Jean Moulin
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Jean Moulin (June 20, 1899–July 8, 1943) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II.
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Before the War
Jean Moulin was born in Béziers, France, and enrolled in the French Army in 1918, but World War I came to an end before he could see any action. After the war, he resumed his studies and obtained a law degree in 1921. He then entered the prefectoral administration, as chef de cabinet to the deputy of Savoie in 1922, then as sous préfet of Albertville, from 1925 to 1930. He was France's youngest sous préfet at the time.
He married Marguerite Cerruti in September 1926, but divorced her in 1928.
In 1930, he was the sous préfet of Châteaulin. During that time, he also wrote political satires in the newspaper "Le rire", under the pseudonym Romanin.
He became France's youngest préfet in the Aveyron region, in the commune of Rodez, in January 1937.
The Resistance
In 1939 he was appointed préfet of the Eure-et-Loir region. The Germans arrested him in June 1940 because he refused to sign a German document that wrongly blamed Senegalese French Army troops for civilian massacres. In prison, he attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a piece of broken glass. This left him with a scar that he would often hide with his scarf.
In November 1940, the Vichy government ordered all prefects to dismiss left-wing elected mayors of towns and villages. When Moulin refused he was himself removed from office. He then lived in Saint-Andiol (Bouches-du-Rhône), and joined the resistance. He reached London in September 1941 under the name Joseph Jean Mercier, and met General Charles de Gaulle, who asked him to unify the various resistance groups. On January 1, 1942, he was parachuted in the Alpilles. Under the codenames Rex and Max, he met with the leaders of the resistance groups:
- Henri Frenay (Combat)
- Emmanuel d'Astier (Libération)
- Jean-Pierre Lévy (Francs-Tireur)
- Pierre Villon (Front National, not to be confused with the present-day extreme right French political party Front National)
- Pierre Brossolette (Comité d'Action Socialiste)
In February 1943, he went back to London, accompanied by Charles Delestraint, head of the new armée secrète group. He left on March 21, 1943, ordered to form the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR), a difficult task, since each movement wanted to keep their independence. The first meeting of the CNR took place in Paris, on May 27, 1943.
Jean Moulin was arrested June 21, 1943 in Caluire-et-Cuire (Rhône), in Doctor Frédéric Dugoujon's house, where a meeting with most of the resistance leaders was taking place. Interrogated in Lyon, and later in Paris, by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo, he never revealed anything to his captors. He eventually died, near Metz, in the Paris-Berlin train which was taking him to the concentration camps.
The Controversies
Who betrayed him?
René Hardy was caught, and released, by the Gestapo, which followed him when he came to the meeting at the doctor's house in Caluire, thus leading the Germans to Jean Moulin. Some believe that this was a deliberate act of treason, others think René Hardy was simply reckless.
Two trials have ben unable to determine that René Hardy was a traitor, and both concluded him innocent.
A recent TV film about the life and death of Jean Moulin depicted René Hardy collaborating with the Gestapo, thus reviving the controversy. The Hardy family attempted a lawsuit against the producers of the movie.
Was he a crypto-Communist?
Klaus Barbie definitely thought he was. He was a man of the left who helped the Spanish Republic. On the other hand, he accepted Charles de Gaulle as leader of the entire Resistance and wanted all anti-Fascist forces to be united.
Rumours include the idea that he was betrayed by right-wing resistance forces for being too much a man of the left, or that he was betrayed by the French Communists for working with de Gaulle. Neither story is very likely.
The legend
Buried in the Parisian Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, his ashes have been transferred to The Panthéon, on December 19, 1964.
Many schools in France, and a university (Lyon III) have been named Jean Moulin after him.
External link
- Malraux' speech during Jean Moulin's transfer to The Pantheon (in French) (http://home.uchicago.edu/~francois/malraux)