Pierre Firmin Pucheu (27 June 1899 – 20 March 1944) was a French industrialist,
fascist and member of the
Vichy government
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
. He became after his marriage the son-in-law of the Belgian architect
Paul Saintenoy.
Early years
The son of a tailor from southwest France, Pucheu was born in
Beaumont-sur-Oise
Beaumont-sur-Oise (, literally ''Beaumont on Oise'') is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. The classical cellist Jean-Henri Levasseur (1764–1823) was born in Beaumont-sur-Oise.
Population
Notable p ...
and won a scholarship to the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, S ...
in Paris, where he was a contemporary of both
Robert Brasillach
Robert Brasillach (; 31 March 1909 – 6 February 1945) was a French author and journalist. Brasillach was the editor of '' Je suis partout'', a nationalist newspaper which advocated fascist movements and supported Jacques Doriot. After the libera ...
and
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...
. Initially intending to follow the path of a writer himself, he became enamoured of capitalism in Paris and determined instead to enter the business world.
[P. Webster, ''Petain's Crime'', London, Pan Books, 2001, p. 126] He was ultimately drawn to the steel industry and eventually came to head up one of the largest monopolies, the Cartel d'Acier.
Initially showing little real interest in politics, his interest was sparked by the
6 February 1934 crisis
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
and he became associated first with the
Croix-de-Feu
, logo = Croix de Feu.svg
, logo_size = 200px
, leader1_title = President
, leader1_name = François de La Rocque
, foundation = 11 November 1927
, dissolution = 10 January 1936
, successor = F ...
and then with
Jacques Doriot
Jacques Doriot (; 26 September 1898 – 22 February 1945) was a French politician, initially communist, later fascist, before and during World War II.
In 1936, after his exclusion from the Communist Party, he founded the French Popular Party (P ...
's
Parti Populaire Français
The French Popular Party (french: Parti populaire français) was a French fascist and anti-semitic political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during World War II. It is generally regarded as the most collaborationist party of France.
...
before splitting from the latter group in 1938 over Doriot's financial links with
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 ...
[Webster, ''Petain's Crime'', p. 127] and
Fascist Italy.
[M. Curtis, ''Verdict on Vichy'', London: Phoenix Press, 2004, p. 79] In particular Pucheu was opposed to the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, which he felt punished
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
. This was in part motivated by Pucheu's business interests, which included close links to
Škoda Auto
Škoda Auto a.s. (), often shortened to Škoda, is a Czech automobile manufacturer established in 1925 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Škoda Works became state owned in 1948. After 1 ...
, a company threatened by German expansion. Pucheu's support for the PPF had been motivated by what he saw as the growth of communism and the desire for a rightist party to oppose that whilst his departure from the group (along with that of other industrialists whom he had encouraged to support them) saw the PPF decline sharply due a significant drop in funding.
Vichy
After the occupation his political profile rose as he was pushed by industrialist allies in charge of ''
Le Temps
''Le Temps'' ( literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has ...
'' who ensured that he was given the position of Minister of Industrial Production in 1941, before being promoted to
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
later that same year.
In the latter role he became noted for his heavy-handed approach, notably selecting personally 89 hostages for execution in October 1941 in reprisal for the killing of German officers.
He also formed the ''Police aux Questions Juives'' in 1941 and took personal charge of the organisation. He was also responsible for setting up the SPAC anti-communist police force, the
anti-Masonic Service for Secret Societies and the ''Amicales de France'', which served as the propaganda arm of Vichy.
According to
Joseph Barthélemy
Joseph Barthélemy (8 July 1874, Toulouse – 14 May 1945) was a French jurist, politician and journalist. Initially a critic of Nazi Germany, he would go on to serve as a minister in the collaborationist Vichy regime.
Early years
The son of Aim ...
, Pucheu, who had a violent hatred of communists and Jews, was a confirmed
Nazi
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 ...
.
However, Pucheu actually wanted to model France's economy on Nazi Germany's rather than being fully convinced of the merits of occupation, and as such the Germans called for him to be replaced in April 1942.
As part of a loose intellectual movement known as the ''jeunes cyclists'', Pucheu quickly came to terms with Germany as the leader of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
but hoped that economic renewal would ensure France would be one of the leading secondary powers in this new order. In government Pucheu has been characterised, along with the likes of
Jean Bichelonne
Jean Bichelonne (24 December 1904 – 22 December 1944) was a French businessman and member of the Vichy government that governed France during World War II following the occupation of France by Nazi Germany.
Early life
Jean Bichelonne was born ...
,
Jacques Barnaud
Jacques Barnaud (born 24 February 1893 in Antibes – died 15 April 1962 in Paris) was a French banker, businessman and member of the collaborationist Vichy regime during the Second World War.
A graduate of the École Polytechnique, Barnaud work ...
and
François Lehideux
François Lehideux (30 January 1904 – 21 June 1998) was a French industrialist and member of the Vichy government.
Car industry
In 1929 Lehideux married the daughter of Fernand Renault, and soon became a leading figure in the Renault car compa ...
, as a
technocrat who helped to ensure that the Vichy regime was able to take on the administrative functions of a government.
They were said to belong to a group called the
Synarchy
Synarchism generally means "joint rule" or "harmonious rule". Beyond this general definition, both ''synarchism'' and ''synarchy'' have been used to denote rule by a secret elite in Vichy France, Italy, China, and Hong Kong, while being used to de ...
. Like Bichelonne he was devotee of
Saint-Simonianism
Saint-Simonianism was a French political, religious and social movement of the first half of the 19th century, inspired by the ideas of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825).
Saint-Simon's ideas, expressed largely through a ...
, the belief in industrialisation as the motor of progress in society, a belief that was not shared by the rural traditionalist
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...
.
After Vichy
Deprived of his position, Pucheu moved, just after the allied landings in North Africa, to Spain, and at the invitation of General
Giraud, who promised him safe passage. The French army and administration in North Africa under Giraud had reentered the war against the Axis without renouncing Pétain or the Vichy
National Revolution; expecting to be called up to duty as a reserve military officer, Pucheu went to Casablanca, Morocco in May 1943.
Trial and execution
By then, however, General
Charles de Gaulle was the dominant influence in North Africa, not Pétain. Despite the safe passage offer, Pucheu was arrested and charged with treason and making illegal arrests, and was transferred to Algiers in October 1943. He was tried in March 1944, convicted, and sentenced to death. Despite a request for clemency by General Giraud, de Gaulle refused to intervene, although personally regretting the political necessity of Pucheu's execution, and expressing admiration for the way in which he had conducted himself during the trial.
Pucheu was the first person tried under the
French Committee of National Liberation
The French Committee of National Liberation (french: Comité français de Libération nationale) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organi ...
's September 1943 edict charging all Vichy ministers with treason; it is said that de Gaulle had ensured that he faced the death penalty in order to undermine any further collaboration in France. On 20 March 1944, Pucheu was executed by firing squad. He met his death with great courage, shaking hands with the firing squad, and giving the order to fire himself.
He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
[Curtis, ''Verdict on Vichy'', p. 345]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pucheu, Pierre
1899 births
1944 deaths
People from Beaumont-sur-Oise
French Popular Party politicians
French interior ministers
French industrialists
Executed French collaborators with Nazi Germany
Executed people from Île-de-France
French anti-communists
French fascists
French politicians convicted of crimes