General de Gaulle's family will hand over the manuscript of the June 18 Appeal to the State
Charles de Gaulle's family will hand over to the State the manuscript of the Appeal of June 18, in which the general urged people to resist Nazi Germany in 1940, the auction house Artcurial announced on Friday, June 6.
A ceremony is planned for June 12 at this auction house, which in December handled the sale of the estate of the eldest son, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle , who died at the age of 102 in March 2024. The family has also decided to donate "nearly 1,300 handwritten or typewritten documents of General de Gaulle," Artcurial said.
The manuscript of the appeal launched from London on June 18, 1940, over the BBC, had been exhibited for the first time before this auction. It was not for sale. The two double-sided sheets, with numerous erasures, were initially kept by Yvonne de Gaulle and then passed through bank vaults.
Charles de Gaulle, promoted to general during the fighting against the German invasion launched in May 1940, left France by plane for England on June 17, being hostile to the choice of Philippe Pétain as head of government and to the idea of an armistice.
On the 18th, at 6:30 p.m., he called on all other French people who had made the same choice to join him and declared: "Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and will not be extinguished."
La Croıx
