Jean Moulin (born with Béziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon the June 20th 1899 and died in a train around Metz the July 8th 1943) was a resistant French which directed the National council of Resistance during the Second world war.
Often regarded as one of the principal heroes of Resistance, it is buried with the the Pantheon great men of the French Republic.

Biography

Before the war

It was born with Béziers the June 20th 1899, of White and Antoine-Emile Moulin to the 6 of the street of Alsace, opposite Field-of-March. His/her father, professor of history-geography, general adviser Radical socialist, Humaniste will have a very great influence on him. During its happy childhood, at the sides of his Joseph brother and his Laure sister, it develops her talent for the drawing, which will be useful later for him.

Graduate in 1917, it is registered with the Faculty of Law of Montpellier and enters in parallel in freemasonry via his father and, as attache with the cabinet of the Préfet of the Herault, under the presidency of Raymond Poincaré.

Mobilized the April 17th 1918, it is affected with the regiment of 2 {{E}} genius based with Montpellier. After an intensive training it arrives in the the Vosges at Charmes the September 25th and is on the point of going up on line when the armistice is proclaimed. It is sent successively in Seine-et-Oise, with Verdun, then with Châlon-sur-saône; he will be in turn carpenter, digger, telephone operator, affected with deposit demobilisator, etc He is demobilized at the beginning of November 1919 and presents himself immediately to the prefecture of Montpellier, where he takes again his functions on November 4th.

The quality of its work makes name it chief-assistant of cabinet at the end of 1920. It obtains its license of right in 1921. In parallel, he becomes vice-president of the General union of the students of Montpellier and member of laic and republican Youths.

In 1922, it enters the prefectoral administration, as principal private secretary of the prefect of the Savoy, station very important for its age, under the presidency of Alexandre Millerand.

Of 1925 with 1930 he is sub-prefect of Albertville. It is at the time the youngest sub-prefect of France, under the presidency of Gaston Doumergue.

In September 1926, it Marie with Marguerite Cerruti, which he will divorce two years later, in 1928.

In 1930, he is sub-prefect of Châteaulin in the Finistere. It will attend there local poets like Saint-Pol.-Russet-red with Camaret and max Jacob with Quimper.
He was also illustrator of the morlaisien Tristan Corbière. In parallel, it publishes caricatures and cartoons in the review the Laughter under the pseudonym of Romanin .

In 1932, Pierre Cot politician Radical socialist, appoints it assistant chief of his cabinet to the Foreign affairs in December 1932 under the presidency of Paul Doumer.

In 1933, he is sub-prefect of Thonon-the-Baths and in parallel occupies the function of principal private secretary of Pierre Cot with the ministry for the Air under the presidency of Albert Lebrun.

In 1934 he is sub-prefect of Montargis and general secretary of the prefecture of the Somme to Amiens.

In 1936, it is again named principal private secretary to the ministry for the Air of the Popular front from where it helps the resistant Spanish republicans anti pro-Franco in their sending planes and pilots.

In January 1937 it becomes youngest Préfet of France of Aveyron, with Rodez at the 38 years age.

In 1938, it is Préfet of Charente.

Resistance

In 1939, it is named prefect of Eure-et-Loir to Chartres. Sergeant of reserve, it wants to engage, but the administration obliges it to preserve its post of prefect from where it gets busy to ensure the safety of the population.

It is stopped in June 1940 under the Régime of Vichy by the Germans because it refuses to show a troop of Tirailleur S African of the French Army to have made atrocities towards civilians with Taye, a hamlet close to the Saint-Georges-on-Eure, actually German victims of Bombardement S. Maltreated and locked up for refusal of complicity with the Germans, it tries Suicide R by slicing the throat with a fragment of glass. It avoids the death of little and will keep with life a scar which it will hide under a scarf.

Because of its republican ideas marked on the left like Radical socialist and of its membership of the freemasonry, it is revoked by the Régime of Vichy of the marshal Philippe Pétain the November 2nd 1940 and is placed of availability.

