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Audio Letter to Miriam Hirn 2
September 1968
Munich, Germany
271 words / 61:14
What follows is a gift, an act of conservatorship, and a crowd-sourcing appeal.
Many readers of And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews have asked me what Savitri Devi’s voice sounded like. Although I cannot make the original ATRO interview tapes available, I have many hours of other Savitri Devi recordings. I have been carrying these recordings around for more than a decade, and it occurred to me that I should make them publicly available, in case the originals are damaged or destroyed.
The following letter is to Savitri’s friend Miriam Hirn, a French diplomat in New Delhi whom Savitri knew during the last five years of her life and who became the heir to Savitri’s estate (before passing it along to the Savitri Devi Archive). It is in French. Miriam Hirn died in India in 2010.
To listen in a player, click here or on the player above.
To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save target or link as.”
I apologize in advance for the recording quality. These letters were recorded on very cheap cassette tapes. I have used noise reduction to remove background hiss.
The best way to ensure that these recordings survive is for them to be copied and kept by as many people as possible. Also, if a native French speaker wishes to transcribe this recording, please contact me at [email protected]. Please contact me before beginning work, lest multiple parties end up wastefully duplicating efforts. Once as transcript is produced, I will translate it into English. Eventually, it will be included in an edition of Savitri Devi’s correspondence.
Greg Johnson
Archivist
2 comments
It’d be also great to hear a recording of her speaking in English.
What languages did Savitri speak, in order of command? I guess French, English, Greek, and German she indeed spoke, but I don’t know if that’s the atual order of her level of speakership in them.
Was French her native language?
In what language(s) did she write her books originally?
By the way, is the book “Hitler’s Priestess” any good?
Thank you,
Santakiaska
There are recordings of her speaking English online.
She spoke eight languages fluently: French, English, modern Greek, Italian, German, Hindi, Bengali, and Icelandic.
According to a friend of hers, she also could read Russian, and had knowledge of 27 languages and dialects. In the course of a meal, she would speak Greek to one person at the table, English to others, and four different Indian languages or dialects to people in the room.