The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology 331
Grand Hailing Sign of Distress:
"O Lord my God! is there no help for the widow's son?" 1018
(Explanation: Raise the hands as represented in the cut, and drop them with
spirit. Repeat this three times.)
In the French Masonic language, there exists an interesting metaphor: "les
Orphelins de la Veuve," meaning "the Widow's Orphans," which is even harder
than to be "the Widow's Sons" - the common technical expression for
Freemasons - because now the widow is also dead and the orphan is all alone. It
is the self-given name of a group of French ex-Masons who were prisoners in a
camp after the liberation, because they had collaborated with the Nazis during
the Second World War. They created a "clandestine," that is, an illegal lodge in
this camp. The desperate technical term of the "Orphans" alludes to the lost state
of these "collaborateurs" who were forsaken by the "Widow," i.e. by
Freemasonry, since they were eradicated from the French lodges after the
liberation by the allied forces. Patriotic French Freemasonry did not want these
traitors any more:
Durant l'occupation allemande (1940-1944), un certain nombre d'exfranc-maçons
adhérèrent au 'Rassemblement National Populaire' de
Marcel Déat. Après la Libération, ils furent l'objet de sanctions par les
cours de justice. En même temps, les maçons ayant 'collaboré' avec
l'ennemi étaient radiés des loges. A l'intérieur du camp de Saint-Sulpice,
un certain nombre d'eux s'étant reconnus constituèrent une loge
'sauvage', qu'ils appelèrent Les Orphelins de la Veuve, non sans étonner
et indisposer les autres internés du camp. 1019
1018 Text and illustration taken from Duncan, p. 18.
1019 DFM, p. 181.