Sunday, December 17, 2017

pencil sketch of a French resistance leader in WW II by Dr K Prabhakar Rao

ROBERT BRASILLACH

He was  aFrench journalist, Politician and resistance leader.Mandel was arrested on 8 August 1941 in French Morocco by General Charles Noguès on the orders of Pierre Laval, Prime Minister of the Vichy government. He was conveyed to the Château de Chazeron via Fort du Portalet,[9] where Paul Reynaud, Édouard Daladier and General Maurice Gamelin were also being held prisoner. Churchill tried unsuccessfully to arrange Mandel's rescue. He described Mandel as "the first resister" and is believed to have preferred him over Charles de Gaulle to lead the Free French Forces. Following pressure from the Germans and the Riom Trial, all four were sentenced to life imprisonment on 7 November 1941.In November 1942, after the German Army moved into unoccupied France (Zone libre and took it over (Case Anton, 11 November 1942) to counter the threat from the Allies, who had just landed in North Africa (Operation Torch) the French government at Vichy transferred Mandel and Reynaud to the Gestapo upon their request. The Gestapo deported Mandel to KZ Oranienburg, and then to KZ Buchenwald, where he was held with the French politician Léon Blum.In 1944 the German Ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz suggested to Laval that Mandel, Blum, and Reynaud should be executed by the Vichy government in retaliation for the assassination of Philippe Henriot, Minister of Propaganda, by the Algiers Committee, the Communist Maquis of the Resistance. Mandel was returned to Paris on 4 July 1944, supposedly as a hostage. While being transferred from one prison to another, he was captured by the Milice, the paramilitary force. Three days later, the Milice took Mandel to the Forest of Fontainebleau, where they executed him. He was buried at Passy Cemetery.
ROBERT  Brasillach
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1 comment:

WordsPoeticallyWorth said...

Greetings from the UK. Good luck to you and your endeavours.

Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.