Daniel Moulin Popular Books

Daniel Moulin Biography & Facts

Jean Moulin (French: [ʒɑ̃ mu.lɛ̃]; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and resistant who succeeded in unifying the main networks of the French Resistance, a unique act in Europe. He served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months later. A prefect in Aveyron (1937–1939) and Eure-et-Loir (1939–1940), he is remembered today as one of the main heroes of the French Resistance and for his efforts to unify it under Charles de Gaulle. He was tortured by German officer Klaus Barbie while in Gestapo custody. His death was registered at Metz railway station. Early life Jean Moulin was born at 6 Rue d'Alsace in Béziers, Hérault, son of Antoine-Émile Moulin and Blanche Élisabeth Pègue. He was the grandson of an insurgent opposing the coup d'état of 2 December 1851. His father was a lay teacher at the Université Populaire and a Freemason at the lodge Action Sociale. Moulin was baptised on 6 August 1899 in the church of Saint-Vincentin in Saint-Andiol (Bouches-du-Rhône), the village his parents came from. He spent an uneventful childhood in the company of his brother, Joseph, and his sister, Laure. Joseph died after an illness in 1907. At Lycée Henri IV in Béziers, Jean was an average student. In 1917, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier, where he was not a brilliant student. However, thanks to the influence of his father, he was appointed as attaché to the cabinet of the prefect of Hérault under the presidency of Raymond Poincaré. Military service during World War I Moulin was mobilised on 17 April 1918 as part of the age class of 1919, the last class to be mobilised in France. He was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Regiment of Montpellier. At the beginning of September, after an accelerated training, he headed with his regiment to the front in the Vosges, where he was posted in the village of Socourt.:43. His regiment was preparing to go to the front lines as part of the attack planned by Foch for November 13, but the Armistice was signed on November 11:43. Although Moulin did not fight directly on the front lines, he was nevertheless in a position to observe the horrors of war. He saw its aftermath on the battle fields, the devastation of villages and the state of prisoners of war. He helped to bury the war dead in the region around Metz.:47. While still enlisted after the War, he was posted successively to Seine-et-Oise, Verdun and Chalon-sur-Saône. He worked as a carpenter, a digger and later a telephonist for the 7th and 9th Engineer Regiments. He was de-mobilised in November and, on 4 November 1919, immediately resumed his post as attaché at the préfecture of Hérault, in Montpellier:52. Interwar years After World War I, Moulin resumed his studies of law. His position as attaché at the préfecture of Hérault allowed him to finance his university studies while also providing a useful apprenticeship in politics and government. He obtained his law degree in July 1921:52. He then entered the prefectural administration as chief of staff to the deputy of Savoie in 1922 and then sous-préfet of Albertville from 1925 to 1930. After his proposal of marriage to Jeanette Auran was rejected, Moulin, then aged 27, married a 19-year-old professional singer, Marguerite Cerruti, in the town of Betton-Bettonet in September 1926. The marriage did not last long. Cerruti quickly became bored and Moulin responded by offering her further singing lessons in Paris, where she disappeared for two days. Biographer Patrick Marnham cites one of the causes of the divorce being Moulin's mother-in-law, who had wanted to prevent her estate passing into Moulin's control upon Cerruti's 21st birthday. Moulin attempted to hide this rejection by excusing his wife's disappearances and not informing his family until after his divorce. Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Châteaulin, Brittany in 1930. At the same time, he published political cartoons in the newspaper Le Rire under the pseudonym Romanin. He also illustrated books by the Breton poet Tristan Corbière, including an etching for La Pastorale de Conlie, Corbière's poem about Camp Conlie where many Boon soldiers died in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. He also made friends with the Breton poets Saint-Pol-Roux in Camaret and Max Jacob in Quimper. In 1932, Pierre Cot, a Radical-Socialist politician, named Moulin his second in command or chef adjoint when he was serving as Foreign Minister under Paul Doumer's presidency. In 1933, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Thonon-les-Bains, parallel to his function of head of Cot's cabinet of in the Air Ministry under President Albert Lebrun. On 19 January 1934, Moulin was appointed sous-préfet of Montargis, but he did not assume the office and chose to remain under Cot. In the first half of April Moulin was appointed to the Seine préfecture and, on 1 July, he took his place as secretary general in Somme, in Amiens. In 1936, he was once more named chief of cabinet of Cot's Air Ministry of the Popular Front. In that capacity, Moulin was involved in Cot's efforts to assist the Second Spanish Republic by sending it planes and pilots. For the Istres-Damas-Le Bourget race, he presented the winners with their prize; Benito Mussolini's son was one of those winners. He became France's youngest préfet in the Aveyron département, based in the commune of Rodez, in January 1937. It has been claimed that during the Spanish Civil War, Moulin assisted with the shipment of arms from the Soviet Union to Spain. A more commonly-accepted version of events is that he used his position in the French air ministry to deliver planes to the Spanish Republican forces. Experience as Prefect during the early part of World War II In January 1939, Moulin was appointed prefect of the Eure-et-Loir department, based in Chartres. After war against Germany was declared, he asked multiple times to be demoted because "[his] place is not at the rear, at the head of a rural departement". Against the advice of the Minister of the Interior, he asked to be transferred to the military school of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, near Paris. The minister forced him to return to Chartres, where the War quickly made its way to him in the form of German air strikes and columns of distressed and sometimes wounded refugees. As the Germans approached Chartres, he wrote to his parents, "If the Germans — who are capable of anything — make me say dishonorable words, you already know, it is not the truth". In mid-June, German troops entered Chartres. Moulin was arrested by the Germans on 17 June 1940 because he refused to sign a false declaration that three Senegalese tirailleurs had committed atrocities, killing civilians in La Taye. In fact, those civilians had been killed by German bombings. Beaten and imprisoned because he refused to comply, Moulin attempted suicide by cutting his own throat with a piece of broken glass. This act left him w.... Discover the Daniel Moulin popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Daniel Moulin books.