It moves into its family home of Saint-Andiol (Rhone delta) from where, following the Appel of June 18th, 1940 by the general de Gaulle since London, it makes contact and enters the French Résistance.

In September 1941, it joined London while passing by the Spain and the Portugal, by its own means, under the name of Joseph Jean Mercier. It is received by the general de Gaulle with which it make a discussed report of the state of Resistance in France and its in particular financial needs and in armament. Its report will give place to many disputes on behalf of the resistance movements like bearing reached with the actions of information to the profit of the English army, the financing and the supply of weapons to the profit of each one of them.

Misant on the intelligence and the capacities of Jean Moulin, the general de Gaulle charges it with unifying the resistance movements and all their various services (propaganda, information, sabotage, mutual aid, etc) on the French territory and in particular the most important movement Combat directed by Henri Frenay, in order to make of it a secret Armée with the Free French Army completion placed under its orders. With orders of mission, financial means and of direct communication with the general de Gaulle in London, it is parachuted in the Alpilles in the night of January 1st, 1942 to 15 km of Saint-Andiol whom it joined with foot. It takes the evocative pseudonym of Rex in Resistance. November 27th, 1942 is created the Coordination committee of Southern Zone in Collonges with the Gold Mount with an aim of coordinating with communist mobility the 3 principal movements of resistance of the free zone. Communist Jean Moulin and its allies seek - not without evil - to be dominating there on the three chiefs Henri Frenay (Combat), Emmanuel d' Astier of Vigerie (Release-South) and Jean-Pierre Levy (Franc-Tireur).

He uses then his artistic gifts for his cover of merchant of art and opens the art gallery “Romanin” - pseudonym of artist of Jean Moulin- with 22 rue de France with Nice. In February 1943, it turns over to give an account of its mission to London with the general Delestraint, the chief of the Secret Armée commonly chosen by the resistance movements and the de Gaulle general for only directing their military actions under the direct order of this last. Those then regard the recognition of the de Gaulle general and her single delegate Jean Moulin as political leaders of Resistance as being only political and thus premature.

In February 1943, Jean Moulin goes back to London to give an account of its mission to the general de Gaulle which decorates it with the Croix of the Release and secretly like Ministre member of the National committee French names it and alone representing CNF in metropolis.

It turns over to France on March 21st 1943, under the pseudonym of max , charged to create CNR (National council of Resistance), complex task, because there remains always badly recognized by the resistance movements. The first meeting in plenary session of CNR is held with Paris, 48 rue du Four, the May 27th 1943.

He manages not without evil to be made admit as a chief of the CNR which brings together the chiefs of all the groups of French resistance. CNR then represents the unit of the French secret military forces reconstituted with the eyes of allied and legitimacy of France and the general de Gaulle like only chief of this army and political leader of France.

It supports with the communist movements the creation of large the Maquis of Vercors also discussed by the resistance movements as being too important and too vulnerable to undertake effectively actions of Guérilla. This maquis will be actually destroyed by the forces Nazis under bloody conditions at the beginning of 1944.

It is stopped following a denunciation supposed the June 21st 1943 with Caluire-and-To cook (the Rhone), in the suburbs of Lyon in the house of the doctor Dugoujon, where a meeting with the main leaders was held of Resistance. After being identified and being questioned by the chief of the Gestapo Klaus Barbie at the height Montluc of Lyon, it is transferred to the Gestapo from Paris where it is tortured. He dies the July 8th 1943 around Metz, in the Paris-Berlin train which leads it in Germany to be again questioned.

The legend

He was initially buried on February 11th with the Parisian cemetery of the Father-Lachaise, then its ashes were transferred to the the Pantheon, twenty years to commemorate the twentieth birthday of the Release later, the December 19th 1964 under the presidency of the general de Gaulle.

