Portrait of Henri Frenay, head and shoulders ppmsca

Henri Frenay Sandoval (1905–1988) was a French military officer and

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 ...

member. He was born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, France, on 11 November 1905, into a Catholic family with a military tradition. He studied the

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

at the University of Strasbourg. Afterwards, he became a soldier like his father and studied in Saint Cyr and the

École Supérieure de Guerre The ''École supérieure de guerre'' ("Superior School of Warfare") was the most senior military education institute and staff college of the French Army, from 1876 until 1993, when it was merged into the inter-service ' (Joint Defense College), wh ...

and reached the rank of captain in 1934. At the outbreak of World War II, he rejoined the French army. German forces captured him in

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

. He arrived in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

after escaping from a POW camp in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

on 27 June 1940. At first Frenay supported the

Vichy Regime 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 ter ...

but was soon disillusioned by the Nazi tendency of the Pétain regime, and he subsequently formed the French Resistance group Mouvement de Libération Nationale in 1940. He became an editor of

underground newspaper The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

s such as ''Vérités'' (Truths) and had a hand in the formation of the Combat group in November 1941. In 1943, his group participated in the forming of the

Conseil National de la Résistance The National Council of the Resistance (also, National Resistance Council; in French: ''Conseil National de la Résistance'' (CNR), was the body that directed and coordinated the different movements of the French Resistance: the press, trade uni ...

of Jean Moulin, but Frenay refused a seat since he disagreed over the admission of political parties to the Conseil. When the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

captured Moulin, Frenay fled to Algiers. In November 1943, he met Charles de Gaulle, who appointed him as a minister of prisoners, refugees and deportees. After the war, Frenay served in de Gaulle's first provisional government. He retired from the political life and became a businessman. He published his autobiography, ''The Night Will End: Memoirs of a Revolutionary'' in 1976 and criticised Moulin and de Gaulle as reckless. Frenay died at Porto-Vecchio, Corsica, on 8 August 1988.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frenay, Henri 1905 births 1988 deaths Military personnel from Lyon Politicians from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance politicians French Section of the Workers' International politicians Government ministers of France French military personnel of World War II French Resistance members