Brossolette, Pierre

▪ French journalist

born Jan. 12, 1903, Paris, France

died March 22, 1944, Paris

      a leading member of the French resistance during the German occupation in World War II.

      A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and an ardent socialist, Brossolette was an influential journalist who served under Premier Léon Blum as chief political commentator for the state radio network. An outspoken critic of appeasement policies and of Premier Édouard Daladier, he was forced from his position in 1939, but he continued his campaign in the columns of the socialist journal Le Populaire.

      Brossolette served in the French army in 1940, and then, refusing to write for the collaborationist press, he took an active role in organizing the resistance movement. In April 1942 he managed to visit General Charles de Gaulle (Gaulle, Charles de) in London and became one of his primary advisers. Returning to France, he helped found the National Council of the Resistance.

      Although Brossolette was a lifelong socialist, he sensed the necessity for national cooperation and unity in the face of the Nazi occupation. Thus he helped in the formation of a political movement for reconstruction and liberation around the figure of de Gaulle (later to be called Gaullism). During an attempt to go to London in 1944, he was captured by the German Gestapo. After severe torture he apparently threw himself from his prison window to avoid revealing the crucial information that he possessed.

* * *