The speech of Andre Malraux

A speech solemn and moving was made at the time of the great official ceremony where the Minister for the Culture, great man of letters, intellectual and philosopher of the French Republic, hero of Resistance and companion of Resistance of Jean Moulin, André Malraux makes enter Jean Moulin to the the Pantheon of the great men of the French Republic. It makes of him on this occasion “the symbol” of heroism French, of all Resistance to him only by associating it with all Resistant French, heroes of the shade, known and unknown, who allowed to release France at the price of their suffering, their life, and their ideology of Freedom. This speech made up and known as by André Malraux belongs to the greatest speeches of the French Republic and Humanism: (the speech made by Andre Malraux during the transfer of ashes of Jean Moulin to the Pantheon).

“ As Leclerc entered to the Invalids, with his procession of exaltation in the sun of Africa and the combat of Alsace, enters here, Jean Moulin, with your terrible procession. With those which died in the cellars without to have spoken, like you; and even, which is perhaps more atrocious, while having spoken; with all striped and all mowed concentration camps, with the last stumbling body of the dreadful files of Night and Fog, finally fallen under the sticks; with the eight thousand Frenchwomen who did not return from the bagnes, with the last died woman with Ravensbrück to have given asylum to the one as of ours. Enter, with the people born of the shade and missing with it - our brothers in the order of the Night… ”

“ It is the funeral march of ashes that here. Beside those of Carnot with the soldiers of year II, of those of Victor Hugo with the Poor wretches, of those of Jaurès taken care by Justice, that they rest with their long procession of disfigured shades. Today, youth, can you think of this man as you would have approached your hands of his poor formless face of the last day, of his lips which had not spoken; this day, it was the face of France… ”

This legendary speech was followed in a masterly and imposing way by the song of the Partisans interpreted by a large choral society in front of the the Pantheon. He was pronounced under conditions making difficult the sound recording and was in particular retransmis on line in many colleges. Recordings were carried out, one can in particular listen to it with the audiothèque of the Center Georges-Pompidou.

Several schools, colleges (Chartres, Brive-the-Strapping woman, Sannois, Villefranche-sur-Saône…), colleges (with Béziers, its birthplace, with Albertville where he was sub-prefect of 1925 to 1930…) and a university (Lyon III) bear the name of Jean Moulin . Its name appears in the first ranks of names of streets in the country.

Jean Moulin became resistant the most famous and more honoured with France. As its biographer Jean-Pierre Azéma explains it, they is only whose practically all French know the name and the face, in particular thanks to its famous monochrome photo, that with the scarf and the fedora. That with the risk to sometimes make forget other large organizers of the underground army, and to relegate in the shade of other heroic martyrs of the clandestine fight such as Pierre Brossolette, Jean Cavaillès or Jacques Bingen. Jean Moulin thus became the symbol and the face even of Resistance.

The portrait of Jean Moulin

The famous photography of Jean Moulin, wearing a hat, realized in black and white, is taken by his/her friend Marcel Bernard in October 1939 with Montpellier below the water tower of Peyrou.

The photographer is a friend of childhood and neighbor, residing at the 4 of the street of Alsace, opposite Field-of-March, with Béziers. Jean Moulin was born with number 6 from the same street. Bernard lives with the n°4 until his death in 1991. By irony of the history, the resistant ones of the Maquis of Fontjun (come from the villages of the surroundings, Capestang, Montady, Puisserguier, etc) were shot on the place of Field-of-March, on June 5th, 1944 by the German occupant.

A source of inspiration

Its history also inspired the scenario writer daN Franck who allowed Yves Boisset to carry out the telefilm Jean Moulin , diffused on France Televisions and rewarded for a FIPA in 2002. Charles Berling interprets resistant French there. The scenario writer Pierre Aknine also carried out a film on the combat of Jean Moulin, heading Jean Moulin, a French business . The film, very discussed on a historical level, is interpreted by Francis Huster, Maruschka Detmers, Micheline Presle and Bernard Fresson (2003).

