René Bousquet

René Bousquet (11 May 1909 – 8 June 1993) was a high-ranking French civil servant, who served as secretary general of the Vichy regime police from May 1942 to the 31 December 1943.

Biography

René Bousquet was born to a radical-socialist notary in Montauban. After Law studies, he began his career as chief of the cabinet of the _fr. "préfet" for Tarn-et-Garonne.

Youth

In March 1930, he and a friend became national heroes as they personally saved dozens of people from drowning during floods in the South-West of France. He was awarded the Legion of Honour and the _fr. "Médaille d'or des belles actions" ("Golden medal for fine deeds").

Bousquet became protégé of Maurice Sarraut, radical-socialist senator and CEO of _fr. "La Dépêche du Midi", and Albert Sarraut, deputy, president of the Council and minister. Bousquet was detached to the Presidency of the Council to head the technical service in charge of the reconstruction of the flooded Southern regions.

Aged only 22, he became second of the cabinet of Pierre Cathala, then minister of the Interior. In 1933, Bousquet was promoted to "sous-préfet", and in 1935, he became general director of the cabinet of the minister for Agriculture. The next year, Bousquet was given responsibility for the central files of the National Security.

In April 1938, Albert Sarraut, then Minister of the Interior, made him _fr. "sous-préfet" for Vitry-le-François (Marne). In 1939, he became general secretary of the _fr. préfecture for Châlons-sur-Marne, and eventually _fr. "préfet" in 1940 after the Armistice.

Second World War

Aged 31, he became the youngest regional _fr. préfet in September 1941. Because of his radical-socialist background, he was subject to the hatred of _fr. "Je suis partout". He managed to help war prisoners to escape, and to lighten the economic toll of Germany on the Marne.

In 1942, Admiral François Darlan offered him the Ministry of Food and agriculture, which Bousquet twice refused.

In April 1942, as the "Schutzstaffel" was taking over security duties in the Occupied Zone, Pierre Laval made Bousquet general secretary to Police. Bousquet was given permanent credentials to sign on behalf of the head of State. Bousquet managed to obtain some autonomy for the French police from German authority by promising to collaborate with them. Bousquet also concentrated all police services under his personal authority, suppressing the branch led by Darquier de Pellepoix, general commissary to Jewish affairs.

Bousquet also negotiated the "Oberg-Bousquet" deal, presented to all regional _fr. préfets on the 8 August 1942, which recognised the autonomy of the French police and gendarmerie, which were not compelled to provide hostages, nor to hand their prisoner to German services. Nevertheless, three days later, 70 hostages were required from the French in retaliation for the murder of 8 Germans.

On the 2 July 1942, Bousquet and Karl Oberg prepared the arrests known as the "Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv". Bousquet personally canceled orders protecting some categories of people from arrests, notably children under 18 and parents with children under 5. After the arrests, some bishops and cardinals protested; Bousquet threatened to cancel tax privileges for catholic schools.

Under the pretext of not separating families, Pierre Laval ordered that Jewish children under 16 be included in deportation convoys, thus surpassing the requirements of the Nazis. Bousquet obliged, personally settling that children under 2 years also be included. Children were actually deported separately from their parents.

In January 1943, he organised with Karl Oberg a massive raid in Marseille, known as the Battle of Marseille. During this repressive operation, the French police assisted the German police, in particular in the expulsion of 30,000 people from the Old Port, and the subsequent destruction of this neighborhood, considered as too dangerous and as a "terrorist nest" by the German police, because of its winding, small streets. Bousquet eagerly proposed his services during this operation. The French police controlled the identity of 40,000 people, and the operation succeeded in sending 2,000 Marseillese people to the extermination camps. The operation also encompassed the expulsion of an entire neighborhood (30,000 persons) before its destruction. For this occasion, SS Karl Oberg, in charge of the German Police in France, made the trip from Paris, and transmitted to Bousquet orders directly received from Himmler himself. It is a notable case of the French police's willful collaboration with the Nazis. [ Maurice Rajsfus, _fr. "La Police de Vichy. Les Forces de l'ordre françaises au service de la Gestapo, 1940/1944", Le Cherche Midi éditeur, 1995. Chapter XIV, "La Bataille de Marseille", pp.209-217 fr icon]

In April 1943, Bousquet met with Heinrich Himmler. Himmler declared himself "impressed by Bousquet's personality", mentioning him as a "precious collaborator in the framework of police collaboration".

At the time, Bousquet was also councillor to Pierre Laval, along with Jean Jardin and Charles Rochat. With the BBC calling for his murder, Bousquet was also an object of hatred for his fellow collaborationists, such as Joseph Barthélémy, minister of Justice.

On the 2 December 1943, Maurice Sarraut was murdered by men of the Milice. Bousquet was set on arresting the culprit, and the Milice required from Berlin that Bousquet be fired. After ordering releases and destroying his archives, Bousquet resigned, on the 31 December 1943. He was replaced by Joseph Darnand, leader of the Milice.

