Hi Rand,
I am afraid that this book is not accurate (Understatement
)
du Vair has never been a Waffen SS and, if born in the USA, has never been an American citizen, but a French citizen.
Allow me to quote the son of Mr. du Vair:
"Just to respond to all the nonsense written about Pierre Louis de La Ney du Vair, my father. No, he was not Canadian, no he was not born in Louisiana. No, he was not killed in Berlin, no he was never in the Charlemagne not in the Sturmbrigade Frankreich.
He was a French citizen all of his adult life even if he was born in Holcomb Missouri. And you will not find a "Peter Delaney" born there on February 8, 1907, his birth date. He was drafted by the French Army (class of 1927, France drafted 20-year-olds). He was not called to arms until 1935, having been deferred due to his studies (doctorate). In 1935, drafted, he enrolled in the EOR (École des Officiers de Réserve). Lieutenant in the Red Devils regiment (152ème Régiment d'Infanterie, Colmar, Alsace, First of the Regiments of France) which recaptured Rethel twice from Guderian's panzer units, he served at the Italian armistice commission in 1941 (He spoke 7 languages fluently)
He pledged an oath to the French Head of State, Philippe Pétain and kept that oath. In late 1941, he joined the Légion Française des Combattants and later its Service d'Ordre Légionnaire, the SOL, creating the Haute-Savoie unit at Annecy. He opened a first school for officers at Annecy which caught the attention of Joseph Darnand who selected him to open a national school at St-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or near Lyon in 1942.
He was also named to the Secretariat of the Milice as head of the Third Service, Milice formation, Vichy. He also open school under local direction at Tarbes, Agens, Toulouse. When the men of the SOL were transferred into the new Milice Française in January, 1943, du Vair opened L'École Nationale des Cadres de la Milice Française at the château d'Uriage near Grenoble. Pierre Louis de La Ney du Vair's doctrine was that of the Révolution Nationale of Maréchal Pétain, a nationalist doctrine one hundred percent French. When Darnand's doctrine began to change, du Vair refused to alter his teachings and a major rupture which almost became violent took place at Uriage in July 24, 1943 when Darnand with 200 soldiers explused him.
He joined Besson-Rapp at Bordeaux (Léognan) for a mere two months since the SOL doctrine prevailed there. Besson-Rapp headed the Corps Franc Français and tried to launch the Corps des Volontaires Français which never saw light of day. du Vair left earlier than that realizing that the outfit was badly managed and oriented. Pierre Louis de La Ney du Vair was fervently Catholic, respectful of both 1937 encyclicals, one against Communism, the other against German national socialism. To him there were two devils threatening Christianity in Europe (Hitler and Stalin).
To him the more dangerous one to France was Stalin and his goal of worldwide communism. French resistance was heavily communist with clear intentions of taking power at the end of the war... a real Trojan horse. du Vair had an immense love for his country, France, as do I, and he was a royalist, a friend of Charles Maurras, a representative of the Count of Paris, and anti-parliarmentarian, a nationalist, and fiercely anti-communist. In 1944, he joined the LVF (Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme), joining those Frenchmen who were effectively the new crusaders of modern times in a hopeless battle to prevent exactly what happened...half of Europe under communist control, poor Catholic Poland. He briefly headed the LVF school at Montargis and was sent, April, 1944, to Greifenberg in Poland where he headed the 14th Company. In the late summer of 1944 the Aswartiges Amt (Foreign Affaires in Berlin) brought him to the war correspondents unit, the Kurt Eggers at Zehlendorf with the understanding that he would work only on anti-bolchevik suject. At the Kurt Eggers, he was involved with the Kampsenders, mobile radio transmitters to the war fronts with anti-bolchevik talks. He then began to share his time with the radio at Königswusterhausen, speaking on short-wave in 4 languages and heading the antibolchevik "Roundtable", in which his wife participated. You can listen to his anti-bolchevik speeches at NARA. They were captured by SHINDA, the Silver Hills, MD spy station. Short synopsis do not do justice to this man who came out of the ordinary. But it is a lot better than the usual errors and fabrications. Incidently, he was a direct descendant of the Counts of Vair, those who built the fortifications of Vannes in Britany (de La Nouë family. deLaNey being an error made by American authorities. At Uriage he used his his name "de La Noue du Vair and not that of his birth certificate) My book on his life be be out shortly to maybe put an end to all the nonsense and wild imaginations. I might add that he heard of James Monti, prisonner of war in a camp near Berlin, and managed to get his out of that prison camp. Monti was a rather frail person with anti-bolchevik convictions. du Vair was able to get him into a German uniform for his escape to Italy which saved his life. My father died a few kilometers from Czechosolakia in Vogtland between Bernsgrün and Mehltheuer. He died at my side the day after the destruction of Plauen (night of the 10th of April, 1945) when US airmen incessantly attacked and killed refugees on a refugee train. I have a long memory. Je me souviens !
Pierre Henri du Vair"
Source: this forum
Pierre du Vair also posted a photo of his father in this thread:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... c&start=15
Regards
Daniel
