STRUCK DOWN BY OCCULT FORCES

By Dr. Harrell Rhome

Copyright ©2009 All Rights Reserved.

THE LIFE, TIMES AND “CRIMES” OF BERNARD FAY.

The chronicles of the past are always fascinating, offering a myriad of research possibilities, made up of stories I call history’s cold case files.  They were once quite lively issues, but now lie quietly waiting in archives and boxes or other esoteric environs for someone to take another look.  Here is a little-known story about a most intriguing man, yet another victim-example of what happens to selected nonconformists who do not parrot politically correct positions.  But mind you, the party line can change rapidly, so be ever aware  In the overall context of twentieth century history, it should come as no surprise that various intelligence agencies, on all sides, examined secret societies, not to mention occult concepts such as parapsychology, remote viewing, etc. just as they do today.  Professor Bernard Fay, who studied at Harvard, was a prominent historian, the National Librarian of France, a best-selling author, lecturer and acknowledged authority on American civilization and history.

Fay believed that a Freemasonic cabal planned both the American and French revolutions.  But beyond that, he saw a similar conspiracy at work in his own day.  And, it is no surprise that the traditionalist and conservative wartime French government sitting at Vichy enthusiastically supported him.  As you will see, when the winds of political change blew in the other direction, Dr. Fay was caught up in a maelstrom.

“The new faith in the future of humanity that spread in the eighteenth century was not simply an abstract fact or mental force.  It became a social force and concrete fact through the agency of Freemasonry, which at once accepted and advocated it; the great historical importance of modern Freemasonry results from this attitude that it took then.”  …  Thus Freemasonry has become the most efficient social power of the civilized world.” 

“But it has become a hidden power, difficult to trace, to describe and to define.  Consequently, most historians have avoided treating it seriously and giving it due credit.” 

Bernard Fay, Revolution and Freemasonry.

EXPOSING THE HIDDEN POWER.

In 1943, the Harvard-trained academic oversaw the making of a somewhat odd film called Forces Occultes.  Movie watchers may remember that this was an era of somewhat garish “thriller films” such as King Kong, Dracula and Frankenstein.  The production featured, among other things, a giant spider creeping across the screen over maps of areas of Masonic influence, complete with a leering evil figure stretched over a flaming globe.  Thanks to YouTube users, the film can be seen online.  Forces Occultes was popular with the in-crowd in wartime Paris, but Fay and the literary cliques of the day failed to recognize that, very soon, truly Dark Forces would rudely and crudely interrupt their lives.  The well-known author and lecturer, as you might expect, was part of a trendy crowd who, even in the middle of the war, seemed to see themselves as untouchable by world events.  Parisian café society, while toned down a bit, never really stopped.  The Champagne corks continued to pop and the most perfect Martinis were served while the storm raged on, coming ever closer.  When the tempest arrived, the Petain nationalist government and their ideals were devastatingly swept away.  As a result, Bernard Fay became one of history’s cold case files.  His books and theories, once widely known, are seldom read or discussed anymore.  But for a time, Dr. Fay was the man of the hour for certain hot button issues.  Then the world turned upside down and the “forces occultes” were hidden no more.  The victors always write history.  Here is the story as told by the Masons.

“On the eve of World War II, Rudolf Hess advanced the latest in a long list of anti-Masonic theories that had been invoked for centuries as a pretext for persecuting Masons. The Nazi deputy fuehrer wrote that the Third Reich was threatened by a sinister Judeo-Masonic conspiracy, which among its other crimes was fomenting the imminent conflict. Hess and his fellow Nazis found a champion for this theory in Bernard Fay, a prominent French historian. A scholar of American civilization, Fay believed that a cabal of Freemasons plotted both the American and French revolutions, and he saw a similar conspiracy at work in twentieth-century Europe. The 1940 German occupation of France gave him a forum for his views, and he became an enthusiastic instrument of Nazi persecution.”

“In 1943, Fay helped concoct a lurid film called Forces Occultes, the story of a young Frenchman who infiltrates the brotherhood to expose its role in starting the war. The movie relied heavily on sensational imagery, a giant spider creeping across the screen, maps displaying vast zones of alleged Jewish and Masonic influence, and a gloating Mason stretching his arms over a flaming globe. While Fay displayed a flair for propaganda, he had far greater impact as the Nazi-appointed administrator of the Bibliotheque Nationale. As chief of the national library, he directed research into the archives of France's secret societies,  coming up with the names of some 170,000 ‘suspects’. The information led to the deportation of 520 French Freemasons and the death of 117. After the war, Fay was sentenced by a war crimes tribunal to life in prison. In 1953, after serving seven years, he was pardoned by presidential decree.” 