Put in the reserve of the civil corps, Bousquet was under surveillance for a dozen of days in a villa in Neuilly, before driving to Germany in a car lent by Karl Oberg.

In the first semester 1944, Bousquet was a favourite target of the collaborationist press, which accused him of having served in the Vichy administration only to favour the Resistance. ["Mr Bousquet, ex-general secretary for the Police, is at Fresne. It had to be so. Of course, it had to be so. But it should have began by being so. But... Mr Bousquet (from the Sarraut gang) was the protégé of hard-line republicans and in spite of being the main responsible for the Maquis, he resigned his functions under congratulations of the outmost indecency" — _fr. « M. Bousquet, qui fut secrétaire général pour la Police est à Fresnes. Cela devait finir ainsi. Bien sûr, cela devait finir ainsi. Mais cela eût du commencer ainsi. Seulement voilà... M. Bousquet (du gang Sarraut) était le protégé des républicains musclés et bien qu'il fût le principal responsable du maquis, il abandonna ses fonctions avec des félicitations de la plus parfaite indécence. », "Je suis partout", 21 April 1944] His cabinet director, Jean-Paul Martin, also helped some Resistance networks.

Bousquet was in Bavaria at the time of the German surrender. He came back in France as a "deported person". He met with Laval to help him prepare for his trial. Bousquet spent part of the night before Laval's execution with him.

Post-war

René Bousquet was the last French to be tried by the _fr. "Haute Cour", in 1949. He was acquitted of the accusation of "compromising the interests of the National defence", but automatically declared guilty of _fr. "Indignité nationale" for his involvement in the government of Vichy. He was given the minimal sentence of five years of "Dégradation nationale", a measure immediately lifted for "having actively and sustainably participated in the resistance against the occupier".

Bousquet was kept out of the French public service, but made a career at the _fr. "Banque d'Indochine" and in newspapers. Touvier met with François Mitterrand through Jean-Paul Martin, who was Bousquet's former collaborator in Vichy, and at the time Mitterrand's director of cabinet as he was minister of over-sea territories. [Jean-Paul Martin had rendered important services to the French Resistance, notably saving François Mitterrand from arrest by the Gestapo at the end of 1943. Unlike Jean Leguay and René Bousquet, Jean-Paul Martin was never accused by French Justice nor by families of deported people. ( _fr. Franz-Olivier Giesbert, "François Mitterrand, une vie", éd. du Seuil, « Points », pp. 160-161) ]

In 1957, the "Conseil d'État" gave back his Legion of Honour, and he was amnistied on the 17 January 1958. Bousquet then started a political career for the legislative elections of 1958, as a candidate for the 3rd circonscription of the Marne. He was supported by the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance ; his second was Hector Bouilly, a radical-socialist general councillor. Bousquet obtained less than 10% of the votes.

After Jean Baylet's death in 1959, Bousquet sat on the Council of administration of _fr. "La Dépêche du Midi". He supported the candidacy of Mitterrand in 1965, and observed an anti-Gaullist editorial line. Bousquet quit in 1971, and the tone of the newspaper softened.

In 1974, Bousquet supported and helped finance Mitterrand against Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. [Mitterrand later said that Bousquet was financing all the most prominent left-wing politicians from the 50s to the 70s, including Pierre Mendès France] Bousquet was familiar to numerous other personalities such as Antoine Pinay, Bernard Cornut-Gentille, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Edgar Faure and Maurice Faure. He sat at the administration council of UTA.

After Mitterrand's election in the presidential election in 1981, Bousquet met him at the Élysée to "talk about politics". In 1986, as accusations cast on Bousquet started to grow more credible, he and Mitterrand stopped seeing each other. The parquet général de Paris closed the case by sending it to a Court which was no longer in existence. This stirred outrage ; attorneys for the International Federation of Human Rights declared that there was a "political decision at the highest levels to prevent the Bousquet affair from developing". In 1989, Serge Klarsfeld and his _fr. "association des Fils et Filles des déportés juifs de France", the _fr. "National Federation of deportees and internees, Resistants and Patriots" and the _fr. "Ligue des droits de l'homme" filled a complaint against Bousquet for Crime against humanity, for the deportation of 194 children. In 1991, Bousquet was indicted by Justice.

On 8 June 1993, Bousquet was shot dead by a mentally unstable person.

References

See also

*Battle of Marseille (22-24 January 1943)

Bibliography

_fr. fr|La vraie vie de René Bousquet] (L'Express du 28/09/1990)
* [http://golox.chez.tiscali.fr/html/bousquet.htm _fr. Une biographie détaillée]
* [http://www.jeanbonhomme.com/archives/depeche.pdf _fr. Une histoire détaillée de La Dépêche et de René Bousquet écrite par Jean Bonhomme, ancien vice-président de l'Assemblée Nationale
* Dissertation by Simon Kitson, [http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter8/interviews/filetodownload,27676,en.pdf] http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter8/interviews/filetodownload,27676,en.pdf