French Vegan Cookbook – 1934 – A Source Of The Hitler Rumor

A wonderful vegan recipe book tainted by an old story.

Un merveilleux livre de recettes vegan entachée par une vieille histoire.

A source of the annoying – ‘Hitler was a vegetarian’ rumor – countered by Rynn Berry – see below.

Ernest Bell Library item –

Maïa Charpentier. – La Bonne Cuisine végétalienne. 500 recettes pratiques. Préface de Prosper Montagné.

Editions La Caravelle & Imprimerie d’Art “Le Croquis”, 6, rue Bezout, Paris, 1934. (17 juillet 1935.)

297 pp.

Original price: 12 fr.

FORMAT:In-12 (11 x 18 cm)

BINDING: Paperback, cover illustrated in color

Text not illustrated.

First edition – with a dedication from & autograph of the author, Maïa Charpentier –

“à monsieur Paul Reboux expert en gastronomie en sincère hommage “

“to Monsieur Paul Reboux, expert in gastronomy, in sincere tribute”

Maïa Charpentier wrote the book. It is a 1934 végétalienne cookbook, a book of 500 vegan recipes. We have discovered nothing more about her. Végétalienne – Wiki – is the French word for what was called ‘vegan’ in the UK in 1944 – ……the French were ‘well ahead’ of the English.

Prosper Montagné (14 November 1865 – 22 April 1948) – wrote the preface. He was a French chef and the author of many books and articles on food, cooking, and gastronomy, notably the Larousse Gastronomique.

Paul Reboux (21 May 1877- 14 February 1963) – received the book as a gift from Maïa Charpentier. He was a painter & a prolific writer with very different interests: editor, literary critic, food critic, novelist, author of natural history books, biographies, stories of travel and children’s books.

It is not a common book.

http://www.copac.ac.uk/ – lists no copies of the book in the UK

http://www.bnf.fr/ – the Bibliothèque nationale de France has a copy.

……

“La Bonne Cuisine Végétalienne.” By Mdme. Maïa Charpentier. –

La Carabelle,” Paris, 1934, 12 fr. (by post 2s. 9d.).

A delighful book – but falling to pieces – we must urgently scan our copy.

“La Basconnaise” & Louis Rimbault –  https://www.happycow.net/blog/la-basconnaise/

“La Basconnaise” & Louis Rimbault & Sophia Zaïkowska – https://www.happycow.net/blog/veganism-french-communities/

……

NOTORIETY

There are mentions on various websites, that a copy was sent to Adolf Hitler & that it ended up in the US – example

Maïa Charpentier’s vegetarian cookbook is one such work, with its following dedication: “To the chancellor of the Reich, to Monsieur Hitler, the vegetarian, and thus to the man of peace, from a good French woman desiring Universal Peace, the soul condition for human progress.” – source – ……with a few lines of nonsense about Hitler being a vegetarian.

Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover Paperback – February, 2004
by Rynn Berry (Author), Martin Rowe (Introduction)

Rynn Berry ‘put that one to bed’ very effectively – more here

NVA: In addition to the Guide, you’ve authored several other books on vegetarianism, including one refuting the famous assertion that Hitler was a vegetarian. How did that project come to be, and how has it been received through they years?

Rynn Berry : As the author of a bestselling book titled Famous Vegetarians (a biographical history of vegetarianism that spans 3,000 years), I was constantly being heckled by hostile non-vegetarians, who during my lectures, or at book signings, would invariably ask me why I hadn’t included Adolf Hitler among the Famous Vegetarians. So, I decided to research the matter in order to ascertain whether this butcher of Europe was in fact a vegetarian.

To my dismay, I found that historians of the second world war and Hitler biographers stoutly maintain that he was a vegetarian in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Since no one had written a book that marshals the evidence to prove that Hitler was not a vegetarian, I decided to write a book on the topic—Hitler: Neither Vegetarian, Nor Animal Lover. When the book was published, The London Times wrote a feature article on it. For the article, the reporter interviewed Sir Ian Kershaw, professor of modern history at Sheffield University.