Unmasking An “Occulte Force”,

http://www.vreflect.com/may2002/amazing.html.     

But, exactly how did the Professor go from being a famous author to end up as a convict?  Fay had an even greater impact than either the film or his hobnobbing with international celebrities.  As administrator of the Bibliotheque Nationale, he supervised government-ordered research into the archives of Freemasons and other secret societies, a project eventually producing 170,000 leads.  Baron Julius Evola, another esoteric investigator, did similar work with Freemasonic archives in Vienna, also working with German intelligence agencies.  Evola’s work ended when he was severely injured in a Soviet air raid, but Bernard Fay completed his task and reported his findings, from which trials resulted.  After the Allies took over and a new government installed, Fay was charged with war crimes, blaming him for 117 deaths. He was tried by a puppet court, and sentenced to life in prison.  To his credit, during the show trial, he was largely unrepentant.  When interrogated, he said this.

"I was glad to have in my hands the instrument capable of renovating the country. My mission was to organize a service for the detection of the Freemasons and Masonic archives. To be successful in that work, I was obligated to have relations with the Germans, especially as they had an organization parallel with ours.  Fay simply said that he was …a historian who was doing this for intellectual reasons."

http://www.masonicinfo.com/fay.htm. 

Even today, Masonic publications and web sites devote time and space to dispute and denounce Fay and his works, especially his well-known Revolution and Freemasonry, which highlights heavy Masonic influences. 

“Masonry alone undertook to lay the foundation for national unity in America, because through the very nature of its organization, it could spread throughout all the colonies and work steadily and silently. It created in a limited but very prominent class of people a feeling of American unity without which the American liberty could not have developed – without which there would have been no United States.” (pp. 229-230). 

“Freemasonry cannot deny the outstanding role played by its leaders in the Revolution, or that the Continental Congress, where the delegates from the colonies met to prepare a common political program and to organize the defense against England, was in majority composed of Masons. These congresses were imbued with the purest Masonic spirit, as proved by their actions, which finally was expressed in the Declaration of Independence.” (p. 241).

BERNARD FAY AND GERTRUDE STEIN, AN “ODD COUPLE”.

From the 1920s on, our protagonist was well-known in both Europe and America.  He was also a bit of a social nonconformist, moving well beyond the usual French right-wing circles. Fay regularly socialized with Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and celebrities of the era.  Some say the only reason these remarkable Judaic literary ladies were permitted to live and party in wartime France was due to the influence of Professor Fay.  To say the least, they were close friends.  Some writers imply that he was gay.  While I do not entirely discount the idea, it is unrelated to our focus.  As for Gertrude Stein and her views, they usually do surprise us, but not always for what you might think.

“Politically, Gertrude Stein was deeply conservative; she regarded the jobless as lazy, opposed Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal and supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War.  She would later start a project of translating speeches by Vichy regime leader Petain into English.  

With the outbreak of World War II, Stein and Toklas moved to a rented country home… in the Rhone-Alpes region.  Referred to only as ‘Americans’ by their neighbors, the Jewish Gertrude and Alice escaped persecution probably because of their friendship to Bernard Fay.”

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Gertrude_Stein/    

Stein herself was accused of “collaboration”, but the celebrity authoress was never charged.  She never gave up her efforts to free her dear friend.  Stein passed away in 1946, before Fay was pardoned, but Alice B. Toklas is said to have given money to facilitate his escape. 

DE GAULLE PARDONS FAY.

Fay made it to Switzerland in 1951.  Later, Charles De Gaulle yielded to better judgment, plus a lot of still-influential opinions, bringing an end to the embarrassing affair in 1953, pardoning him by presidential decree.  After this, Dr. Fay resumed writing, travel and lecturing.  He lived a long life, expiring in 1978 at age 85.  Of course, the cultural climate had radically changed.  What were seemingly useful and proper questions in relatively recent days were suddenly forbidden when the “Free French” new order was installed by the Allied military.  His later life was without much controversy, but he still expressed his views.  An article on the Society of St. Pius X web site in 2006 said this. 

