Georges Mandel
Encyclopedia
Georges Mandel was a French politician, journalist, and French Resistance
leader.
, Yvelines
, was the son of a tailor. His family was Jewish, and had left Alsace
to preserve their French citizenship when Alsace-Lorraine
was annexed by the German Empire
at the end of the Franco-Prussian War
in 1871.
, the paper of Émile Zola
, Georges Clemenceau
, and other defenders of Alfred Dreyfus
, during the Dreyfus Affair
. Clemenceau brought Mandel into politics when he was Minister of the Interior. Mandel also helped Clemenceau control the press and the trade union
movement during the First World War, described as "Clemenceau's right-hand man"
Mandel was an economic conservative
and an outspoken opponent of Nazism
and Fascism
. In the 1930s, he played a similar role to Winston Churchill
in the United Kingdom, highlighting the dangers posed by Adolf Hitler
. He opposed Pierre Laval
's plan to partition Ethiopia
following its invasion by Benito Mussolini
's Italy (the Second Italo–Abyssinian War of 1935-1936). Mandel also became a strong advocate of a military alliance with the Soviet Union and opposed the Munich Agreement
.
from Gironde
in 1919. He, in September that year, was delegated to try to draw the government out of its noncommittal attitude towards the bastardized system of proportional representation
passed by both houses of parliament earlier in the year. He lost his seat when the Cartel des Gauches
swept the 1924 elections but returned to office in 1928 and, by 1932, had become the Chairman of the Chamber's universal suffrage committee, which eventually led to votes for women, regardless of the fact that it was an anathema to the Senate
.
In 1934, Mandel entered the government as Minister of Posts
(1934–1936) and oversaw the first official television transmission in French
. During the 1936 Albert Sarraut
government, Mandel served as both Minister of Posts and High Commissioner for Alsace and Lorraine
. After the fall of the Popular Front
government, he served from 1938 as Minister of Overseas France and her Colonies
until 18 May 1940, when Premier Paul Reynaud
appointed him, briefly, as Minister of the Interior.
should fight an offensive war. Mandel was accused by some on the right of being a warmonger placing his Jewish ancestry above France's interests.
Mandel opposed the Armistice
with the rapidly advancing Germans. On June 16, in Bordeaux
, British General Edward Spears, Churchill's military liaison officer, offered Mandel the chance to leave on his plane, together with Charles de Gaulle
, but Mandel declined, saying: "You fear for me because I am a Jew. Well, it is just because I am a Jew that I will not go tomorrow; it would look as though I was afraid, as if I was running away".
Mandel sought to persuade the President of the Republic
, Albert Lebrun
, the Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate
, and as many members of the Cabinet as possible to travel to French North Africa
, to continue the fight against the Germans. Ultimately though, only 25 other deputies and just one senator embarked with Mandel on the Massilia on 21 June, including Pierre Mendès France and the former Popular Front
education minister, Jean Zay
, both of whom had Jewish backgrounds like Mandel. Most of those on the ship were Socialists or Radicals.,
Mandel was arrested on 8 August 1941 in Morocco
by General Charles Nogues on Laval's orders, and was conveyed to the Château de Chazeron
, where Paul Reynaud, Édouard Daladier
and General Maurice Gamelin
were also being held prisoner. Churchill, who described Mandel as "the first resister
" and is believed to have preferred him over Charles de Gaulle
to lead the Free French Forces
, tried unsuccessfully to arrange his rescue. Following pressure from the Germans, all four were sentenced to life imprisonment
on November 7, 1941, following trials in Riom
.
In November 1942, Mandel and Reynaud were given over to the Gestapo
after the Germany Army moved into unoccupied France to counter the threat from the Allies that had just landed in North Africa
. Mandel was deported to Germany, first to Oranienburg
then to Buchenwald
, where he was held with Léon Blum
. In 1944 the German Ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz
'suggested' to Laval that Mandel, Blum, and Reynaud, should be shot by the French government at Vichy in retaliation for a collaborationist who had been shot by the Algiers Committee. Mandel was returned to Paris on July 4, 1944, supposedly as a hostage. While being transferred from one prison to another he was captured by the Milice
.
