Paul ELUARD (1895-1952). Autograph poem signed, Comprenne qui voudra..., [1944]; 1page in-fol. Working manuscript with erasures and corrections, in midnight blue ink on graph paper. The poem was written during the Liberation, in reaction to the torture of shorn women. It was published in Les Lettres françaises on December 2, 1944, and collected in Au rendez-vous allemand (Éditions de Minuit, 1944). It contains 26 verses. At the head of this draft, Eluard inscribed the words: "En ce temps" (In those days); the inscription will be expanded in the edition: "En ce temps-là, pour ne pas châtier les coupables, on maltraitait des filles. We even sheared them". The name "Madeleine Legrand à Fresnes" was pencilled in at the top. The poem was quoted with emotion by Georges Pompidou at a press conference on September 22, 1969, in response to a question about the Gabrielle Russier affair. "Comprenne qui voudra My remorse was The unfortunate woman who remained On the pavement The reasonable victim With her torn dress With the look of a lost child Disfigured and disheveled She who looks like the dead Who died to be loved"...