Editing François Mitterrand (section)

==Second World War==
François Mitterrand's actions during [[World War II]] were the cause of much controversy in France during the 1980s and 1990s.

===Prisoner of War: 1940–1941===
Mitterrand was near the end of his national service when the war broke out. He fought as an infantry sergeant and was injured and captured by the Germans on 14 June 1940.<ref name=":0" /> He was held prisoner at [[Stalag]] IXA near Ziegenhain (today part of [[Schwalmstadt]], a town near [[Kassel]] in [[Hesse]]). François Mitterrand became involved in the social organisation for the POWs in the camp.{{Citation needed|date=January 2016}} He claims this, and the influence of the people he met there, began to change his political ideas, moving him towards the left.<ref>{{cite book |first=François |last=Mitterrand |title=Mémoires interrompus |editor-first=Odile |editor-last=Jacob | language=fr |date=1996}}</ref> He had two failed escape attempts in March and then November 1941 before he finally escaped on 16 December 1941, returning to France on foot.{{Citation needed|date=December 2012}} In December 1941 he arrived home in the [[zone libre|unoccupied zone]] controlled by the French. With help from a friend{{Citation needed|date=January 2016}} of his mother, he got a job as a mid-level functionary of the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]], looking after the interests of POWs. This was very unusual for an escaped prisoner, and he later claimed to have served as a spy for the [[Free France|Free French Forces]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Mitterrand : une histoire de Français|last=Jean |first=Lacouture |date=1998 |publisher=Editions du Seuil |isbn=9782020307383 |location=Paris|pages=102|oclc=40398759}}</ref>

===Work in France under the Vichy administration: 1941–1943===
Mitterrand worked from January to April 1942 for the [[Légion française des combattants|''Légion française des combattants et des volontaires de la révolution nationale'']] (Legion of French combatants and volunteers of the national revolution) as a civil servant on a temporary contract. François Mitterrand worked under [[Jean-Paul Favre de Thierrens]] who was a spy for the British secret service. He then moved to the ''[[Commissariat au reclassement des prisonniers de guerre]]'' (Service for the Reorientation of POWs). During this period, François Mitterrand was aware of Thierrens's activities and may have helped in his [[disinformation]] campaign.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} At the same time, he published an article detailing his time as a POW in the magazine ''France, revue de l'État nouveau'' (the magazine was published as propaganda by the Vichy Regime).<ref>reprinted in ''Politique I'', in 1978.</ref>

[[File:François Mitterrand 1942.jpg|thumb|Mitterrand (right) with [[Philippe Pétain]] on 15 October 1942]]
François Mitterrand has been called a "{{lang|fr|Vichysto-résistant}}" (an expression used by the historian Jean-Pierre Azéma to describe people who supported Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]], the head of the Vichy Regime, before 1943, but subsequently rejected the Vichy Regime).<ref>Robert Belot in ''La Résistance sans De Gaulle'', éd. Fayard, 2006, et Henry Rousso in ''l'Express'' n° 2871, du 13 juillet 2006.</ref>

From spring 1942, he met other escaped POWs {{ill|Jean Roussel (politician)|fr|Jean Roussel (homme politique)|lt=Jean Roussel}}, Max Varenne, and Dr. {{ill|Guy Fric|fr}}, under whose influence he became involved with the resistance. In April, François Mitterrand and Fric caused a major disturbance in a public meeting held by the collaborator [[Georges Claude]]. From mid-1942, he sent false papers to POWs in Germany{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} and on 12 June and 15 August 1942, he joined meetings at the Château de Montmaur which formed the base of his future network for the resistance.<ref>Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', op. cit., pp. 75/79 et Franz-Olivier Giesbert, ''François Mitterrand, une vie'', éd. du Seuil, "Points", 1996, pp. 77/79</ref> From September, he made contact with [[Free France|Free French Forces]], but clashed with {{ill|Michel Cailliau|fr}}, General [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s nephew (and de Gaulle's candidate to head-up all POW-related resistance organizations).<ref>Pierre Péan, ''Une jeunesse française'', op. cit., pp. 217/218 et Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', op. cit., p. 81</ref> On 15 October 1942, François Mitterrand and Marcel Barrois (a member of the resistance deported in 1944) met Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]] along with other members of the ''Comité d'entraide aux prisonniers rapatriés de l'Allier'' (Mutual Assistance Committee for Repatriated POWs of the Allier Department).<ref>a photograph taken at this meeting is on the cover of Pierre Péan's book. Marcel Barrois is in the photo.</ref> By the end of 1942, François Mitterrand met [[Pierre de Bénouville|Pierre Guillain de Bénouville]], an old friend from his days with ''[[La Cagoule]]''. Bénouville was a member of the resistance groups ''[[Combat (French Resistance)|Combat]]'' and ''[[Noyautage des administrations publiques]]'' (NAP).

