Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont (14 May 1914 – 2 August 2006) was a militant communist who took part in 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 ...

during the

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 opposi ...

, and a French politician. Along with General Leclerc and

Henri Rol-Tanguy Henri Rol-Tanguy (12 June 1908 – 8 September 2002) was a French communist and a leader in the Resistance during World War II. At his death ''The New York Times'' called him ''"one of France's most decorated Resistance heroes"''. Biograp ...

, he accepted the surrender of Dietrich von Choltitz at the Liberation of Paris.

Early years

He was born Maurice Kriegel in Strasbourg to a Jewish family with central European origins. He studied law at the University of Strasbourg, and then became legal adviser to an insurance company after a move to Paris in 1936.

1930s and the outbreak of war

During the period of the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

, Kriegel became a trade union activist. He headed the organisation in the insurance sector of the

Confédération générale du travail The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is ...

(CGT), and he was also active in the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France (MJCF). Not having been called up in 1939 due to ill health, he moved to Toulouse in the unoccupied zone.

Resistance activities

In early 1942, he was approached by leaders of a left-wing resistance organisation, and he went on to play a leading role in setting up an embryonic paramilitary section. During the resistance he adopted the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Valrimont, among others. When arrested in Lyon on 15 March 1942, his knowledge of German as a native of Alsace allowed him to conceal his true identity from his interrogators, and he thus faced only minor charges. On 24 May he escaped from prison with several colleagues and resumed his activities, organising sabotage in factories and opposing the drafting of French labour for the German war effort. By 1944 the resistance had complex coordination structures including a military action committee (Comac) which directed the

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 ...

(FFI). As a member of Comac, Kriegel was at the very top of the resistance. At the moment of the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

, Kriegel supported an immediate internal uprising of the French population. This was in contrast with the attitude of General Charles de Gaulle, whose strategy was tied to close cooperation with the allies. When street fighting broke out in Paris on 19 August, de Gaulle's representatives negotiated a truce with the German commander. Kriegel and

, the communist leader of the FFI in the city, denounced this. When the allied troops led by General Leclerc arrived in the city, Kriegel was one of the three leaders of the resistance who received the surrender of the German military governor of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, on 25 August 1944. Obituary in ''The Guardian'' 18 August 2006
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Complex relationship with PCF

Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont, as he was now known, formally joined the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

(PCF) after the war and was elected to parliament in 1945 to represent an Alsace constituency. From 1947 onward, he was a member of the party's central committee, and was given responsibility for its press bureau. In 1952,

André Marty André Marty (6 November 1886 – 23 November 1956) was a leading figure in the French Communist Party (PCF) for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern ...

and

Charles Tillon Charles Joseph Tillon (3 July 1897 – 13 January 1993) was a French metal worker, Communist, trade union leader, politician and leader of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45). Tillon was born into a working-class family and trai ...

were excluded from the direction of the PCF. Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont voted for their exclusion but later wrote in his memoirs: "When I ask myself questions about my life, it is the only point where I find no excuses." After

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

's 1956 denunciation of the crimes of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, Kriegel tried to get the French communist party to adopt a more liberal line. This resulted in his disgrace, and he left the party in 1961, finding employment as an administrator in the social security system until retirement. In 1995, he was formally rehabilitated by the leader of the Communist party, and in 1997 he stood on the Communist list for the European

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

elections.

Other

Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont was the father of the president of

Haut Conseil à l'intégration Haut may refer to: * ''Haut'' (newspaper), a newspaper published in Luxembourg {{disambiguation ...

(''high council on immigration''), Blandine Kriegel, the father-in-law of journalist

Alexandre Adler Alexandre Adler (23 September 1950 – 18 July 2023) was a French historian, journalist and expert of contemporary geopolitics, the former USSR, and the Middle East. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honour (2002). A Maoist in his youth and then ...

and the brother-in-law of historian Annie Kriegel. He died of a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream ( embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...

at the age of 92 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Early years

1930s and the outbreak of war

Resistance activities

Complex relationship with PCF

Other

References

Further reading