Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance leader who succeeded in unifying the main networks of the Resistance in World War II. He served as the first president of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) from 27 May 1943 until he was killed less than two months later.
A prefect of the Aveyron (1937–1939) and Eure-et-Loir (1939–1940) departments, Moulin is remembered today for his leadership within the Resistance under Charles de Gaulle's government-in-exile in London. He was tortured by German officer Klaus Barbie while in Gestapo custody. His death was registered at Metz railway station as he was being transferred to Germany.
In 1964, Moulin's remains were transferred to the Panthéon. Culture Minister André Malraux spoke on the occasion in what would become one of the most famous speeches in French history.
Early life
Jean Moulin was born at 6 Rue d'Alsace in Béziers, Hérault, son of Antoine-Émile Moulin and Blanche Élisabeth Pègue. He was the grandson of an insurgent opposing the coup d'état of 2 December 1851. His father was a lay teacher at the Université Populaire and a Freemason at the lodge Action Sociale.
Moulin was baptised on 6 August 1899↑ « Jean Moulin » [archive], sur saint-andiol.fr. in the church of Saint-Vincentin in Saint-Andiol (Bouches-du-Rhône), the village his parents came from. He spent an uneventful childhood in the company of his brother, Joseph, and his sister, Laure. Joseph died of acute peritonitis in 1907.:27 Throughout his early years, Moulin was an average student, including at the Lycée Henri IV in Béziers. One of his report cards states that "he would be an excellent student, if he were ever to start working.":33
In 1917, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier, where he was not a brilliant student though he did finish his legal studies with a diploma.:33 However, thanks to the influence of his father, he was appointed as attaché to the cabinet of the prefect of Hérault under the presidency of Raymond Poincaré.
Military service during World War I Moulin was mobilised on 17 April 1918 as part of the age class of 1919, the last class to be mobilised in France. He was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Regiment of Montpellier. At the beginning of September, after an accelerated training, he headed with his regiment to the front in the Vosges, where he was posted to the village of Socourt.:43
His regiment was preparing to go to the front lines as part of the attack planned by Foch for 13 November, but the Armistice was signed on 11 November.:43
Although Moulin did not fight directly on the front lines, he was nevertheless in a position to observe the horrors of war. He saw its aftermath on the battle fields and the devastation of villages. He helped to bury the war dead in the region around Metz.:47 He wrote home expressing his shock at seeing the starved state of British prisoners of war who had just been freed. Nevertheless, nothing in the documented history of Jean Moulin's experience during World War I hinted at what his role would be during World War II.:34–35
While still enlisted after the War, he was posted successively to Seine-et-Oise, Verdun and Chalon-sur-Saône. He worked as a carpenter, a digger and later a telephonist for the 7th and 9th Engineer Regiments.
He was de-mobilised in November and, on 4 November 1919, resumed his post as attaché to the préfecture of Hérault, in Montpellier.:52
Interwar years After World War I, Moulin resumed his studies of law. His position as attaché at the préfecture of Hérault allowed him to finance his university studies while also providing a useful apprenticeship in politics and government. He obtained his law degree in July 1921:52. He then entered the prefectural administration as chief of staff to the deputy of Savoie in 1922 and then sous-préfet of Albertville from 1925 to 1930.
After his proposal of marriage to Jeanette Auran was rejected, Moulin, then aged 27, married a 19-year-old professional singer, Marguerite Cerruti, in the town of Betton-Bettonet in September 1926. The marriage did not last long. Cerruti quickly became bored and Moulin responded by offering her further singing lessons in Paris, where she disappeared for two days.Jean Moulin le sacrifice du héros, La Voix du 14e Biographer Patrick Marnham cites one of the causes of the divorce being Moulin's mother-in-law, who had wanted to prevent her estate passing into Moulin's control upon Cerruti's 21st birthday. Moulin attempted to hide this rejection by excusing his wife's disappearances and not informing his family until after his divorce.Patrick Marnham: Army of the Night: The Life and Death of Jean Moulin, Legend of the French Resistance I.B. Tauris, 2015, Google Books, accessed 21 November 2020
Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Châteaulin, Brittany in 1930. At the same time, he published political cartoons in the newspaper Le Rire under the pseudonym Romanin. He also illustrated books by the Breton poet Tristan Corbière, including an etching for La Pastorale de Conlie, Corbière's poem about Camp Conlie where many Boon soldiers died in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. He also made friends with the Breton poets Saint-Pol-Roux in Camaret and Max Jacob in Quimper.
