnut tree is less troubled or the stocky mountain oak. In the perspective, sometimes, one surprising spray of poplar trees hedge deepen the space behind it. The wind never subsides: one must get used to it indeed, but its essence is luminous, the lines’ vigor are more pronounced. Here it is verified, on the starkest mode, the French landscape law: rigor, but almost musical; magisterium of the spirit, but harmonious heart’s flexion. Land of deep sensibility and demure, penetrating far by awareness, meditated, held back a long time, until not distinguished from the mind (25).

​

Dieulefit means, “God made it” from Old Occitan “Dieu lo fes.” This came from the Arabic expression Saracens voiced when seeing the village for the first time, “Allah Ba!” or “Allah” pour Dieu et “Ba” pour ‘he created it’ or ‘Deus fecit’ in Latin (26). It seems so appropriate for Hidayat to find refuge in such a village. God made this village for him and for fifteen hundred refugees from everywhere, mostly Jewish. They will all survive the war escaping the Vichy government’s police and later on the German Gestapo.

​

Hidayat will write in one booklet: “O Seeker, did you know that the ‘inner awakening’ is like being on a ship, sailing on the great waters of love, harmony and beauty, guided by the compass of the spirit of guidance, and driven by the energy of spiritual liberty, while heading toward the goal of the annihilation of the ego, where one may begin to realize that the sailor is, in reality, a ray of the divine presence, sailing in the past, present and future on the waves of illusion.”

​

Hidayat’s ship brought his family to a safe harbor in Dieulefit. He avoided many dangers linked to his British nationality including internment camps as those in Montelimar or recruited for forced labor. He was dangerous for Jewish, stateless, refugee, unemployed or belonging to a country enemy of Germany that was the case for him as a British citizen (27}. Staying in Montelimar must have been untenable by 1942 and Dieulefit gave him shelter and work.

​

His wife gave birth to Fazal in Montelimar as she must have been registered with City Hall in that town. Fazal was born on July 20, 1942. However, Hidayat was already in Dieulefit by April 29, 1942, as he signed Beauvallon School guest book ‘Livre d’Or. (83)

​

They moved into a house rue du Bourg that is the main street in the center of the village. The village has only one main street. It links Place Chateauras where the “église réformiste” temple is surrounded by small shops including coffee shops and gives access to the road to Montelimar on the west and Nyons in the south. Du Bourg’s street is really D538 going north to Saou, Crest and Romans sur Isere and the Vercors. Vassieux-en-Vercors that will know a terrible fate is 60 miles north of Dieulefit. The Jabron River runs all the way to the Roubion River in Montelimar before feeding the Rhône River. In Dieulefit, the Jabron is parallel to Du Bourg’s street linked by intricate small streets, alleys, and passageways. The Catholic Church Saint Pierre is on that same street almost opposite to the village town hall (28).

​

Both Beauvallon’s school and the Beauvallon retirement home are almost two miles southeast of Dieulefit. From Place Chateauras and going towards Montelimar D540 is called street Gabrielle Peri. It is there, at 17 rue Gabrielle Peri, that the Lycée Musical founded by Pastor Eberhard sisters Helene (29) and Jeanne was located.

​

​

​