As the author of a three-volume biography of the Fuhrer, Sir Ian is held to be the world’s leading authority on Hitler. The reporter asked Sir Ian for his assessment of my book. Sir Ian opined as follows: “To say that Hitler was not a vegetarian is just an absurd allegation. It is true that Hitler was inconsistent at times, and that there was the odd extreme exception, but he ate what was by any stretch of the imagination a vegetarian diet. The fact that vegetarians don’t like the fact that Hitler was a vegetarian shouldn’t deny the fact that he was one.”

This is typical of the attitude of European historians towards Hitler’s diet. Sir Ian concedes that Hitler “was inconsistent at times, and that there were odd extreme exceptions.” So how on earth can Sir Ian possibly classify Hitler as a vegetarian? Sir Ian and others of his ilk are not practicing vegetarians; so they don’t seem to realize that one cannot be a vegetarian and be so inconsistent as to eat liver dumplings, and cured meats, which eyewitnesses attest that Hitler did on a regular basis. If anything, Hitler was a flexitarian. By no stretch of the imagination could he accurately be called a vegetarian.

My recent letter to the London Telegraph neatly epitomizes the whole matter. In my letter I upbraided Royah Nikkah, the author of the article, “Hitler’s Food Taster Speaks of Hitler’s Vegetarian Diet.” I accused her of trying to have it both ways: On the one hand, she implies that Hitler was a vegetarian on the strength of the testimony of one of his former food tasters, Margot Woelk, 95. In a recent interview Ms. Woelk stated that she had been a member of a 12-person team who tasted Hitler’s food—lest he might have been poisoned—for one hour a day from 11am to 12 noon, for a period of 800 days.

On the other hand, Ms. Nikkah admits that Mr. Hitler “was not fastidious about declining meat. Dione Lucas, his cook before the war, claimed that he was a fan of stuffed pigeon, and he was also known to be partial to Bavarian Sausage and the occasional slice of ham.” Ms. Nikkah doesn’t seem to realize what constitutes a vegetarian. According to the World Book encyclopedia, a vegetarian is defined as “a person who eats only vegetable foods and refrains from eating meat, fish, or some other animal products, especially one who does so on the basis of principle.”

So, if Hitler was indulging in stuffed pigeon, Bavarian sausage, and the occasional slice of ham—which Ms. Nikkah acknowledges that he did—then Hitler was emphatically not a vegetarian. At best, he was a flexitarian, or one who eats a mixed diet of vegetables and meat, or fish and other animal products.

Personally, I am chagrined that so many of the people who have reviewed my book, Hitler: Neither Vegetarian, Nor Animal Lover, on Amazon and elsewhere, give no evidence of having read it. Clearly, they are anti-vegetarian ideologues, who are using Hitler (and the latest misinformation about him) to bash vegetarianism.

……

Our Projects

The Henry Salt Archive is one of our, almost completed, projects.

The Humanitarian League is our Hong Kong registered charity.

The Ernest Bell Library was conceived in 1934. It is still strong & very active eighty years later –  its primary objectives are to: –

• Collect all of Ernest Bell’s book & non-book works and make them easily accessible to everyone.

• Collect the literature of vegetarianism and all the other humanitarian movements in which Ernest Bell was so deeply involved.

• Assist students and scholars in their research.

• Introduce all aspects of Ernest Bell’s life, including his writings, campaign work, influences and his circle of friends.

• Undertake our own research into missing aspects of Ernest Bell’s life and work.

We already have more than 300 pieces of Ernest Bell’s own writings.

We are also actively building a collection of examples of promotional material, campaign material, fundraising & marketing activities etc., related to: –

veg(etari)an products.

veg(etari)an books & other publications.

veg(etari)an organisations.

veg(etari)an businesses.

animal rights organisations.

animal rights publications.

humanitarian organisations.

humanitarian publications.

rambling clubs run by members of the above groups & related publications.

the work of Richard St. Barbe Baker & the ‘Men of the Trees’ organization & its many sub-branches.

There are currently more than 2,000 items in the Ernest Bell Library.

We will complete the cataloging of the collection as & when adequate funds are available.

It is long past time for the library to go online!

 “I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of centre for students, will meet with a wide response.” 

Henry S. Salt – writing in September 1934

……

If anyone would like more information, please send an email to: – 

humanitarianleague (at) outlook (dot) com 

– or message me  through HappyCow – 

https://www.happycow.net/blog/author/JohnnySensible/
……

If you are a Tweeter, please consider sending this post out to your friends.

Thank you! 

……

Comment via Facebook