François Duprat (26 October 1940 – 18 March 1978) was an essayist and politician, a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978. Duprat was one of the main architects in the introduction of

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

in France.

Life and career

François Duprat was born on 26 October 1940, in Ajaccio, Corsica, and was educated in Bayonne,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, at the prestigious

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

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 ...

. He graduated in history at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, earning a diploma of higher studies in history in 1963.Francis Bergeron, Philippe Vilgier, ''De Le Pen à Le Pen. Une histoire des nationaux et des nationalistes sous la Ve République'', Dominique Martin Morin editions, 1986, p.155 A communist in his teenage years, François Duprat moved to the far right and became a member of the Jeune Nation and the Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN). Strongly opposed to Algerian independence during the Algerian War (1954–62), Duprat later supported Arab states as an anti-Zionist. After the March 1962

Evian agreements Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

granting independence to Algeria, he traveled to Katanga, supporting the secession led by

Moise Tshombe Moise is a given name and surname, with differing spellings in its French and Romanian origins, both of which originate from the name Moses: Moïse is the French spelling of Moses, while Moise is the Romanian spelling. As a surname, Moisè and Mo ...

. He became Tshome's Director of Propaganda on Radio-Katanga. Thereafter, he returned to France, where he became a member of

Occident The Occident is a term for the West, traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Western world. It is the antonym of ''Orient'', the Eastern world. In English, it has largely fallen into disuse. The term ''occidental'' is often used to ...

, which carried out street brawls against the

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

s and other left-wing students. However, he was excluded in 1967, accused of being a

police informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...

. Duprat then took part in the Ordre Nouveau movement (New Order), and became the editor of ''L'Action européenne'' (European Action) and of the '' Revue d’histoire du fascisme'' (History Review of Fascism), which introduced in France

thesis supported by far right circles in the English-world. In 1972, François Duprat co-founded the National Front (FN) headed by

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

, and was part of its political bureau until his death in 1978. He represented the hard-liners of the party, and directed the '' Groupes nationalistes révolutionnaires'' (National Revolutionary Groups), alongside

Alain Renault Alain may refer to: People * Alain (given name), common given name, including list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Alain (surname) * "Alain", a pseudonym for cartoonist Daniel Brustlein * Alain, a standard author abbreviation u ...

Revisionist writings

François Duprat saw

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

as a political weapon, stating in May 1976:

We must not let to our opponents, Marxists and ''régimistes'', the monopoly of the historical representation of men, facts and ideas. Because History is a wonderful war instrument, and it would be useless to deny that one of the important reasons of our political hardships resides in the historical exploitation and the systematic deformation of the nationalist experiences of the past... It is in order to answer these needs... that a team of intellectuals, professors and nationalists have created the ''Revue d'histoire du fascisme.''"

Duprat wrote a book on far right movements in France from 1940 to 1944, during the Collaborationist regime of Vichy. He also created a number of magazines and political reviews, including the ''Cahiers d'histoire du fascisme'' (History Notebooks on Fascism) and the ''Cahiers Européens-Notre Europe'' (European Notebooks - Our Europe), which also circulated denialist books or far right literature exalting the

Third Reich 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 ...

Death

Duprat was killed on 18 March 1978, in a car-bomb explosion. His wife Jeanine was also injured in the attack, losing the use of her legs. He was finishing a book titled ''Argent et politique'' (Money and Politics) concerning the funding of right-wing and far-right political parties. There are many theories about the assassination, but historian

Michel Winock Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

notes that perpetrators and their motives have never been established; the police investigation into his assassination was inconclusive. A Jewish "Remembrance Commando" and a "Jewish Revolutionary Group" immediately claimed responsibility for the murder. The perpetrators of the bombing were never found, while Jean-Pierre Bloch, director of the LICRA

anti-racist Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

NGO, condemned the killing. In ''Génération Occident: de l'extrême droite à la droite'', Frédéric Charpier alleged that the assassination could have been commissioned by a rival far right organisation. He recalled that Duprat had been excluded in 1967 from Occident after allegations that he was a police informant. According to

Roger Faligot Roger Faligot is a French journalist, who started working in Ireland in 1973 before working as freelance investigative journalist for British, Parisian or foreign newspapers and magazines (Ireland, England, Japan). Considered one of the best Fre ...

and Pascal Krop, Duprat was killed for his links with the Syrian government. Shortly before the assassination, Patrice Chairoff had published names and addresses of publishers which were tied to Duprat; one of the addresses happened to be his private residence. His funeral at the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet was attended by the leading lights of the nationalist right, which included the National Front, the PFN,

monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

and right-wing solidarists.

Legacy

''Le National'', a far right political review, honoured him in April 1978 as one of the French leaders of "the 'revisionist' historical school" who had introduced in France "one of the most explosive booklets" of Richard Harwood, member of the

British National Front The National Front (NF) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently led by Tony Martin. As a minor party, it has never had its representatives elected to the British or European Parliaments, although it gai ...

and author of the negationist pamphlet ''"

Did Six Million Really Die? ''Did Six Million Really Die? The Truth at Last'' is a neo-Nazi, Holocaust denial pamphlet allegedly written by British National Front (NF) member Richard Verrall under the pseudonym Richard E. Harwood and published in 1974 by neo-Nazi prop ...

''" The ''Cahiers européens – Notre Europe'' diffused this pamphlet starting in February 1976. The anonymous author of this text had been identified by

Pierre-André Taguieff Pierre-André Taguieff (born 4 August 1946) is a French philosopher who has specialised in the study of racism and antisemitism. He is the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'Etudes Politique ...

as likely being André Delaporte. Each year

pays his respects at Duprat's gravesite at the cimetière de Montmartre. At the 30th anniversary of his death, LePen paid tribute to his being a "martyr to the cause of freedom of thought", "a fighter", and "politician right to the tips of his fingers"."Hommage de Jean-Marie Le Pen à l'occasion des 30 ans de l'attentat contre François Duprat"
, website of Front national, 18 March 2008

Life and career

Revisionist writings

Death

Legacy

Notes

References

Further reading