''Mort pour la France'' ( French for "died for France") is a legal expression in France and an honor awarded to people who died during a conflict, usually in service of the country.

Definition

The term is defined in L.488 to L.492 (bis) of the ''Code des pensions militaires d'invalidité et des victimes de guerre''. It applied to members of the

French military The French Armed Forces (french: Forces armées françaises) encompass the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the Gendarmerie of the French Republic. The President of France heads the armed forces as Chief of the Armed Forces. France ...

forces who died in action or from an injury or an illness contracted during the service during the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

s, the

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

and

Algeria War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

s, and fighting in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and the Tunisian War of Independence, and to civilians killed during these conflicts. Both French citizens and volunteers of other citizenship are eligible to honor.

Administration

The words "Mort pour la France" records on the

death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...

. The status is awarded by * minister responsible for veterans and victims of war, or * minister responsible for the merchant marine, or * state minister responsible for national defense. Additionally diploma «Aux morts de la grande guerre, la patrie reconnaissante» is awarded to family of * military man of land or navy forces, who died during First World War, or * military man of land, navy or air forces, or member of Free France / Fighting France (Forces françaises libres, FFL / Forces françaises combattantes, FFC),

French Forces of the Interior The French Forces of the Interior (french: Forces françaises de l'Intérieur) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation ...

(Forces françaises de l'Intérieur, FFI), or 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 ...

, who died during Second World War. Diploma is awarded by minister responsible for veterans and war victims.

Copyright

French copyright law The ''droit d'auteur'' (or French copyright law) developed in the 18th century at the same time as copyright developed in the United Kingdom. Based on the " right of the author" (''droit d'auteur'') instead of on "copyright", its philosophy and te ...

gives a special 30 years extension of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

to creative artists declared "Mort pour la France" over the usual 70 years post mortem (article L. 123-10).

Writers

List of writers officially declared "Mort pour la France". *

Alain-Fournier Alain-Fournier () was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (3 October 1886 – 22 September 1914Mémoi ...

(1914) * Jacques Arthuys (1943) *

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

(1918) *

Victor Basch Basch Viktor Vilém, or Victor-Guillaume Basch (18 August 1863/1865, Budapest – 10 January 1944) was a French politician and professor of germanistics and philosophy at the Sorbonne descending from Hungary. He was engaged in the Zionist move ...

(1944) *

Pierre Brossolette Pierre Brossolette (25 June 1903 – 22 March 1944) was a French journalist, left-wing politician and major hero of the French Resistance in World War II. He ran an intelligence hub of Parisian resistance at the Rue de la Pompe, before servi ...

(1944) * Benjamin Crémieux (1944) * (1914) *

Jacques Decour Jacques Decour (born Daniel Decourdemanche; 21 February 1910, in Paris – 30 May 1942, in Fort Mont-Valérien), was a French writer, Germanist, essayist, translator and resistant fighter, killed by the Nazis. Biography Jacques Decour studied ...

(1942) * (1944) *

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

(1945) * Luc Dietrich (1944) *

Benjamin Fondane Benjamin Fondane () or Benjamin Fundoianu (; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944) was a Romanian and France, French poet, critic and Existentia ...

(1944) *

Maurice Halbwachs Maurice Halbwachs (; 11 March 1877 – 16 March 1945) was a French philosopher and sociologist known for developing the concept of collective memory. Halbwachs also contributed to the sociology of knowledge with his ''La Topographie Legendaire de ...

(1945) *

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...

(1944) *

Régis Messac Régis Messac (2 August 1893 – 1945) was a French essayist, poet and translator. Published works ;Studies * '' Le « Detective Novel » et l'influence de la pensée scientifique'' (1929) ; new edition, corrected and annotated, preface by C ...

(1945) * Léon de Montesquiou (1915) *

Irène Némirovsky Irène Némirovsky (; 11 February 1903 – 17 August 1942) was a novelist of Russian Jewish origin who was born in Kyiv, the Russian Empire. She lived more than half her life in France, and wrote in French, but was denied French citizenship. Arr ...

(1942) *

Georges Politzer Georges Politzer (; 3 May 190323 May 1942) was a French philosopher and Marxist theoretician of Hungarian Jewish origin, affectionately referred to by some as the "red-headed philosopher" (''philosophe roux''). He was a native of Oradea, a ci ...

(1942) *

Charles Péguy Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism. By 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a believing b ...

(1914) *

Louis Pergaud Louis Pergaud (22 January 1882 – 8 April 1915) was a French novelist, war poet, and soldier, whose principal works were known as "Animal Stories" due to his featuring animals of the Franche-Comté in lead roles. His most notable work was the no ...

(1915) * (1914) *

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...

(1944) * (1915) * (1915) *

Georges Valois Georges Valois (real name ''Alfred-Georges Gressent''; 7 October 1878 – February 1945) was a French journalist and national syndicalist politician. He was a member of the French Resistance and died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. ...

(1945) * (1945) *

Jean de la Ville de Mirmont Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (2 December 1886 – 28 November 1914) was a French war poet, who died at the age of 27 defending his country during World War I, at Verneuil. Biography Jean de La Ville de Mirmont was born in Bourdeaux into the Hug ...

(1914) *

Jean Zay Jean Élie Paul Zay (6 August 1904 – 20 June 1944) was a French politician. He served as Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939. He was imprisoned by the Vichy government from August 1940 until he was murdered in 19 ...

(1944) * Raymond Naves ( fr) (1944)

Composers

List of composers officially declared "Mort pour la France". *

Jehan Alain Jehan-Aristide Paul Alain (; 3 February 1911 – 20 June 1940) was a French organist, composer, and soldier. Born into a family of musicians, he learned the organ from his father and a host of other teachers, becoming a composer at 18, and compo ...

(1940) * Joseph Boulnois (1918) *

Émile Goué Émile Goué (13 June 1904 – 10 October 1946) was a French composer. Life Born in Châteauroux (Indre), with a father inspector of primary education, a mother head teacher of a teacher-training school for young girls in Guéret (Creuse) and ...

(1946) *

Fernand Halphen Fernand Gustave Halphen (18 February 1872 – 16 May 1917) was a French Jewish composer. Life and career Fernand Halphen was the son of Georges Halphen, a diamond merchant, and of Henriette Antonia Stern (1836–1905), who was from the Stern ban ...

(1917) *

Maurice Jaubert Maurice Jaubert (3 January 1900 – 19 June 1940) was a French composer.René Vierne René Ambroise Jean Eugéne Vierne (11 March 1878 – 29 May 1918) was a French organist and composer. He was the younger brother of Louis Vierne, who was also a composer.Georges Peignot Georges Louis Jean Baptiste Peignot (June 24, 1872 – September 28, 1915) was a French type designer, type founder, and manager of the G. Peignot & Fils foundry until his death in combat during World War I. Father of four children (includi ...

(1915)

References

External links

Attribution rules
(French) on www.defense.gouv.fr
Mémoire des Hommes
Official web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Mort Pour La France Law of France French copyright law Military history of France Death in France French words and phrases French war casualties

Definition

Administration

Copyright

Writers

Composers

See also

References

External links