Mathilde Carré, ‘La Chatte’: Roland Philipps (1940)
Roland Philipps, author of Victoire: A Wartime Story of Resistance, Collaboration and Betrayal
In this episode the author Roland Philipps takes us to France on the eve of occupation. We follow one extraordinary female double agent - Mathilde Carré - whose life embodies the moral ambiguity of this period of French history.
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By June 1940, German forces had taken Paris and occupied the northern half of France, plunging the country into violence and deprivation. The Armistice preserved the south to be run by a French government based in Vichy, but included many clauses which severely damaged French citizens. For instance, the exchange rate between the French Frank and the German Reichsmark was set at twenty to one, allowing German occupiers to horde food, wine and necessities.
Over the summer, a movement of people of biblical proportions made its way from the occupied north to the non-occupied south. Many drove until their cars ran out of petrol, before abandoning them at the side of the road and continuing the journey on foot.
For some, however, the coming of war was as thrilling as it was terrifying. This was very much the case for the heroine of today’s episode, Mathilde Carré.
Up until the outbreak of the war Mathilde had led an unfulfilling life. She found little pleasure in her work as a teacher and her romantic relationships left her uninspired; she yearned for a greater purpose.
After spending the initial months of the war as a nurse, Mathilde joined the mass exodus from Paris and travelled to Toulouse. At this point, her personal life and the fate of her country seemed to parallel each other. She was crushed by France’s surrender and devastated by her recent miscarriage. She contemplated ending her life when she decided on a new purpose, to die a “useful suicide” in the service of her country.
A few days later, in a chance meeting, she met the charismatic Roman Czerniawski with whom she would found the intelligence network, Interallié.
Her life story – as told in our guest today’s latest book, Victoire: A Wartime Story of Resistance, Collaboration and Betrayal – illustrates the dark complexities of Vichy France. Mathilde was neither a perfect French patriot, nor a heartless traitor. What she was, however, was a survivor.
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Click here to order Roland Philipps’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
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Show notes
Scene One: 17th June 1940. The Loire. France is collapsing in the face of the Wehrmacht’s lightning war, millions are fleeing Paris and the north in ‘the Exodus’, amongst them Mathilde Carré, who has left her nursing station and is following the war south, outraged at what she sees as the cowardice of her country.
Scene Two: Mid-September 1940. Toulouse. The Vichy government is in place and France is divided between the occupied and non-occupied zones. Despair of Mathilde, about to commit suicide when she decides to become ‘a second Joan of Arc’.
Scene Three: 14th November 1940. Paris. Mathilde Carré arrives in Paris to found the Interallié intelligence network with Roman Czerniawski.
Memento: Mathilde’s ‘Spy’s Handbook’
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Roland Philipps
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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About Roland Philipps
Roland Philipps was a leading publisher for many years. His acclaimed first book, A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean, was published in 2018.
Mathilde Carré
Mathilde Carré, pictured at her trial. Her expression remained fixed throughout. (Used with permission)
Featured images
All photographs used with permission
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