In late 1942, [[Case Anton|the non-occupied zone was invaded by the Germans]]. Mitterrand left the Commissariat in January 1943, when his boss {{ill|Maurice Pinot|fr}}, another {{lang|fr|vichysto-résistant}}, was replaced by the collaborator André Masson, but he remained in charge of the ''centres d'entraides''. In the spring of 1943, along with [[Gabriel Jeantet]], a member of Marshal Pétain's cabinet, and [[Simon Arbellot]] (both former members of La Cagoule), François Mitterrand received the [[Order of the Francisque]] (the honorific distinction of the Vichy Regime).

Debate rages in France as to the significance of this. When François Mitterrand's Vichy past was exposed in the 1950s, he at first denied having received the Francisque (some sources say he was designated for the award, but never received the medal because he went into hiding before the ceremony took place).<ref name="Glasbert">"autumn 1943", from: Franz-Olivier Giesbert, François Mitterrand ou la tentation de l'histoire, Éditions du Seuil, 1977 {{ISBN|2-02-004591-5}}, chap. 5, p.49.</ref> Socialist Resistance leader [[Jean Pierre-Bloch]] says that Mitterrand was ordered to accept the medal as cover for his work in the resistance.<ref>[[Jean Pierre-Bloch]], ''De Gaulle ou le temps des méprises'' (pp. 216/218) "C'était sur notre ordre que François Mitterrand était resté dans les services de prisonniers de Vichy. Lorsqu'il avait été proposé pour la francisque, nous avions été parfaitement tenus au courant; nous lui avions conseillé d'accepter cette "distinction" pour ne pas se dévoiler".</ref> [[Pierre Moscovici]] and [[Jacques Attali]] remain skeptical of Mitterrand's beliefs at this time, accusing him of having at best a "foot in each camp" until he was sure who the winner would be. They noted his friendship with [[René Bousquet]] and the wreaths he was said to have placed on Pétain's tomb in later years (see below) as examples of his ambivalent attitude.<ref>Jacques Attali, ''C'était François Mitterrand'', Fayard, 2005</ref>

In 1994, while President of France, Mitterrand maintained that the roundup of Jews who were then deported to death camps during the war was solely the work of "Vichy France", an entity distinct from France: "The Republic had nothing to do with this. I do not believe France is responsible."<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/17/world/chirac-affirms-france-s-guilt-in-fate-of-jews.html| title=Chirac Affirms France's Guilt in Fate of Jews| newspaper=The New York Times| date=17 July 1995| last1=Simons| first1=Marlise| access-date=28 August 2017| archive-date=7 December 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207075618/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/17/world/chirac-affirms-france-s-guilt-in-fate-of-jews.html| url-status=live}}</ref> This position was rejected by President [[Jacques Chirac]] in 1995 who stated that it was time that France faced up to its past. He acknowledged the role of the state – "4,500 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders [who] obeyed the demands of the Nazis" – in [[The Holocaust in France|the Holocaust]].<ref name="nytimes.com"/> Chirac added that the "criminal madness of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French State".<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35188755| title=France opens WW2 Vichy regime files| work=[[BBC News]] | date=28 December 2015| access-date=20 July 2018| archive-date=9 November 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109073634/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35188755| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://elysee.fr/elysee/elysee.fr/francais/interventions/discours_et_declarations/1995/juillet/allocution_de_m_jacques_chirac_president_de_la_republique_prononcee_lors_des_ceremonies_commemorant_la_grande_rafle_des_16_et_17_juillet_1942-paris.2503.html Allocution de M. Jacques CHIRAC Président de la République prononcée lors des cérémonies commémorant la grande rafle des 16 et 17 juillet 1942 (Paris)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413170546/http://elysee.fr/elysee/elysee.fr/francais/interventions/discours_et_declarations/1995/juillet/allocution_de_m_jacques_chirac_president_de_la_republique_prononcee_lors_des_ceremonies_commemorant_la_grande_rafle_des_16_et_17_juillet_1942-paris.2503.html |date=13 April 2009 }}, Président de la république</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jacqueschirac-asso.fr/fr/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Allocution-Vel-dhiv.pdf |title=Allocution de M. Jacques CHIRAC Président de la République prononcée lors des cérémonies commémorant la grande rafle des 16 et 17 juillet 1942 (Paris) |work=jacqueschirac-asso |date=16 July 1995 |access-date=17 July 2014 |language=fr |archive-date=24 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724134623/http://www.jacqueschirac-asso.fr/fr/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Allocution-Vel-dhiv.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