Three days later, the Milice took him to the Forest of Fontainebleau
, where he was murdered in retaliation for the assassination
of the French Minister of Propaganda
, Philippe Henriot
, by members of the Communist Maquis
. Laval was appalled and protested that he could not condone the execution: "I have no blood on my hands...and no responsibility for these events". He added that the members of the Cabinet were unanimous "in favour of refusing to hand over any hostages in future and to condone reprisals of this nature".
A monument to Mandel's memory is set up near his place of execution, alongside the road linking Fontainebleau to Nemours
.
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
leader.
Biography
Born Louis George Rothschild in ChatouChatou
Chatou is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center...
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
, was the son of a tailor. His family was Jewish, and had left Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
to preserve their French citizenship when Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
was annexed by the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
at the end of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
in 1871.
Early career
Mandel began working life as a journalist for L'AuroreL'Aurore
L’Aurore was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola’s “J'Accuse”, concerning the Dreyfus Affair. It was published by eventual Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.- External links:* Digitized issues of...
, the paper of Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
, and other defenders of Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, during the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
. Clemenceau brought Mandel into politics when he was Minister of the Interior. Mandel also helped Clemenceau control the press and the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement during the First World War, described as "Clemenceau's right-hand man"
Mandel was an economic conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and an outspoken opponent of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. In the 1930s, he played a similar role to Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in the United Kingdom, highlighting the dangers posed by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. He opposed Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval was a French politician. He was four times President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government, signing orders permitting the deportation of...
's plan to partition Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
following its invasion by Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Italy (the Second Italo–Abyssinian War of 1935-1936). Mandel also became a strong advocate of a military alliance with the Soviet Union and opposed the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
.
Inter-war period
He was elected to the Chamber of DeputiesChamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
from Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
in 1919. He, in September that year, was delegated to try to draw the government out of its noncommittal attitude towards the bastardized system of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
passed by both houses of parliament earlier in the year. He lost his seat when the Cartel des Gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
swept the 1924 elections but returned to office in 1928 and, by 1932, had become the Chairman of the Chamber's universal suffrage committee, which eventually led to votes for women, regardless of the fact that it was an anathema to the Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
.
In 1934, Mandel entered the government as Minister of Posts
Minister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones (France)
The Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, to which was later added the charge of Telephones , was, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of the French Postal Service and development of the national telecommunication system.The position was occasionally combined with Minister of...
(1934–1936) and oversaw the first official television transmission in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. During the 1936 Albert Sarraut
Albert Sarraut
Albert-Pierre Sarraut was a French Radical politician, twice Prime Minister during the Third Republic.Sarraut was born in Bordeaux, Gironde, France.He was Governor-General of French Indochina, from 1912 to 1919....
government, Mandel served as both Minister of Posts and High Commissioner for Alsace and Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
. After the fall of the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
government, he served from 1938 as Minister of Overseas France and her Colonies
Minister of Overseas France
The Minister of Overseas France is a cabinet member in the Government of France responsible for overseeing French overseas departments and territories .The position is currently held by Brice Hortefeux, who is also the Minister of the Interior...
until 18 May 1940, when Premier Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
appointed him, briefly, as Minister of the Interior.
German invasion
In September 1939, after the outbreak of the German-Polish War, Mandel argued that the French ArmyFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
should fight an offensive war. Mandel was accused by some on the right of being a warmonger placing his Jewish ancestry above France's interests.
Mandel opposed the Armistice
Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)
The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany and France...
with the rapidly advancing Germans. On June 16, in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, British General Edward Spears, Churchill's military liaison officer, offered Mandel the chance to leave on his plane, together with Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, but Mandel declined, saying: "You fear for me because I am a Jew. Well, it is just because I am a Jew that I will not go tomorrow; it would look as though I was afraid, as if I was running away".
