Pierre-Antoine Cousteau (18 March 1906 – 17 December 1958) was aFrench journalist,polemicist, andAxis collaborationist. He was the elder brother of theexplorerJacques-Yves Cousteau.
An avid political journalist, Cousteau initially wrote for left-wing editorials, before gradually moving towardsantisemitism andfascism throughout the 1930s, becoming editor ofJe suis partout. After theoccupation of France, Cousteau became a propagandist for theFrench State, under which he advocated for collaboration withNazi Germany and supported theFrench Holocaust. After being held in prison from 1946 to 1953, Cousteau fell seriously ill, and died at age 52 inParis,France.
He was born inSaint-André-de-Cubzac,Gironde, and educated in the United States as well as theLycée Louis-le-Grand. Cousteau served in the military before working as atranslator and ameteorologist and for New York City's Credit Alliance Corporation.[1] He became a journalist forleft-wing papers such asRegards orMonde and was associated withpacifism and theAnti-Stalinist left.[1]
Cousteau abandoned hiscommunism in the early 1930s, and was drawn toantisemitism and authoritarian view, writing forCoup de Patte and thenJe suis partout, becoming editor of the journal in 1932.[1] In this role, he was close toPierre Gaxotte, who converted him to fascism.
He visitedNazi Germany in 1936 withRobert Brasillach andGeorges Blond and thenSpain in 1938 with Brasillach andMaurice Bardèche. While the trips developed his fascist sympathies, his attendance at theNuremberg Rally of 1937 left him with the opinion thatNazism was impressive but not without its flaws.[1]
Cousteau was recalled up to the army in 1939 and captured in 1940, although Brasillach secured his release and he returned toJe suis partout, eventually succeeding Brasillach as political director in 1943.[1] A strong believer incollaboration, he soughtinternment for theJews and justified his stance by stating in 1943 that "We are not opportunists. We remain just plain fascists".[1] His other wartime roles included a spell as editor ofParis-Soir in 1941, service on the general secretariat ofMilice from 1942 and a series of written works for journals such asCombats, the militant journal ofHenry Charbonneau.[1] He was particularly known for both hisantisemitism and hisanti-Americanism. In 1942, he produced the workL'Amérique juive in which he sought to demonstrate theUnited States was controlled byJews who were bent on controlling the world.[2]
In August 1944, he moved toBad Mergentheim, where he helped run a French newspaper and radio station, before ultimately fleeing toSwitzerland. Arrested atInnsbruck, he was condemned to death in November 1946, before the sentence was commuted to life withhard labour.[1] Cousteau would later justify his collaboration by stating: "I wanted a German victory because it represented the last chance of the white man, while the democracies represented the end of the white man".[3]
Released under anamnesty in 1953, he became editor of the extremenationalist journalRivarol, as well as contributing toHenry Coston'sLectures Françaises,Jeune Nation,Charivari,Dimanche-Matin and others. He was also associated with the minorUnion des Intellectuels Indépendants movement.[1] His brother Jacques, whose international profile was growing at the time, had begged Pierre-Antoine to retire from public life following his release from prison, but he refused, insisting that it was a matter of honor that he continue to agitate.[4] In his post-war workLes lois de l'hospitalité he argued in favor of collaboration: "we [the collaborators] did not commit an error of judgement. There were just too many tanks and too many planes against us".[5]
He fell seriously ill in the late 1950s and had to withdraw from politics, requiring regular blood transfusions to survive.[3] He died age 52 inParis.
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