President [[Emmanuel Macron]] was even more specific as to the State's responsibility for the 1942 [[Vel' d'Hiv Roundup]] of 13,000 Jews for deportation to concentration camps. It was indeed "France that organized the roundup, the deportation, and thus, for almost all, death."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macron-hosts-netanyahu-condemns-anti-zionism-as-anti-semitism/2017/07/16/dfba544a-ca1f-40f9-82e6-98575393798c_story.html|title=Macron hosts Netanyahu, condemns anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=19 July 2017|archive-date=1 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201185333/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macron-hosts-netanyahu-condemns-anti-zionism-as-anti-semitism/2017/07/16/dfba544a-ca1f-40f9-82e6-98575393798c_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40622845| title=Israel PM mourns France's deported Jews| work=[[BBC News]] | date=16 July 2017| access-date=20 July 2018| archive-date=5 December 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205143331/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40622845| url-status=live}}</ref> It was done by "French police collaborating with the Nazis", he said on 16 July 2017. "It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness. Yes, it’s convenient, but it is false. We cannot build pride upon a lie."<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/17/france-macron-denounces-state-role-holocaust-atrocity-paris-1942| title='France organised this': Macron denounces state role in Holocaust atrocity| newspaper=[[The Guardian]] | date=17 July 2017| agency=Associated Press| access-date=17 July 2017| archive-date=24 October 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024143216/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/17/france-macron-denounces-state-role-holocaust-atrocity-paris-1942| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/world/europe/macron-israel-holocaust-antisemitism.html| title=Macron Denounces Anti-Zionism as 'Reinvented Form of Anti-Semitism'| newspaper=The New York Times| date=17 July 2017| last1=Goldman| first1=Russell| access-date=17 July 2017| archive-date=28 January 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128202318/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/world/europe/macron-israel-holocaust-antisemitism.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

===Full engagement in resistance: 1943–1945===
Mitterrand built up a resistance network,{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} composed mainly of former POWs. The POWs National Rally (''{{ill|Rassemblement national des prisonniers de guerre|fr}}'', RNPG) was affiliated with General [[Henri Giraud]], a former POW who had escaped from a German prison and made his way across Germany back to the Allied forces. In 1943 Giraud was contesting with de Gaulle for the leadership of the [[French Resistance]].

From the beginning of 1943, Mitterrand had contacts with a powerful resistance group called the ''[[Organisation de résistance de l'armée]]'' (ORA),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_aqtAAAAQBAJ|title=Mitterrand. A Study in Ambiguity|last=Short|first=Philip|publisher=Bodley Head|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4481-9189-5|location=London|author-link=Philip Short|access-date=17 October 2020|archive-date=30 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130174441/https://books.google.com/books?id=_aqtAAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> organised by former French military personnel. From this time on, François Mitterrand could act as a member of the ORA,<ref>Pierre Péan, op. cit., p. 302</ref> moreover he set up his own RNPG network with Pinot in February and he obtained funding for his own network. In March, François Mitterrand met [[Henri Frenay]], who encouraged the resistance in France to support François Mitterrand over Michel Cailliau.<ref>Pierre Péan, op. cit., pp. 309/310</ref> 28 May 1943, when François Mitterrand met with Gaullist {{ill|Philippe Dechartre|fr}}, is generally taken as the date François Mitterrand split with Vichy.<ref>[http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/mitt/dossier.asp?ida=418472 Patrick Rotman et Jean Lacouture, "le roman du pouvoir"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930230243/http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/mitt/dossier.asp?ida=418472 |date=30 September 2007 }}, ''L'Express''</ref> According to Dechartre, the meeting on 28 May 1943 was set up because "there were three movements [of ''Résistance'':] […] the Gaullist, the communist, and one from support centers […] hence I was assigned the mission to prepare what would be called afterwards the merger [of the three movements]."<ref name=":0" />

During 1943, the RNPG gradually changed from providing false papers to information-gathering for [[Free French Forces|France libre]]. Pierre de Bénouville said, "François Mitterrand created a true spy network in the POW camps which gave us information, often decisive, about what was going on behind the German borders."<ref>Franz-Olivier Giesbert, ''François Mitterrand, une vie'', p. 94. "François Mitterrand avait réussi à mettre sur pied un véritable réseau de renseignement dans les camps. Grâce aux prisonniers de guerre, nous avons pu prendre connaissances d'informations, parfois décisives, sur ce qui se passait derrière les frontières"</ref> On 10 July François Mitterrand and Piatzook (a militant communist) interrupted a public meeting in the [[Salle Wagram]] in Paris. The meeting was about allowing French POWs to go home if they were [[Service du travail obligatoire|replaced by young French men forced to go and work in Germany]] (in French this was called "''la relève''"). When André Masson began to talk about "''la trahison des gaullistes''" (the Gaullist treason), François Mitterrand stood up in the audience and shouted him down, saying Masson had no right to talk on behalf of POWs and calling ''la relève'' a "''con''" (i.e., something stupid). Mitterrand avoided arrest as Piatzook covered his escape.<ref>On 12 July 1944 [[Maurice Schumann]] (la voice of the Free French) recounted this event on BBC radio.</ref>

