Paul Colin (1895, in

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode () or Sint-Joost-ten-Node (), often simply called Saint-Josse or Sint-Joost, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the Ci ...

– 8 April 1943, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, famous as the leading journalist and editor of the

Rexist The Rexist Party (french: Parti Rexiste), or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic, nationalist, authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle,

collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to t ...

newspapers ''"Le Nouveau Journal"'' and ''"Cassandre"''.

Biography

His father was an important businessman who died when Colin was two. In 1914, Colin started university studies in History and Art History, but had to interrupt them because of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war, he became a journalist and art critic, and then the manager of the Giroux art gallery, located on the avenue des Arts in Brussels. He wrote a number of books on painting, on Belgian and European painting,

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

1930s

In the 1930s, Colin became fascinated by extreme-right movements, both

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and

nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. In September 1939, Colin, along with Robert Poulet, Pierre Daye and ten other journalists (most of them fascists, but including some left-wing pacifists) signed a pro-German manifesto calling for Belgian neutrality in the war. This manifesto has often been claimed to be the starting-point of French-speaking journalistic collaboration in Belgium, though another version claims

Paul-Henri Spaak Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman. Along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer he was a leader in the formation of the i ...

, a socialist minister at the time, was the secret sponsor of the manifesto.

1940s

In 1940, after Belgium was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, Colin founded the Nazi propaganda newspaper ''Le Nouveau Journal.'' The first edition appeared on 1 October of that year. One of Colin's associates, Robert Poulet, had in the meantime secretly met

King Leopold III Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasi ...

's private secretary, Count Capelle, and obtained a tentative royal approval for the project. However, as the war dragged on, German victory became less certain and food rations decreased, more and more Belgians joined the ranks of those who criticized the " New Order". In 1943, various members of the

Belgian Resistance The Belgian Resistance (french: Résistance belge, nl, Belgisch verzet) collectively refers to the resistance movements opposed to the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Within Be ...

, led by Marcel Demonceau, hatched the plan to kill both Colin and the

leader

Léon Degrelle Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle (; 15 June 1906 – 31 March 1994) was a Belgian Walloon politician and Nazi collaborator. He rose to prominence in Belgium in the 1930s as the leader of the Rexist Party (Rex). During the German occupation ...

. Colin was shot dead by a member of this Resistance group, 19-year-old Arnaud Fraiteur. The attempt on the life of Degrelle failed because Demonceau was arrested at his hiding-place in

Ixelles ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Brussels' city centre, it is geographically bisected by the City of Brussels. It is also bordered by the muni ...

together with many associates, British airmen and members of the Belgian London-based Intelligence Service. It later transpired that the group had been infiltrated by a Belgian collaborator posing as "Captain Jackson", who claimed to be a Canadian airman; the infiltrator's real name was

Prosper Dezitter Prosper Dezitter (also known as Prosper de Zitter, alias "the man with the missing finger") was a Belgian collaborator with Nazi Germany in World War II. Dezitter was born in Passendale on September 19, 1893. In May 1913 he fled to Canada after be ...

. He might have helped plan the slaying of Colin in order to gain Demonceau's confidence and thus net as many Resistance and other people in hiding as possible. Fraiteur, Demonceau and many fellow members of the Resistance were later executed by the Germans at

Breendonk Breendonk is a village in the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, with a population 3,000, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp. History Its name stems from the medieval ''Bredene Dunc'' which translates as "wi ...

. After the war, Dezitter was arrested in Germany, extradited, condemned to death, and shot by a firing squad at Ixelles on 17 September 1948.

Bibliography

*''"La peinture belge depuis 1830.''" Brussels, Editions des cahiers de Belgique,1930 *''"Édouard Manet"'', Paris, Floury, 1932 *''"La Peinture européenne au XIXieme siècle: le Romantisme''", id., 1935.

External links

How le Nouveau Journal was started. (in French)

A book on Paul Colin. (in French)

Prosper Dezitter, our own people in the Gestapo (in Dutch)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colin, Paul 1895 births 1943 deaths Male journalists Belgian collaborators with Nazi Germany People from Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Assassinated Nazis Belgian anti-communists Belgian propagandists Nazi propagandists Deaths by firearm in Belgium Assassinated Belgian people People murdered in Belgium 20th-century Belgian journalists Belgian magazine founders Executed Belgian collaborators with Nazi Germany

Biography

1930s

1940s

See also

Bibliography

External links