Jean Moulin
Jean Moulin (20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a high-profile member of the Resistance in France during World War II.[1] He is remembered today as an symbol of the Resistance, owing mainly to his role in unifying the French resistance under Charles de Gaulle and his death while in Gestapo custody.
Before the war
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Moulin was born on 20 June 1899 in Béziers, France,[2] where his father worked as a geography teacher. He had a peaceful childhood with his brother and sister. Later, following his father's example, Moulin entertained strong Republican convictions. In 1917 he signed up for the Law Institute of Montpellier, and was appointed an "attaché to the cabinet" at the departmental prefecture for Hérault. Moulin enlisted in the French Army on 17 April 1918, and was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Regiment, but before he could join the battle lines after completing his training, the armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed. De-mobilized at the start of November 1919, he immediately presented himself at the departmental prefecture in Montpellier, where he resumed his old functions the same week. The quality of his work led to promotion, and he became "chef-adjoint de cabinet" at the end of 1920.
After World War I, he resumed his studies and obtained a law degree in 1921. Moulin then entered the prefectural 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. After being rejected by Jeanette Auran, Moulin, aged 27, married professional singer, Marguerite Cerruti, 19, in the town of Betton-Bettonet in September 1926. Cerruti quickly became bored with the marriage and Moulin responded by offering her further singing lessons in Paris whereupon she disappeared for 2 days[3] Biographer Patrick Marnham cites one of the causes of the divorce being Moulin's mother-in-law, who had by then, wanted to prevent her estate passing to Moulin's control upon Cerruti's 21 birthday. Moulin attempted to hide his rejection by the bourgeoisie by excusing his wife's disappearances and only informing his family after the divorce.[4]
Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Châteaulin, Brittany in 1930, when he drew political cartoons for the newspaper Le Rire on the side under the pseudonym Romanin. He also illustrated books by the Breton poet Tristan Corbière, including an etching for La Pastorale de Conlie, Corbière's poem about Camp Conlie where many Breton soldiers died in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. He also made friends with the Breton poets Saint-Pol-Roux in Camaret and Max Jacob in Quimper.[5]
In 1932, Pierre Cot, a Radical Socialist politician, named Moulin his chef adjoint when he was serving as Foreign Minister under Paul Doumer's presidency. In 1933, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Thonon-les-Bains, parallel to his function of head of cabinet of Pierre Cot in the Air ministry under Albert Lebrun. On 19 January 1934, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Montargis, but he did not assume this office and chose to remain by Pierre Cot's side. In the first half of April Moulin was appointed to the Seine préfecture, and, 1 July, took his place as secretary general in Somme, in Amiens. In 1936 he was once more named chief of cabinet of Pierre Cot's Air ministry of the Popular Front. In this capacity, Moulin was deeply involved in Cot's efforts to assist the Spanish Republic by sending them planes and pilots. For the Istres-Damas-Le Bourget race he presented the winners with their prize; Benito Mussolini's own son was one of those winners. He became France's youngest préfet in the Aveyron département, based in the commune of Rodez, in January 1937. It has often been claimed that during the Spanish Civil War Moulin assisted with the shipment of arms from the Soviet Union to Spain. A more commonly accepted version of events is that he used his position in the French aviation ministry to deliver planes to the Spanish Republican forces.
The Resistance
In 1939, Moulin was appointed préfet of the Eure-et-Loir département.[2] and was dismissed by the Vichy regime of Marshal Petain November 2, 1940 along with all other left-wing préfets. He then began writing his diary, First Battle, where he relates his resistance against the Nazis in Chartres; this was later published at the Liberation and prefaced by General de Gaulle.
