Moulin, Jean

Moulin, Jean (1899–1943),French resistance leader who, on behalf of de Gaulle and the Free French, welded the multifarious resistance groups in France into a potent fighting force.

As a prefect of the department of Eure-et-Loire (the youngest prefect in France at that time), Moulin stayed at his post in Chartres when the Germans arrived in the summer of 1940. When they tried to make him sign a report on alleged atrocities by French colonial troops, he preferred to cut his throat. He survived, but was dismissed by Vichy in November 1940 after refusing to sack left-wing mayors. He moved south, adopted a new identity, and in October 1941 arrived in the UK as the accredited representative of three French resistance movements. He met de Gaulle who made him the delegate in France for his French National Committee, and on 1 January 1942 he parachuted into the unoccupied part of France with an assistant and a wireless operator. It was envisaged that for some time to come the main resistance role would be propaganda, and during the next fourteen months Moulin did much for the underground press. But he soon realized that arms would eventually be needed and one of his main achievements was to set up organizations which directed the distribution of weapons parachuted into France by SOE.

Moulin worked at the highest political level (he left leading the resistance in the field to a French general, Charles Delestraint) and there is no doubt that it was through his efforts, formidable charm, and political skill that civil war between the different resistance groups was avoided. ‘Moulin, known in France as Max, carried in SOE the appropriate field name of Rex, for it was he more than any other man—even than de Gaulle himself—who welded the antagonistic fragments of resistance in France into one more or less coherent and disciplined body’ ( M. R. D. Foot, SOE in France, London, 1966, p. 182).

After a short stay in England, Moulin returned to France in March 1943 and formed the National Council for Resistance, bringing on to it representatives from all the main resistance movements including the communists. On 21 June 1943 he was arrested in Lyons and was severely tortured by the Gestapo chief there, Klaus Barbie, but refused to talk. So severe were his injuries that he died while being taken to Germany by train.

Bibliography

Cordier, D. , La Republique des catacombes (Paris, 1999).