Unfortunately the musicians’ lack of experience meant that the club soon became seen as a risky venue, and fans began to abandon performances.
Jazz became a front for some remarkable resistance activities. Delaunay was contacted by members of the Resistance in 1941, and joined forces with them in starting up the network ‘Carte’, named after the saxophonist Benny Carter. Under the pseudonym ‘Benny’, Delaunay used the conferences he established as a front for conveying information and documents. Along with fellow Hot Club members, he also carried papers across the demarcation line, and the Hot Club headquarters in Paris became a venue for Resistance meetings. Unfortunately the musicians’ lack of experience meant that the club soon became seen as a risky venue, and fans began to abandon performances. Some performers, such as the violinist Georges Effrosse, disappeared; it later transpired that he had been deported to Dora, from where he never returned. In October 1943, the network was uncovered and the Gestapo raided the headquarters. Delaunay and several others, including fellow Hot Club founder and radio technician Jacques Bureau, the secretary Madeleine Germaine, the sisters Germaine and Annette Tambour, and several British agents, were arrested. The Tambours died during deportation and Germaine in a gas chamber, and Bureau remained imprisoned until the liberation. Delaunay was released in November 1943, but spent the rest of the war fearing for his safety, fleeing in 1944.