The Germans arrested him on 17 June 1940 because he refused to sign a German document that falsely blamed Senegalese French Army troops for civilian massacres. The Senegalese had fought fiercely for the republic and delayed the Wehrmacht outside Chartres, who were so enraged that black troops had slowed them down that 180 Senegalese were lined up and shot after surrendering.[6] To justify the massacre, the Germans wanted Moulin to sign a "protocol" saying that the Senegalese had gone on a rampage, raping and murdering French women and children, which was only stopped when the Wehrmacht massacred them.[7] Moulin refused "...as a Frenchman, who had the duty as a high official of representing his country to the enemy" of not signing an "infamous statement" full of lies about the Senegalese.[7] For "insulting the great German Army", Moulin was beaten, which led him to ask for the "infamous proceedings" to stop and accused his captors of shaming their own uniforms by their conduct.[7] The British historian Alan Clinton wrote that transcripts showed the "...ideological gulf between those infected with Nazi racism and the republican prefect, son of a man who had defended Captain Dreyfus and protested before 1914 against the crimes of European imperialism in Africa".[8] When Moulin asked for proof that the Senegalese had murdered French civilians, he was told the alleged massacre showed "the characteristics of crimes committed by Negroes", a statement that Moulin called absurd, for which he was beaten yet again.[9] When Moulin protested that he was only doing his duty as a prefect in refusing to sign a statement he knew to be false, he was beaten again as "the hireling of the Jew Mandel...who wanted to unleash war against Germany".[9] Moulin in his turn protested as the prefect of Chartres he was not "hired" by Georges Mandel, but responsible to him as he was the Interior Minister, a statement that led him to be beaten for "fighting for a land of Jews and Negroes".[9] Moulin replied that the republic upheld the principles of liberté, égalité, fraternité for all, so he was pleased that France was a place that welcomed Jews and blacks, unlike the Reich that upheld the belief in an Aryan herrenvolk (master race).[9] Moulin was taken out to the countryside to see the alleged massacre where he was shown the remains of eight women and children spattered about, which led Moulin to remark to his captors "you do not have to be a great scholar" to see that they "were the victims of a bombing".[9] Moulin was then locked in a cell with the remains of one of the bombing victims and a Senegalese prisoner who barely spoke French to think over whether to sign or not.[9] Moulin was told that since he liked blacks so much to enjoy the company of the Senegalese soldier who gave Moulin some cigarettes, but since the Senegalese had only the most minimal command of French, he was unable to give much emotional support.[9]
In the depths of despair, Moulin quoted the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet to himself before deciding to go to "the undiscover'd country" from which "no traveler returns".[10] Moulin wrote in a note on the night of 17 June explaining why he was going to kill himself that: "For seven hours I have been subjected to physical and moral torture. I know that today I reached the limits of resistance. I know that if it starts again tomorrow, I will sign in the end. The dilemma remains: to sign or to disappear. It is impossible to flee. Whatever happens, I cannot sign."[9] In his cell, he attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a piece of broken glass.[6] This left him with a scar he would often hide with a scarf—the image of Jean Moulin remembered today.
On 3 November 1940, the Vichy government ordered all préfets to dismiss left-wing elected mayors of towns and villages.[11] When Moulin refused, he was himself removed from office on 16 November 1940.[12]
He then went to live in Saint-Andiol (Bouches-du-Rhône), and joined the French Resistance. He reached London in September 1941 under the name Joseph Jean Mercier, and met General Charles de Gaulle on 24 October, who gave him the assignment of unifying the various Resistance groups. On 1 January 1942, he parachuted into the Alpilles and met with the leaders of the resistance groups under code names Rex and Max:
- Henri Frenay (Combat)
- Emmanuel d'Astier (Libération)
- Jean-Pierre Lévy (Francs-tireurs)
- Pierre Villon (Front national, not to be confused with the present-day Front National political party).
- Pierre Brossolette (Comité d'action socialiste)
He succeeded to the extent that the first three of these resistance leaders and their groups came together to form the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (MUR) in January 1943. The following month, Moulin returned to London accompanied by Charles Delestraint, head of the new Armée secrète which grouped together the MUR's military wings. He left London on 21 March 1943 with orders to form the Conseil national de la Résistance (CNR), a difficult task since the five resistance movements involved (besides the three already in the MUR) wanted to retain their independence. The first meeting of the CNR took place in Paris on 27 May 1943.
In his work in shepherding the Resistance, Moulin was aided by his private administrative assistant Laure Diebold.
On 21 June 1943, he was arrested at a meeting with fellow Resistance leaders in the home of Dr. Frédéric Dugoujon in Caluire-et-Cuire, a suburb of Lyon, as were Dugoujon, Henri Aubry (alias Avricourt and Thomas), Raymond Aubrac, Bruno Larat (alias Xavier-Laurent Parisot), André Lassagne (alias Lombard), Colonel Albert Lacaze, Colonel Émile Schwarzfeld (alias Blumstein), and René Hardy (alias Didot).
