- Jacques de Bernonville
Jacques Dugé de Bernonville (
December 20 ,1897 –April 26 ,1972 ) was a Frenchcollaborationist and senior police officer in theVichy regime in France infamously known as the man who hunted down resistance fighters duringWorld War II .Until 1945
Count Jacques Dugé de Bernonville was born in
Paris to an aristocratic family. Raised amongJesuit s, he was imprisoned several months in 1938, accused of having taken part in "La Cagoule " 's conspiracy, afar right terrorist group. However, he was released because of lack of proof.Following the 1940 defeat of France against
Nazi Germany , Jacques de Bernonville joined the Vichy government and was made a commander of the CollaborationistMilice . Working in conjunction with head of the MiliceJoseph Darnand , de Bernonville hunted down members of the French resistance movement who were almost always summarily executed. As a right-hand man toKlaus Barbie (later convicted forcrimes against humanity ), he was a major participant in the establishment and enforcing of the Vichy regime's program ofanti-Semitic policies that carried out the deportation of thousands of French Jews and other "undesirables" to theDrancy deportation camp en route toAuschwitz and other Germanextermination camp s.Post-war escape to Canada
With the
liberation of France by theAllied Forces , de Bernonville was charged withwar crimes but fled the country. Triedin absentia by a French War Crimes tribunal inToulouse , he was found guilty and condemned to death. Escaping French authorities in 1946, Jacques de Bernonville traveled to New York City and according to historians such as Kevin Henley, professor of history atCollège de Maisonneuve in Montreal, the politically powerfulRoman Catholic priest,Lionel Groulx helped de Bernonville get into Quebec. There, Jacques de Bernonville was welcomed by a significant number of the Quebec nationalist elite but in 1948 Canadian immigration authorities discovered who he was and instituted deportation proceedings. In an attempt to keep de Bernonville in Canada, 143 Quebec notables signed a 1950 petition defending him and stating that he should be allowed to stay. Some of the signers included the secretary general of theUniversité de Montréal ,Camillien Houde , mayor of the city of Montreal, plus two future cabinet ministers in theParti Québécois government,Camille Laurin andDenis Lazure .Faced with a deportation order, Jacques de Bernonville fled again, this time going to
Rio de Janeiro ,Brazil . In 1954 the French government was advised where he was but that country had noextradition treaty with France and he escaped punishment, theSupreme Court of Brazil refusing to extradite him in October 1957. Bernonville remained in Brazil until his murder in 1972, at the hands of his servant's son.Additional reading
*"" –
Yves Lavertu (1995) original French edition: "L'affaire Bernonville: Le Québec face à Pétain et à la Collaboration (1948-1951)" (1994).
*"" -Howard Margolian (2000)See also
*
Collaborationism
*Pursuit of Nazi collaborators
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