Controversies

When it came to the meeting from Caluire, Rene Hardy, which had already been stopped by Gestapo, then released, was followed by Gestapo. Some estimate that it was about a treason, others of a fatal imprudence. Certain resistant as Lucie Aubrac tried to assassinate it. Having joined other sectors of Resistance, it passed twice in judgment after the Libération because of this suspicion which weighed on him, but was discharged twice, for the benefit of the doubt.

The controversy is started again during the lawsuit of Klaus Barbie. Its lawyer, Me Jacques Vergès, insinuates that Aubrac betrayed Jean Moulin and makes sign in Barbie a “will”. Some historians and some journalists take again this will on their account or are pressed on documents of the KGB to denounce what they think of being relations between Stalinism and resistance. Today, the disputed theses of these historians were largely refuted: it is not made great credit with the declarations lent to Vergès by Barbie.

It is necessary for example to quote the discussed book of the journalist and historian amateur Gerard Chauvy, appeared in 1997. In spite of the support of Courteous Stephan, academic and specialist in Communism, at the time of the lawsuit in slandering brought by Aubrac, and in spite of the long hesitation of a certain number of historians of the Institute of the history of time present (François Bédarida, Jean-Pierre Azéma, Henry Rousso), much decided without ambiguity against Chauvy and his methods, fascinating part for Aubrac.

Jacques Baynac defended as for him the thesis of one arrest following the work of Gestapo without any denunciation.

In addition, some, like Henri Frenay, chief of the network Combat ( the Enigma Jean Moulin , 1977), or like the journalist with feeling Thierry Wolton ( Great recruitment , 1993), more seriously show Jean Moulin to be a crypto-communist, i.e. to have by its relations in the radical mediums secretly favoured the interests prosovietic in France by in particular diverting the Anglo-American assistance with the resistance movements; one speaks inter alia his bonds with Pierre Cot, itself near to the Communisme, and other sympathizers resulting from CGT, communist resistance movement Front National and Communist party properly-known as which will be excessively represented within CNR (in a ratio of 6 out of 16). Henri Frenay also reproaches him for having wanted to restore within the resistance movements which wanted to be military and apolitical the system of the parties of IIIe République and to have sought to secretly support the “clan” radical crypto-communist in his center with the detriment of the other political sensibilities.

The defenders of Jean Moulin will plead that this one had agreed to be surrounded men come from all horizons. His/her two closer collaborators, his secretary Daniel Cordier and his successor Georges Bidault, come thus at the time one from the French Action royalist, the other of the Democracy-Christian woman; that Jean Moulin would have been like everyone enough being wary towards the Communists, since the episode of the Pacte germano-Soviet, and that he would have rather sought to contain them and to arrange them under the common discipline of a unified Resistance.

To answer various the critics surrounding Jean Moulin, and to contradict the charges of cryptocommunism in particular, its former secretary Daniel Cordier undertook at the end of the years 1970 a biography in six volumes. Refusing the use of the personal memories and the testimonys oral easily vague or deformed by time, Daniel Cordier was based on the files of Jean Moulin in his possession, on a critical patient study of the written documents, and on an effort of re-establishment of the strict chronology of the facts. Published between 1989 ( Jean Moulin, unknown of the Pantheon , T. 1, J.Cl. Slats) and 1999 ( Jean Moulin. The Republic of the catacombs , Gallimard), the sum of Daniel Cordier was greeted by historians anxious to regulate this polemic for its serious, its information new and its qualities of writing and analysis on French interior Résistance, whose he does not seek to gum the asperities and the difficulties.

Decorations

  • Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
  • Companion of the Release - decree of October 17th, 1942 (under the pseudonym of corporal Draper )
  • Military decoration
  • Military Cross 1939-1945
  • Knight of the agricultural Merit
  • Medal commemorative of the war 1914-1918
  • Medal of Physical education
  • Medal of Honor of the Social Security (Ministry of Labor)
  • Medal of the Social Welfare
  • Medal of the Assistance (ministry for the Public health)
  • Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy (1926)
  • Order of Jade (China, 1938)

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