Gangster, collaborator, criminal, fugitive and writer.

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Photograph by José Giovanni.

Throughout history we have had cases where some writer's own life has far surpassed any literary fiction that they themselves, or others, might have created. Lives far removed from the prototype of the author imprisoned for hours and hours in his place of creation, away from any evil and focused solely on culture and literature.

Logically, although there are these types of beings among the writers that humanity has given, I have to admit that it is not the usual thing either, despite the fact that this image may be widespread among the ideology of our society.

Anyway, I think there are few writers who have had a life and a personal history like that of the French of Corsican origin José Giovanni. A life radically antagonistic to what can be assumed that of a writer who, for much of his existence, was involved in assassinations, collaboration, extortion and crime in a troubled Europe at the end of World War II.

José Giovani, first of all,  He was born in Paris on June 22, 1923 and his parents, originally from the island of Corsica, baptized him with the name of Joseph Damiani which was, therefore, his real name and surname.

When France was occupied by Hitler's III Reich, the young Giovanni who counted At just 17 years old, he began his criminal career that lasted during the years of German occupation and the following years. He therefore joined a gang of gangsters which took the Parisian neighborhood of Pigalle.

Members of this band such as Abel Damos were at the same time pieces within the gear of the Gestapo German in its branch in the Gallic country. Thus, the “cockpit” that is how this aspect of the Gestapo he benefited from the criminal group to which Giovanni belonged along with others, to extend his dominance among the occupied population. As a result, these groups obtained a "marque patent" to continue with total impunity when carrying out their misdeeds.

 All the members, in this way, became collaborators of the Germans and even, many, were in charge of the persecution of partisans, Jews or people opposed to the regime. During these murky and complicated years Giovanni participated in blackmail of all kinds and in the murder of a company boss store called Haïm Cohen. Anyway, the most notorious crime consisted of the extortion and murder of the brothers Jules and Roger Peugeot.

For this double murder that occurred in 1945 and during the investigation of this in 1948, was arrested and sentenced to death. Despite the fact that his fate inevitably led him to the guillotine, he managed to escape from such a disastrous fate because President Vincent Auriol, in application of article 17 of the French Constitution, his death sentence was commuted to twenty years of forced labor.

Even so, our protagonist, during his years as a prisoner, He was also part of an astonishing attempt to escape from La Santé prison through a tunnel that finally did not allow him to escape from the prison.. Once out of prison and due to his sentence to forced labor, he was clearing mines that were part of Hitler's so-called Atlantic wall on the beaches of Normandy and the areas near them.

It was during this time after his conviction, at the age of 33, when he began his role as a writer writing “Le Trou ", his first novel based precisely on his attempted escape with other prisoners. Curiously, it was his own lawyer who got this book finally edited.

This early book was followed by: "Classe tous risques", "l'Excommunity”And“ Le Deuxième Souffle »”. All of them, along with "Le Trou", were also brought to the big screen. Due to this, everything is said, he had his first steps as a scriptwriter in the world of the seventh art, thus becoming a multifaceted writer.

During his last years of life he dedicated himself to visiting young prisoners in the prisons of France to convince and encourage them in their reintegration presenting himself as an example to show that a future can be possible outside of crime.

Giovanni was surely the victim of his time and of a time in which political and social instability together with the war, took many men to an inexplicable or permissible extreme in our days.

It would not be fair on our part, therefore, to start condemning Giovanni for his past, despite, logically, that what he did was reprehensible. On the contrary, I prefer to appreciate that this not very respectable life could have been the cause of a truly respectable literary work.


4 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Mariola Diaz-Cano Arevalo said

    Hi Alex.
    Very good article. I have read Giovanni and I really liked it. I stay with your last sentence.
    A greeting.

    1.    Alex Martinez said

      Hello Mariola, well, I also liked it a lot. The truth is that I think we have the same literary tastes lol a hug.

      1.    Mariola Diaz-Cano Arevalo said

        Well, they are very similar, heh, heh ...

  2.   Alberto Fernandez Diaz said

    Hi Alex.
    It had been a while since I read anything of you. Very interesting article. I did not know of the existence of this character. A life from a movie or a novel, totally true. Even leaving the literary field, there are also people whose lives would be worthy of cinema and a written work and that nobody or almost nobody knows.
    I did not know that the Gestapo took advantage of criminal gangs to better control the French (and that I am passionate about World War II). I suspect that few people know. Terrible and very twisted, but very beneficial for both parties. Disgusting people.
    Of course, it is not unusual for someone with a profile like José Giovanni to reinsert themselves (I think so). And much less common is that he dedicates himself to writing.
    Let's see if I can see the movies based on his books (I guess they must be good) and read some of them.
    Greetings from Oviedo.