Mandel sought to persuade the President of the Republic
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
, Albert Lebrun
Albert Lebrun
Albert François Lebrun was a French politician, President of France from 1932 to 1940. He was the last president of the Third Republic. He was a member of the center-right Democratic Republican Alliance .-Biography:...
, the Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate
French Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president.The Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly; debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally enjoy less media coverage.-History:France's first...
, and as many members of the Cabinet as possible to travel to French North Africa
French colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
, to continue the fight against the Germans. Ultimately though, only 25 other deputies and just one senator embarked with Mandel on the Massilia on 21 June, including Pierre Mendès France and the former Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
education minister, Jean Zay
Jean Zay
Jean Zay is a French politician born in Orléans on 6 August 1904 and assassinated 20 June 1944 by the miliciens in Molles . He was the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939....
, both of whom had Jewish backgrounds like Mandel. Most of those on the ship were Socialists or Radicals.,
Capture, detention, and death
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
by General Charles Nogues on Laval's orders, and was conveyed to the Château de Chazeron
Château de Chazeron
The Château de Chazeron is a castle situated in the commune of Loubeyrat in the French département of Puy-de-Dôme, north-west of Châtel-Guyon....
, where Paul Reynaud, Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier was a French Radical politician and the Prime Minister of France at the start of the Second World War.-Career:Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse. Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck and large shoulders and determined...
and General Maurice Gamelin
Maurice Gamelin
Maurice Gustave Gamelin was a French general. Gamelin is best remembered for his unsuccessful command of the French military in 1940 during the Battle of France and his steadfast defense of republican values....
were also being held prisoner. Churchill, who described Mandel as "the first resister
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
" and is believed to have preferred him over Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
to lead the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
, tried unsuccessfully to arrange his rescue. Following pressure from the Germans, all four were sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
on November 7, 1941, following trials in Riom
Riom
Riom is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-History:Until the French Revolution, Riom was the capital of the province of Auvergne, and the seat of the dukes of Auvergne. The city was of Gaulish origin, the Roman Ricomagus...
.
In November 1942, Mandel and Reynaud were given over to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
after the Germany Army moved into unoccupied France to counter the threat from the Allies that had just landed in North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. Mandel was deported to Germany, first to Oranienburg
Oranienburg
Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.- Geography :Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.- Division of the town :...
then to Buchenwald
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
, where he was held with Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
. In 1944 the German Ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz
Otto Abetz
Dr. Heinrich Otto Abetz was the German ambassador to Vichy France during World War II.-Early years:Abetz was born in Schwetzingen on May 26, 1903. He was the son of an estate manager, who died when Otto was only 13...
'suggested' to Laval that Mandel, Blum, and Reynaud, should be shot by the French government at Vichy in retaliation for a collaborationist who had been shot by the Algiers Committee. Mandel was returned to Paris on July 4, 1944, supposedly as a hostage. While being transferred from one prison to another he was captured by the Milice
Milice
The Milice française , generally called simply Milice, was a paramilitary force created on January 30, 1943 by the Vichy Regime, with German aid, to help fight the French Resistance. The Milice's formal leader was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, though its chief of operations, and actual leader, was...
.
Three days later, the Milice took him to the Forest of Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, where he was murdered in retaliation for the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of the French Minister of Propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, Philippe Henriot
Philippe Henriot
Philippe Henriot was a French politician.Moving to the far right after beginnings in Roman Catholic conservatism in the Republican Federation, Henriot was elected to the Third Republic's Chamber of Deputies for the Gironde département in 1932 and 1936...
, by members of the Communist Maquis
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...
. Laval was appalled and protested that he could not condone the execution: "I have no blood on my hands...and no responsibility for these events". He added that the members of the Cabinet were unanimous "in favour of refusing to hand over any hostages in future and to condone reprisals of this nature".
A monument to Mandel's memory is set up near his place of execution, alongside the road linking Fontainebleau to Nemours
Nemours
Nemours is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Geography:Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c...
.
External links
- Mandel on "Alsatian Judaism" (in French)