R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz - Les Veilleurs

Les Veilleurs

Schwaller de Lubicz was the founder in 1919, with other members of the Theosophical Society, of the esoteric right-wing French group called Affranchis, that published a journal L'Affranchi-Hiérarchie, Fraternité, Liberté, a monthly journal of art and philosophy, dealing with a spiritual and social renewal within the framework of a mystical political philosophy. Its president was René Bruyez. On 23 July 1919 the group dissolved and another group was formed in its place: Les Veilleurs ("the Vigilants"), to which allegedly the young Rudolf Hess belonged (according to the historian Pierre Mariel). Its uniform consisted of a dark shirt, high-boots and riding-breeches, akin to the Sturmabteilung.

Les Veilleurs delivered its manifesto in December 1919, its politics conveyed through a series of letters called "Appeals" and signed by its members. The letter signed by "Aor" was addressed "To the Jews", where he advised all Jews to "go back home". The first issue of its journal, Veilleur, contained an anonymous anti-semitic article that first appeared in a Masonic journal from 1898.

The artist André VandenBroeck in his memoirs and biography of Schwaller de Lubicz described him as anti-semitic, and Joscelyn Godwin commented "Schwaller de Lubicz was not sufficiently vindictive to persist in the course of action followed by Hess and Hitler, but nor was he sufficiently humane, it would seem, to regret his contribution to the currents of the time.