Jacques Doriot | |
|---|---|
 Picture of Doriot during the occupation, 1941 | |
| Leader ofFrench Popular Party | |
| In office 28 June 1936 – 22 February 1945 | |
| Succeeded by | Christian Lesueur |
| Mayor ofSaint-Denis | |
| In office 1 February 1931 – 25 May 1937 | |
| Preceded by | Gaston Venet |
| Succeeded by | Fernand Grenier |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1898-09-26)26 September 1898 |
| Died | 22 February 1945(1945-02-22) (aged 46) |
| Cause of death | Air attack |
| Resting place | Mengen,Germany |
| Political party | French Communist Party(1928–1934) Independent(1934–1936) French Popular Party(1936–1945) |
| Spouse | Madeleine Claire Raffinot |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  France Germany |
| Branch/service |  French Army (1916) Wehrmacht (1941) Waffen-SS (1944) |
| Years of service | 1916–1918 (French Third Republic) 1941–1944 (Nazi Germany) |
| Rank | Oberleutnant (Wehrmacht) Sturmbannführer (Waffen-SS) |
| Unit | Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism |
| Battles/wars | First World War Second World War |
| Awards | Croix de Guerre Iron Cross Second Class War Merit Cross Second Class Eastern Front Medal |
Jacques Maurice Doriot (French:[ʒakdɔʁjo]; 26 September 1898 – 22 February 1945) was a French politician, initially communist, later fascist, before and duringWorld War II.
In 1936, after his exclusion from theFrench Communist Party, he founded theFrench Popular Party (PPF) and took over the newspaperLa Liberté, which took a stand against thePopular Front.
During the war, Doriot was a radical supporter ofcollaboration and contributed to the creation of theLegion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF). He fought personally in German uniform on the Eastern Front, with the rank of lieutenant.[1]
Doriot was born on 26 September 1898 inBresles,Oise, France to Georges Octave and Augustine Diéraert. He moved toSaint Denis, near Paris, at an early age and became a labourer. In 1916, in the midst of World War I, he became a committedsocialist, but his political activity was halted by his joining theFrench Army in 1917. Participating in active combat duringWorld War I, Doriot was captured by enemy troops and remained aprisoner of war until 1918. For his wartime service, especially for rescuing a fellow wounded soldier fromno-mans-land, Doriot was awarded theCroix de guerre.[2]
After being released, he returned to France and in 1920 joined theFrench Communist Party (PCF), quickly rising through the party - within a few years, he had become one of the PCF's major leaders. In 1922 he became a member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of theComintern, and a year later was made Secretary of theFrench Federation of Young Communists. In 1923, Doriot was arrested for violently protestingFrench occupation of the Ruhr Area. He was released a year later, upon being elected to theFrench Chamber of Deputies (theThird Republic equivalent of theNational Assembly) by the people of Saint Denis.
In 1931, Doriot was electedmayor ofSaint Denis.[3] Around this time, he opposed the "social fascism" theory and came to advocate aPopular Front alliance between the Communists and other French socialist parties with whom Doriot sympathized on a number of issues and worried that exclusion would alienate valuable political allies.[4] Although this would soon become official Communist Party policy, at the time it was seen as heretical and Doriot was expelled from the Communist Party in 1934.[5] This expulsion provoked a great sadness in Doriot, but above all a great anger and a thirst for revenge against the PCF leadership.[6]
Still a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Doriot struck back at the Communists who had renounced him: now bitter towards theComintern, his views turned to embrace the French nation, evolving into a 'national' socialism—as opposed to the socialism of theThird International. By now embodying fascist more than socialist ideals, Doriot founded theultra-nationalistParti Populaire Français (PPF) in 1936.[7] Doriot and his supporters were vocal advocates of France becoming organized along the lines ofFascist Italy andNazi Germany and were bitter opponents of Socialist PremierLéon Blum and hisPopular Front coalition.
When France went to war with Germany in 1939, Doriot was mobilized and fought at the front as a sergeant.[8] After the armistice in June 1940, he was demobilized. He became a staunch pro-German and supportedGermany's occupation of northern France in 1940, specifically due to Hitler's anti-Bolshevik policy.[9] Doriot resided incollaborationistVichy France for a time and was made a member of the National Council of Vichy France in January 1941, but he eventually found that the Vichy regime was not nearly as Fascist as he had hoped it would be and moved to occupied Paris, where he espoused pro-German and anti-communist propaganda onRadio Paris.[10] In 1941, he and fellow fascist collaboratorMarcel Déat founded theLégion des Volontaires Français (LVF), a French unit of theWehrmacht.[10]
.jpg)
Doriot fought with the LVF and saw active duty on theEastern Front when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and was awarded theIron Cross in 1943.[11] In his absence leadership of the PPF officially passed to a directorate, although real power came to lie withMaurice-Yvan Sicard.[12] In December 1944, Doriot travelled to Germany and made contact with the former members of the Vichy regime and other collaborators who had gathered together in theSigmaringen enclave.[13] Doriot's PPF struggled to assume a leadership role within the French expatriate community, basing itself inMainau and setting up its own radio station,Radio-Patrie, atBad Mergentheim and publishing its own paperLe Petit Parisien.[14] The PPF was also involved in conducting intelligence and sabotage activities by supplying some volunteers whom the Germans dropped by parachute into liberated France.[15] He was killed on 22 February 1945 while traveling from Mainau to Sigmaringen when his car was strafed by Allied fighter planes. He was buried inMengen.[16]
Doriot married Madeleine Claire Raffinot (17 November 1896 – 3 August 1982) on 20 December 1924.[17] The couple had twin daughters, Jacqueline (23 April 1929 – 20 January 2021) and Madeleine (23 April 1929 – 10 March 2010). Doriot also had a child with his mistress Ginette Garcia[18] (née Dezouche).[19]
