Paul Morand

Biography

Paul Morand was a well-known anti-semite and Nazi collaborator. In 1939 he left his diplomatic post in London where he was asked to join Charles de Gaulle and the Free French government and instead chose to join the Vichy government. He was given a diplomatic post in Bucharest which he fled in 1944 when the air raids became too intense. He eventually ended up in Bern, Switzerland where he remained after the war. A man of wealth from inheritance, marriage and his own writings, he managed to escape any significant repercussions from his wartime activities. Ironically, the Jewish director, Jean Benoit-Levy, turned Morand's book, La Mort du Cygne, into a brilliant film of the same name. The film was later remade in Hollywood, although less successfully, by another Jewish director, Henry Koster.