François Duprat | |
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| Born | 26 October 1940 |
| Died | 18 March 1978(1978-03-18) (aged 37) Caudebec-en-Caux,Normandy, France |
| Cause of death | Assassination by car bomb |
| Known for | Cofounder of theFront National |
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François Duprat (French pronunciation:[fʁɑ̃swadypʁa]; 26 October 1940 – 18 March 1978) was a French essayist and politician, a founding member of theFront National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978. Duprat was one of the main architects in the introduction ofHolocaust denial in France.
François Duprat was born on 26 October 1940,[1] inAjaccio,Corsica, and was educated inBayonne,Toulouse, at the prestigiousLycée Louis-le-Grand inParis. He graduated in history at theSorbonne, earning a diploma of higher studies in history in 1963.[2]
Acommunist in his teenage years,[2] François Duprat moved to the far right and became a member of theJeune Nation and theFederation of Nationalist Students (FEN). Strongly opposed to Algerian independence during theAlgerian War (1954–62), Duprat was a member of theOrganisation armée secrète. After the March 1962Evian agreements granted independence to Algeria, he traveled toKatanga, supporting the secession led byMoise Tshombe. He became Tshome's Director ofPropaganda on Radio-Katanga.
Thereafter, Duprat returned to France, where he became a member ofOccident, which carried out street brawls against theMaoists and other left-wing students. However, he was excluded in 1967, accused of being apolice informant.[3] Duprat then took part in theOrdre Nouveau movement (New Order), and became theeditor ofL'Action européenne (European Action) and of theRevue d'histoire du fascisme (History Review of Fascism), which introduced in FranceHolocaust denial thesis supported by far right circles in the English-world.[4]
Duprat, along withMaurice Bardèche, a significant role in far-rightanti-Zionist movement inFrance. In 1967, he led a rally for the Liberation of Palestine. Duprat's anti-Zionism is fundamentally antisemitic, with him blaming all Jews for human rights abuses committed byIsrael. This position was in the minority, withDominique Venner criticizing Duprat for his support of "communist Arabs" and arguing that Israel should not be confused with "the Jewish International."[5]
In 1972, François Duprat co-founded theNational Front (FN) headed byJean-Marie Le Pen, and was part of its political bureau until his death in 1978. He represented the hard-liners of the party, and directed theGroupes nationalistes révolutionnaires (National Revolutionary Groups), alongside Alain Renault.
François Duprat sawhistory as a political weapon, stating in May 1976:
We must not let to our opponents, Marxists andrégimistes,[note 1] the monopoly of the historical representation of men, facts and ideas. Because History is a wonderful war instrument, and it would be useless to deny that one of the important reasons of our political hardships resides in the historical exploitation and the systematic deformation of the nationalist experiences of the past... It is in order to answer these needs... that a team of intellectuals, professors and nationalists have created theRevue d'histoire du fascisme."[6]
Duprat wrote a book onfar right movements in France from 1940 to 1944, during theCollaborationistregime of Vichy. He also created a number of magazines and political reviews, including theCahiers d'histoire du fascisme (History Notebooks on Fascism) and theCahiers Européens-Notre Europe (European Notebooks – Our Europe), which also circulated denialist books or far right literature exalting theThird Reich.
Duprat was killed on 18 March 1978, in a car-bomb explosion. His wife Jeanine was also injured in the attack, losing the use of her legs. Duprat was finishing a book entitledArgent et Politique (Money and Politics), concerning the funding of right-wing and far-right political parties, at the time of his death. Although there are many theories about Duprat's assassination, historianMichel Winock notes that neither the perpetrators nor their motives have ever been identified;[7] the police investigation into Duprat's assassination was inconclusive.
A Jewish "Remembrance Commando" and a "Jewish Revolutionary Group" immediately claimed responsibility for the murder. The perpetrators of the bombing were never found.Jean-Pierre Bloch, director of theLICRAanti-racist NGO, condemned the killing.
InGénération Occident: de l'extrême droite à la droite, Frédéric Charpier alleged that the assassination could have been commissioned by a rival far right organisation. He recalled that Duprat had been excluded in 1967 from Occident after allegations that he was a police informant. According toRoger Faligot and Pascal Krop, Duprat was killed for his links with theSyrian government.[8]
Shortly before the assassination, journalist Patrice Chairoff published the names and addresses of numerous far-right leaders in France; one of the addresses happened to be Duprat's private residence.[9]His funeral atthe church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet was attended by the leading lights of the nationalist right, which included the National Front, thePFN,monarchists andright-wing solidarists.[10][11]
Le National, a far right political review, honoured Duprat in April 1978 as one of France's leaders of "the 'revisionist' historical school" who had introduced the French public to "one of the most explosive booklets" ofRichard Harwood,[12] member of theBritish National Front and author of the negationist pamphlet"Did Six Million Really Die?" TheCahiers européens – Notre Europe diffused this pamphlet starting in February 1976. The anonymous author of this text had been identified byPierre-André Taguieff as likely being André Delaporte.[13]
Each year,Jean-Marie Le Pen paid his respects at Duprat's gravesite at thecimetière de Montmartre. At the 30th anniversary of Duprat's death, LePen paid tribute to his being a "martyr to the cause of freedom of thought", "a fighter", and "politician right to the tips of his fingers".[14]
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