In 1932, Pierre Cot, a Radical-Socialist politician, named Moulin his second in command or chef adjoint when he was serving as Foreign Minister under Paul Doumer's presidency. In 1933, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Thonon-les-Bains, parallel to his function of head of Cot's cabinet in the Air Ministry under President Albert Lebrun. On 19 January 1934, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Montargis, but he did not assume the office and chose to remain under Cot. In the first half of April, Moulin was appointed to the Seine préfecture and, on 1 July, he took his place as secretary general in Somme, in Amiens. In 1936, he was once more named chief of cabinet of Cot's Air Ministry of the Popular Front. In that capacity, Moulin was involved in Cot's efforts to assist the Second Spanish Republic by sending it planes and pilots. For the Istres-Damas-Le Bourget race, he presented the winners with their prize; Benito Mussolini's son was one of those winners. He became France's youngest préfet in the Aveyron département, based in the commune of Rodez, in January 1937. It has been claimed that during the Spanish Civil War, Moulin assisted with the shipment of arms from the Soviet Union to Spain. A more commonly accepted version of events is that he used his position in the French air ministry to deliver planes to the Spanish Republican forces.
Experience as prefect during the early part of World War II In January 1939, Moulin was appointed prefect of the Eure-et-Loir department, based in Chartres. After war against Germany was declared, he asked multiple times to be demoted because "[his] place is not at the rear, at the head of a rural departement".Francis Zamponi, Nelly Bouveret et Daniel Allary, Jean Moulin : mémoires d'un homme sans voix, Éditions du Chêne, 1999, 144 p. ().Johnson, Douglas. "The Mystery of Jean Moulin", Los Angeles Times, 1 September 2002. Against the advice of the Minister of the Interior, he asked to be transferred to the military school of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, near Paris. The minister forced him to return to Chartres, where the War quickly made its way to him in the form of German air strikes and columns of distressed and sometimes wounded refugees. As the Germans approached Chartres, he wrote to his parents, "If the Germans – who are capable of anything – make me say dishonorable words, you already know, it is not the truth".Francis Zamponi, Bouveret et Allary 1999, p. 75. In mid-June, German troops entered Chartres.
Moulin was arrested by the Germans on 17 June 1940 because he refused to sign a false declaration that three Senegalese tirailleurs had committed atrocities, killing civilians in La Taye. In fact, those civilians had been killed by German bombings.Raffael Scheck, Une saison noire : Les massacres de tirailleurs sénégalais, mai–juin 1940, Editions Tallandier, 2007, p. 121.
Beaten and imprisoned because he refused to comply, Moulin attempted suicide. The suicide attempt did not succeed because he was discovered by a guard and taken to a hospital for treatment.Clinton, Alan Jean Moulin, 1899–1943 The French Resistance and the Republic, London: Macmillan, 2002, p. 91.The Devil's Agent: Life, Times and Crimes of Nazi Klaus Barbie books.google.ie, accessed 21 November 2020
Because he was a Radical, he was dismissed by the Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Pétain on 2 November 1940, along with other left-wing préfets. He then began writing his diary, First Battle, in which he relates his resistance against the Nazis in Chartres, which was later published at the Liberation and prefaced by de Gaulle.
The Resistance Having decided not to collaborate, Moulin left Chartres for his parents' home town, Saint-Andiol, Bouches-du-Rhône, and joined the French Resistance, specifically, the organisation Free France.Daniel Cordier, Jean Moulin – La République des Catacombes, Gallimard, p. 62. Under the name Joseph Jean Mercier, he went to Marseille, where he met other résistants, including Henri Frenay and Antoine Sachs.
Moulin travelled to London in September 1941 after passing through Spain and Portugal. He was received on 24 October by Charles de Gaulle, who wrote about Moulin, "A great man. Great in every way".↑ Francis Zamponi, Bouveret et Allary 1999, p. 98.
Moulin summarised the state of the French Resistance to de Gaulle. Part of the Resistance considered him too ambitious, but de Gaulle had confidence in his network and skills. He gave Moulin the assignment of co-ordinating and unifying the various Resistance groups, a difficult mission that would take time and effort to accomplish.Riviera at War: World War II on the Côte d'Azur. On 1 January 1942, Moulin parachuted into the Alpilles and met with the leaders of the resistance groups, under the codenames Rex and Max:
Henri Frenay (Combat) Emmanuel d'Astier (Libération) Jean-Pierre Lévy (Francs-tireurs) Pierre Villon (Front national, not to be confused with the later political party of the same name) Pierre Brossolette (Comité d'action socialiste)
He succeeded to the extent that the first three of these resistance leaders and their groups came together to form the United Resistance Movement (Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, MUR) in January 1943. The next month, Moulin returned to London, accompanied by Charles Delestraint, who led the new Armée secrète, which grouped together the MUR's military wings. Moulin left London on 21 March 1943, with orders to unify the French resistance by forming the National Resistance Council (Conseil national de la Résistance); CNR). Again, this was a difficult task since the other resistance movements, besides the three already in the MUR, wanted to retain their independence.
Creation of the Conseil National de la Résistance Moulin succeeded in this task by obtaining unanimous adoption of a unified ‘Program’ and recognition of Charles de Gaulle as their leader by disparate elements of the French resistance, including by various resistance units as well as by outlawed labour unions and political parties. Because he was known as a left-wing republican, he also succeeded in obtaining the cooperation of the Communist resistance groups, which had been reluctant to accept de Gaulle as their leader. The unifying Program was set forth in a document called the 'Program of the National Council of the Resistance.'