In November 1943, the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' raided a flat in [[Vichy]], where they hoped to arrest François Morland, a member of the resistance.<ref>Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', op. cit., pp. 97 et 99</ref> "Morland" was François Mitterrand's cover name. He also used Purgon, Monnier, Laroche, Captain François, Arnaud et Albre as cover names. The man they arrested was [[Pol Pilven]], a member of the resistance who was to survive the war in a concentration camp. François Mitterrand was in Paris at the time.

Warned by his friends, Mitterrand escaped to London aboard a [[Westland Lysander|Lysander]] plane on 15 November 1943 (piloted by then-[[Squadron Leader]] [[Lewis Hodges]]). He promoted his movement to the British and American Authorities, but he was sent to [[Algiers]], where he met de Gaulle, by then the uncontested leader of the Free French. The two men clashed, de Gaulle refused to jeopardize the Resistance by including a movement that gathered information from POWs.<ref name="Franz-Olivier Giesbert 1996, p. 100">Franz-Olivier Giesbert, ''François Mitterrand, une vie'', éd. du Seuil, 1996, p. 100</ref><ref>Charles de Gaulle, ''Mémoires de guerre – L'Unité : 1942-1944'' (tome II)</ref> Later Mitterrand refused to merge his group with other POW movements if de Gaulle's nephew Cailliau was to be the leader.<ref name="Franz-Olivier Giesbert 1996, p. 100"/> Under the influence of Henri Frenay, de Gaulle finally agreed to merge his nephew's network and the RNPG with Mitterrand in charge.<ref>Pierre Péan book pp. 364/365</ref> Thus the RNPG was listed in the French Force organization from spring 1944.

Mitterrand returned to France by boat via England. In Paris, the three Resistance groups made up of POWs (Communists, Gaullists, RNPG) finally merged as the POWs and Deportees National Movement (''{{ill|Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre et déportés|fr}}'', MNPGD) and Mitterrand took the lead. In his memoirs, he says that he had started this organisation while he was still officially working for the Vichy Regime. From 27 November 1943, Mitterrand worked for the [[Bureau central de renseignements et d'action]].<ref>Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', tome 1, p. 102</ref> In December 1943 François Mitterrand ordered the execution of Henri Marlin (who was about to order attacks on the "[[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]]") by Jacques Paris and Jean Munier, who later hid out with François Mitterrand's father.

After a second visit to London in February 1944, Mitterrand took part in the liberation of Paris in August; he took over the headquarters of Commissariat général aux prisonniers de guerre (general office for POW, the ministry he was working for), immediately he took up the vacant post of secretary general of POWs. When de Gaulle entered Paris following the [[Liberation of Paris|Liberation]], he was introduced to various men who were to be part of the provisional government. Among them was François Mitterrand, when they came face to face, de Gaulle is said to have muttered: "You again!" He dismissed François Mitterrand 2 weeks later.

In October 1944, Mitterrand and [[Jacques Foccart]] developed a plan to liberate the POW and concentration camps. This was called operation ''Vicarage''. On the orders of de Gaulle, in April 1945 François Mitterrand accompanied General Lewis as the French representative at the liberation of the camps at [[Kaufering concentration camp|Kaufering]] and [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]. By chance Mitterrand discovered his friend and member of his network, [[Robert Antelme]], suffering from [[typhus]]. Antelme was restricted to the camp to prevent the spread of disease, but François Mitterrand arranged for his "escape" and sent him back to France for treatment.<ref>Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Français, éd. Seuil, 2000. The book is quoted on [http://www.fabriquedesens.net/Robert-Antelme-signataire-du La Fabrique de sens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010230744/http://www.fabriquedesens.net/Robert-Antelme-signataire-du |date=10 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Entretiens inédits François Mitterrand –|first=Marguerite|last= Duras|author-link=Marguerite Duras|publisher= Sonores}} {{ill|Frémeaux & Associés|fr}}, 2007 [http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=2087&product_id=834&category_id=69 en ligne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807030431/https://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=2087&product_id=834&category_id=69 |date=7 August 2020 }}</ref>