He was, with the other Resistance leaders, sent to Montluc Prison in Lyon, in which he was detained until the beginning of July. Interrogated extensively on a daily basis in Lyon by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo there, and later more briefly in Paris, Moulin never revealed anything to his captors and died near Metz on a train headed for Germany[13] from injuries sustained either during torture or in a suicide attempt. Moulin's ability not to provide information to the Gestapo was extraordinary given the ferocity of the torture he was subjected to, which reportedly included hot needles being put under his fingernails, doors being closed on his hands until his knuckles broke, the use of screw-levered handcuffs to cut into his wrists and whipping and beatings.[14]
Barbie alleged that suicide was the cause, and one Moulin biographer, Patrick Marnham, supports this explanation although it is widely believed that Barbie personally beat Moulin to death.[15]
Homosexuality
Jean Moulin's private life has been a subject of debate[16], and he has been called a gay apostle[17]. In 2003, the 'Dictionary of Gay and Lesbian Cultures', supervised by Didier Eribon, evokes "the possible homosexuality or bisexuality of a great resistance member, like Jean Moulin", also pointing out the predispositions of homosexuals of the time to enter the resistance, emanating from clandestine activity in their private life. Jean-Paul Sartre, in a 1949 article recalled the predispositions of Parisian homosexual circles to collaboration. In 'Jean Moulin, the ultimate mystery', Pierre Péan and Laurent Ducastel dedicate a chapter on this subject, "Was it?", evoking "a seducer, tasting carnal pleasures with girls, possibly with boys, noting that the official voices of the Liberation will always try to deny the presence of homosexuals in the Resistance, an image that was long not very consistent with the idea of French heroes". Both a friend of Jean Moulin, the poet Max Jacob, were confirmed homosexuals while his secretary, Daniel Cordier, a homosexual 20 years his junior, interviewed for the book of Pierre Péan, claims not to have read the chapter devoted to his sexuality, contenting himself with saying that "he was a man about women". The Jean-Moulin museum contains a text saying that Moulin was "a man about women, seducer with that - a real 'slayer'", while the historian Thomas Rabino, in 'The other Jean Moulin (2013)' can provide only three female relationships during his life, including one with Marguerite Cerruti, his 'bored' wife who deserted him between 1927 and 1928. In 2013, a remembrance ceremony in France attended by the prime minister was disturbed by anti-gay protestors [18] and a piece of theatre 'The Evangelical Jean Moulin' again discusses this point.[19]
Who betrayed Moulin?
René Hardy was caught and released by the Gestapo, who had followed him to the meeting at the doctor's house. Some[who?] believe him guilty of a deliberate act of treason; others think he was simply reckless. Two trials found him innocent. A recent TV film[when?] about the life and death of Jean Moulin depicted Hardy as collaborating with the Gestapo, thus reviving the controversy. The Hardy family attempted to bring a lawsuit against the producers of the movie.[citation needed]
There have been many suppositions in the postwar years that Moulin was a communist. No hard evidence has ever backed up this claim. Marnham looked into the assertions, but found no evidence to support them (although Communist Party members could easily have seen him as a "fellow traveller" because he had communist friends and supported the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War). As préfet, Moulin even ordered the repression of communist 'agitators' and went so far as to have police keep some of them under surveillance.[20] At the trial of Klaus Barbie in 1987, his lawyer Jacques Vergès made much out of speculation that Moulin was betrayed by either Communists and/or the Gaullists as part of an attempt to distract attention away from the actions of his client, by making the true authors of Moulin's arrest his fellow rèsistants rather than Barbie.[21] Vergès failed in his effort to acquit Barbie, but he did succeed in creating a vast industry of various conspiracy theories, many very fanciful, about who betrayed Moulin.[22] Leading historians such Henri Noguères and Jean-Pierre Azéma rejected Vergès's conspiracy theories, in which Barbie was somehow less culpable than the supposed traitors who tipped him off.[22]