“During the 1970's Fay lectured at Ecône on the subject of Church architecture. Privately he told the seminarians that because of his publications on and his knowledge of Freemasonry, powerful Masons in the French government after World War II had him thrown into prison. When an opportunity to escape offered itself, Fay fled prison and France….”

So, the learned scholar paid a high price for his “wrong thinking”, but today his story is virtually unknown and the real contents of his research – with his 170,000 leads – are probably “out there”, somewhere.   

“At the beginning of the Second World War he was a professor at the Collège de France. He was appointed administrator of the Bibliothèque Nationale during the occupation, and Director of the anti-Masonic service of the Vichy Government. During his tenure of this office, his secretary Gueydan de Roussel was in charge of preparing the card indexes containing 60,000 names drawn from archives seized from secret societies, which Marshal Philippe Pétain was convinced were at the heart of all France's troubles; lists of names of Masons were released to the official gazette of the Vichy government for publication, and many Catholic papers copied these lists in order to induce public opprobrium. Fay edited and published during the four years of the Occupation a monthly review Les Documents Maçonniques ("Masonic Documents") which published historical studies of Freemasonry together with essays on the role of Freemasonry in society and frank anti-Masonic propaganda. Fay was reputedly responsible for the death of many Freemasons, and nearly 1,000 deportations to concentration camps in Germany.”  Wikipedia, 2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Fa%C3%BF.  

But, what about the accusations that convicted him?  Let’s look at the facts.  Out of 170,000 names, most of whom were already in government files and under suspicion, how could he not find a few genuine conspirators and miscreants?  Indeed, Fay’s research must have been quite thorough since well over ninety-nine percent were exonerated or not even charged!  His great “sin” was releasing the names to the press.  As it turned out, only 520, slightly over three tenths of one percent, were actually convicted and imprisoned.  Ultimately, 117, less than one tenth of one percent, were executed.  A 2001 book, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, by Kenneth N. Waltz and Robert O. Paxton (p. 173), cites newspaper articles in Le Figaro, 06 Feb. 1942, and Journal Officiel, 14 August-22 October 1941.  This should lead to a wealth of material, lists of names from the archives and perhaps transcripts of the lectures Fay delivered to the press and his fellow academics.  This material is evidence that Fay did his duty, which was to thoroughly research already available archival files.  What is more, no “accomplices” were ever charged, though more than a few researchers must have assisted him, not to mention those who acted in and helped produce the film.  They weren’t important.  Fay was the chosen target.  Destroy him and negate his research.  They almost succeeded.  A  French language project could find out how many of the 170,000 names ended up in prominent political and social positions after the war. 

Bernard Fay was an honest and sincere man who felt good and patriotic about what he had accomplished.  He was rightfully honored and acknowledged by his friends, fellow academics, the Church and the state.  He appears to have named plenty of names that shocked the French people when they appeared in the national press because some were crypto-Masons.  170,000 or more politically aligned lodge brothers obviously have an influence, hence by definition, this is a conspiracy.  Thus, he pointed out the existence and influence of what he had written and spoken about for years.  But as we well know, world affairs and public opinions change in an eye blink.  Occult Forces really did strike him down, but he did not stay fallen for long.   As for more on this fascinating fellow, well, I’m done for now.  But I wish upon a French Muse that someone sometime will pursue some of Dr. Fay’s 170,000 leads for another episode in one of history’s cold case files.

FINDING BERNARD FAY’S BOOKS.

His works are just as clear, concise and cogent today as when they were written. Many titles are available on used book websites like www.abebooks.com  or through Interlibrary Loan programs.  

·        The American Experience, 1969.

·        Franklin, Apostle of Modern Times, 1929, 1966.

·        A Franco-American Library, 1930.

·        George Washington, Republican Aristocrat, 1931.

·        Louis XVI, the End of a World, 1968.

·        The Making of Americans: The Hersland Family, by 
Gertrude Stein, Preface by Bernard Fay, 1962.***

·        ***Barbara Will is still working on her book, Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Faÿ, and the Vichy Dilemma.  Also see James Mellow, Charmed Circle, Gertrude Stein and Company, 2003.

·        Notes  on the American Press at the End of the Eighteenth Century, 1927.

·        Revolution and Freemasonry, 1935, 1966.

·        The Revolutionary Spirit of France and America, 1929, 1966.

·        Roosevelt and His America, 1933.

·        The Two Franklins, 1933.

·        See the Forces Occultes movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPUe0VVnDI   

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