Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac

Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (22 January 1917 – 8 April 2015) was a member of the Free French Forces in World War II and the France Libre organization based in London. Later he served as a civil servant and became known as an historian.^[1] During World War II he directed the Free French propaganda radio broadcasts to Europe.^[2] After the war he helped create France's state-owned publishing house, La Documentation Française.^[2]

Early life

Crémieux was born to a middle class Jewish family in the Colombes suburb of Paris. His political awareness was raised in high school by his uncle Benjamin Crémieux (1888-1944), a literary critic, and through him Crémieux met and was influenced by the anti-authoritarian surrealism of André Malraux and the liberal internationalism of Stefan Zweig. He graduated from the Lycée Condorcet in 1933. But it was first during a school vacation in 1931 that he visited Germany and in subsequent trips saw first-hand the work of the Nazi Party. In 1935 he joined, and became the youngest member of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes (CVIA) which spearheaded the unification of left-wing politics in France.^[3]

Honours

2016: Knight Grand Cross in the Legion of Honour.^[4]

Notes and references