The British intelligence officer Peter Wright in his 1987 book Spy Catcher wrote that Pierre Cot was an "active Russian agent" and called his protege Moulin a "dedicated Communist".[23] Clinton wrote that Wright based his allegations against Moulin entirely on secret documents that he claimed to have seen, which no historian has ever seen, and on conversations that he is supposed to have had decades ago with others long dead, which made his case against Moulin very "dubious".[23] Henri-Christian Giraud, the grandson of General Henri Giraud who had been outmaneuvered by de Gaulle for the leadership of the Free French movement hit back in his two volume work De Gaulle et les communistes published in 1988 and 1989 which outlined a conspiracy theory suggesting that de Gaulle had been "manipulated" by the "Soviet agent" Moulin into the following the PCF's line of "national insurrection" and thereby eclipsed his grandfather, who he maintained should have been the rightful leader of Free France.[24] Taking up Giraud's theories, the lawyer Charles Benfredj argued in his 1990 book L'Affaire Jean Moulin: Le contre-enquête that Moulin was a Soviet agent who had been not killed by Barbie, but had allowed by the German government to go to the Soviet Union in 1943, where Moulin supposedly died sometime after the war.[25] Benfredj's book was published with an introduction with Jacques Soustelle, the archaeologist of Mexico and wartime Gaullist whose commitment to Algérie française had made him a bitter enemy of de Gaulle by 1959.[25] The essence of all the theories about Moulin the alleged Soviet agent was that because de Gaulle had agreed to co-operate with the Communists during WW II (which was apparently all Moulin's work), that this had set France on the wrong course and led to de Gaulle granting Algeria independence in 1962, instead of keeping Algeria as a part of France as he should have done.[26]
It has also been suggested, principally in Marnham's biography, that Moulin was betrayed by communists. Marnham points the finger specifically at Raymond Aubrac and possibly his wife, Lucie. He alleges that communists did at times betray non-communists to the Gestapo, and that Aubrac was linked to harsh actions during the purge of collaborators after the war. In 1990, Klaus Barbie, by then "a bitter dying Nazi", named Aubrac as the traitor.[27] To counteract the accusations levelled at Moulin, Daniel Cordier, his personal secretary during the war, wrote a biography of his former leader.[28] In April 1997, Vergès produced a "Barbie testament" which he claimed that Barbie had given him ten years earlier which purported to show the Aubracs had tipped off Barbie.[29] Vergès's "Barbie testament" which was timed for the publication of the book Aubrac Lyon 1943 by Gérard Chauvy, which was meant to prove that the Aubracs were the ones who informed Barbie about the fateful meeting at Caluire on 21 June 1943.[28] On 2 April 1998 following a civil suit launched by the Aubracs, a Paris court fined Chauvy and his publisher Albin Michel for "public defamation".[30] In 1998, the French historian Jacques Baynac in his book Les Secrets de l'affaire Jean Moulin claimed that Moulin was planning to break with de Gaulle to recognize General Giraud, which led the Gaullists to tip off Barbie before this could happen.[31]
Legacy
Ashes presumed to be his were buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and later transferred to the Panthéon on 19 December 1964. The speech given by André Malraux, writer and minister of the Republic, at the transfer site is one of the most famous speeches in French history.
The current French education curriculum commemorates Jean Moulin as a symbol of the French resistance and a model of civic virtuousness, moral rectitude and patriotism. As of 2015, Jean Moulin was the fifth most popular name for a French school [32] and as of 2016, and his is the 3rd most popular French street name [33] of which 98 percent are male[34]. Lyon 3 university and a Paris metro station have also been named after him. Another member of the resistance, Antoinette Sasse bequeathed her will to found The Musée Jean Moulin in 1994[35]. The fictional Jean Pierre Melville film Army of Shadows (based on a book of the same name) depicts, through the character of Luc Jardie, played by Paul Meurisse, several events in Moulin's war experience with some inaccuracy - in the film his homosexual male secretary is replaced by a female assistant.
In 1993, a commemorative French two-franc coin was issued showing a partial image of Moulin against the Croix de Lorraine, using a fedora-and-scarf photograph which is well recognised in France.
See also
References
- ^ "Jean Moulin (1899–1943)". BBC history. 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
- ^ a b Johnson, Douglas. "The Mystery of Jean Moulin", Los Angeles Times, 1 September 2002
- ^ http://lavoixdu14e.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/07/10/jean-moulin-le-sacrifice-du-heros.html
- ^ https://books.google.fr/books?id=aWMpDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT74&lpg=PT74&dq=Patrick+Marnham+marguerite+cerruti&source=bl&ots=OBVnYdWFTL&sig=zhOgmckq5dYCBXyfJ5QY3Ib9zFQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG04eV5KHZAhVBHRQKHY35BqoQ6AEIRzAH#v=onepage&q=Patrick%20Marnham%20marguerite%20cerruti&f=false
- ^ Peyre, Alain (2000). Jean Moulin dit Romanin (based on an exhibition of his work at the Galerie d'Art du Conseil General des Bouches-du-Rhone, Aix-En-Provence, 6 April – 25 June 2000). Arles: Actes Sud. p. 53. ISBN 978-2-7427-2690-5.
