Although they were devout Catholics, Hauteclocque and Thérèse subscribed to "Action Française", the journal of a far-right political organisation of the same name, despite a papal interdict against it, and continued to do so even after Thérèse was refused absolution. In contrast, his cousin was an award-winning journalist who covered the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, visited the concentration camp at Dachau, and wrote about the Night of Long Knives. Xavier died in April 1935, convinced that he had been poisoned by the Nazis. After the Second World War, Hauteclocque destroyed his copies of "Action Française".