Benjamin Crémieux (1888–1944) was a French author, critic and literary historian.

Early life

Crémieux was born to a Jewish family in Narbonne, France in 1888. His family had long ties in the region, having 'settled in France as early as the 14th century'.Braun, Sidney D. 1987. "Benjamin Crémieux: Jew and Frenchman." ''Judaism'' 36 (4) (Fall): 451. .^:452

Military service

He fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

during his obligatory military service in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

and was severely wounded during battle.^:452 After the war he focused on studying Italian literature and history.^:452

Career

Crémieux contributed to a variety of literary magazines and journals, including La Gazette du Franc,^:270 and the influential literary journal

Nouvelle Revue Française ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' (; "The New French Review") is a literary magazine based in France. In France, it is often referred to as the ''NRF''. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including And ...

(NRF). He started writing for the NRF in 1920 and Jean Paulhan invited him to be a member of the journal's editorial committee as early as 1926.^:22 In 1928 he defended his doctoral thesis ''Essai Sur l'évolution littéraire de l'Italie de 1870 á nos jours'' at the Sorbonne, which was published later that year.^:41 He published one of his most important texts in 1931, ''Inquiétude et Reconstruction,'' which provided a survey of French literature since the turn of the century.^:139 He also served in a variety of service roles. He was 'chief of the Italian bureau of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs'^:41 and the permanent secretary of the French section of the PEN Club.^:139 In 1940, Crémieux joined the French underground and became a leader of the '' Maquis''.

Death

In April 1943, two

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

agents detained Crémieux in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

s.^:458 He was arrested, imprisoned, and deported to Nazi Germany, where, in April 1944 he was executed in the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

.^:458.

Legacy

Crémieux introduced a number of important literary figures to the French public through his translations, including

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

and

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian and Austro-Hungarian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and ...

;^:138 he was also an early champion of the works of

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cremieux, Benjamin 1888 births 1944 deaths French magazine editors French male essayists 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers Jewish French history French people who died in Buchenwald concentration camp French Jews who died in the Holocaust French military personnel of World War I French people executed in Nazi concentration camps