Max Heilbronn dit Harrel, alias Hennequin, born in Paris on December 17, 1902 and died in Paris XVI on May 12, 1998, was a leader of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

and the creator of

Monoprix Monoprix S.A. () is a major French retail chain with its headquarters in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, near Paris. The company's stores combine food retailing with fashion, beauty and home products. History The company was founded in 1932 ...

single-price stores.

Biography

Education and early career

Max Heilbronn was an engineer who graduated from the

École Centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

, class of 1924. Heilbronn married Paulette Bader (1905–1998) in 1926, becoming the son-in-law of

Théophile Bader Théophile Bader (24 April 1864 – 16 March 1942), co-founder of Galeries Lafayette, was a French businessman and art collector whose family was persecuted during the Nazi occupation of France because of their Jewish heritage. Early life Théop ...

, founder of

Galeries Lafayette The Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and othe ...

. In 1927, the couple gave birth to their only daughter, Ginette. In 1932, he launched

in Rouen.

Nazi occupation of France

After the Nazi defeat of France in 1940, Les Galeries Lafayette was "

Aryanized Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...

", that is, all the Jewish owners were removed and replaced by non-Jews. Théophile Bader and his sons-in-laws, Raoul Meyer and Max Heilbronn, all three administrators of the store, as well as 129 Jewish employees were forced to resign. The Bader, Meyer and Heilbronn families were dispossessed of their property. In their place, the Swiss Aubert and the French industrialist Harlachol managed the Galeries Lafayette group. Heilbronn and Meyer joined the Resistance. Heilbronn, a reserve captain in the Railway Engineers, had devised a plan to

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

the French railway network which was being used by the Nazis. Heilbronn and

René Hardy René Hardy (31 October 1911 – 12 April 1987) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Hardy was born in Mortrée, Orne. In spite of having rendered dedicated and valuable service as a member of the resistance group, Combat (F ...

, head of the NAP-fer in the southern zone, put together a plan of action, called the Green Plan, so named because the text was typed on green paper. On June 12, 1943, just after an interview with Hardy and René La Combe, Heilbronn was arrested by the Intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party known as the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

. He was imprisoned in Lyon and then in Compiègne, before being deported to

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

on January 3, 1944. From Buchenwald, he was transported to the

Natzweiler Natzwiller () is a Communes of France, commune in the Bas-Rhin Departments of France, department in Grand Est in northeastern France. History Built in spring 1941 on the territory of the commune, Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp opened fo ...

(Struthof) camp, then to

Erzingen Klettgau (High Alemannic: ''Chleggau'') is a municipality in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the centre of the ''Klettgau'' historical region stretching across the Swiss border into the cantons of Aargau, Schaffha ...

(Natzweiler kommando), and finally to Allach (Dachau kommando) where he was liberated on April 30, 1945.

Post-war

Max Heilbronn was president of Galeries Lafayette from 1945 to 1971. His son-in-law, Etienne Moulin (1912–2004), whom he knew in Buchenwald and who married his daughter Ginette in 1947, succeeded him at the head of the group.

Bibliography

* Max Heilbronn, ''Galeries Lafayette Buchenwald Galeries Lafayette'', Economica, 1989. *

Henri Frenay Henri Frenay Sandoval (1905–1988) was a French military officer and French Resistance member. He was born in Lyon, France, on 11 November 1905, into a Catholic family with a military tradition. He studied the Germanic languages at the Universit ...

, ''La Nuit Finira'', Laffont, 1973. *

Claude Bourdet Claude Bourdet (28 October 1909 – 20 March 1996) was a writer, journalist, polemist, and militant French politician. Peronal life Bourdet was a son of the dramatic author Édouard Bourdet and the poet Catherine Pozzi, was born and died in Pari ...

, ''L'Aventure incertaine'', Stock, 1975. * .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heilbronn, Max The Holocaust in France French Resistance members French business executives Holocaust survivors French Jews