Robert Brasillach

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Robert Brasillach (31 March 1909 – 6 February 1945) was a French author and journalist who was executed for advocating collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Born in Perpignan, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure and then became a novelist and literary critic for the Action Française of Charles Maurras. After the 6 February 1934 crisis in the Place de la Concorde, Brasillach openly supported fascism.

He became an editor of Je suis partout, an antisemitic paper. A soldier in 1940, he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for several months after the fall of France. He was freed in early 1941 and returned to his editorial duties at Je suis partout. He wrote in favor of the collaboration and Nazi policies. In November 1942 he supported the German takeover of the unoccupied zone under the Vichy government, because it "reunited France". He called for the death of left-wing politicians and in the summer of 1944 signed the call for the summary execution of all members of the French Resistance. After the liberation of Paris, Brasillach hid in an attic but gave himself up on September 14 when he heard that his mother had been arrested. He spent the next five months in prison.

Brasillach went to trial in Paris on 19 January 1945 and was sentenced to death. The sentence caused an uproar in French literary circles and even some of Brasillach's political opponents protested against it. Resistance member and author François Mauriac circulated a petition to Charles De Gaulle to commute the sentence. De Gaulle did not comply and Brasillach was executed by firing squad in Montrouge. He was buried in the cimetière de Charonne in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris.

[edit] Selected novels

  • 1934 L'Enfant de la nuit (Child of the Night)
  • 1937 Comme le temps passe (How The Time Passes By)
  • 1939 Les Sept Couleurs (The Seven Colors)

[edit] References

[edit] External links