- ^ a b Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 91.
- ^ a b c Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 89.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 pages 89–90.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 90.
- ^ Assouline, Pierre "Beneath the Scarf of Jean Moulin" pages 1–21 from South Central Review, Volume 25, No. 2 Summer 2008 pages 5–6.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Assouline pages 1-c21
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Assouline, Pierre "Beneath the Scarf of Jean Moulin" pages 1–21 from South Central Review, Volume 25, No. 2 Summer 2008 page 9.
- ^ [1] Death certificate for Jean Moulin (in German)
- ^ "Klaus Barbie". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
- ^ Milano, James V.; Brogan, Patrick (2000). Soldiers, Spies and the Rat Line : America's Undeclared War Against the Soviets. Potomac Books. p. 256. ISBN 1-57488-304-6. p. 202
- ^ https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Moulin
- ^ http://www.telerama.fr/scenes/on-naime-pas-drame-historique-jean-moulin-evangile.-jean-marie-besset-1t-evocation-litteraire-pour,N5200971.php
- ^ https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-mariage-homosexuel/20130621.RUE7190/la-ceremonie-pour-jean-moulin-perturbee-par-un-antimariage-gay.html
- ^ http://www.telerama.fr/scenes/on-naime-pas-drame-historique-jean-moulin-evangile.-jean-marie-besset-1t-evocation-litteraire-pour,N5200971.php
- ^ Marnham, Patrick. The Death of Jean Moulin: Biography of a Ghost. Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6584-1. p. 104
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 pages 203–204.
- ^ a b Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 204.
- ^ a b Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 205.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 pages 205–206.
- ^ a b Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 206.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 201.
- ^ "Obituary:Raymond Aubrac". Daily Telegraph. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
- ^ a b Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 pages 202–203.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 209.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 pages 209–210.
- ^ Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan 2002 page 210.
- ^ http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/04/18/de-jules-ferry-a-pierre-perret-l-etonnant-palmares-des-noms-d-ecoles-de-colleges-et-de-lycees-en-france_4613091_4355770.html#partie1
- ^ https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2016/04/16/2326668-noms-de-rues-jaures-et-moulin-les-plus-donnes.html
- ^ https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2016/04/16/2326668-noms-de-rues-jaures-et-moulin-les-plus-donnes.html
- ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_Leclerc_de_Hauteclocque_et_de_la_Lib%C3%A9ration_de_Paris_%E2%80%93_Mus%C3%A9e_Jean_Moulin
Bibliography
- Baynac, Jacques. Les secrets de l'affaire Jean Moulin: Contexte, Causes Et Circonstances. Seuil: Paris, 1998. ISBN 2-02-033164-0
- Clinton, Alan. Jean Moulin, 1899–1943: the French Resistance and the Republic. Palgrave: New York, 2002. ISBN 978-0-333-76486-2
- Daniel Cordier. Jean Moulin. La République des catacombes. Gallimard: Paris, 1999. ISBN 2-07-074312-8
- Hardy, René. Derniers mots: Mémoires. Fayard: Paris, 1984. ISBN 2-213-01320-9
- Marnham, Patrick. The Death of Jean Moulin: Biography of a Ghost. John Murray: New York, 2001. ISBN 0-7126-6584-6. Also published as Resistance and Betrayal ISBN 0-375-50608-X. 2015 edition published as Army of the Night, Tauris. ISBN 9781784531089
- Moulin, Laure. Jean Moulin. Presses de la Cité: Paris, 1982. (En préface le discours de André Malraux). ISBN 2-258-01120-5
- Noguères, Henri. La vérité aura le dernier mot. Seuil: Paris, 1985 ISBN 2-02-008683-2
- Péan, Pierre. Vies et morts de Jean Moulin. Fayard: Paris, 1998. ISBN 2-213-60257-3
- Storck-Cerruty, Marguerite. J'étais la femme de Jean Moulin. Régine Desforges: Paris, 1977. (Avec lettre-préface de Robert Aron, de l'Académie française). ISBN 2-901980-74-0
- Sweets, John F.. The Politics of Resistance in France, 1940-1944: A History of the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance. Northern Illinois University Press: De Kalb, 1976. ISBN 0-87580-061-0
- Taussat, Robert (1998). Jean Moulin : la constance et l'honneur de la République. Rodez: Fil d'Ariane. ISBN 9782912470263. OCLC 49281909.