Basch Viktor Vilém, or Victor-Guillaume Basch (18 August 1863/1865,

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

– 10 January 1944) was a French politician and professor of germanistics and philosophy 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, ...

descending from Hungary. He was engaged in the

Zionist movement Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Jew ...

, in the

Ligue des droits de l'homme The Human Rights League (french: Ligue des droits de l’homme '' t du citoyen' or LDH) of France is a Human Rights NGO association to observe, defend and promulgation of Rights Man within the French Republic in all spheres of public life. The ...

(president from 1926 to 1944) and in Anti-Nazism. His father was the journalist and political activist,

Raphael Basch Raphael Basch, also Rafael Basch (1813, Prague - 22 January 1907, Paris) was a Bohemian-Austrian writer and politician. He was the father of Victor Basch (1863–1944). At the first disturbances preliminary to the Revolution of 1848, he went to Vi ...

. Born in Budapest in 1863, Victor Basch emigrated with his family to France as a child, and later studied at the

. In 1885 he was appointed professor at the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, and in 1887 at the University of

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, where he became friend with

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...

. During the

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

Basch was the leader of the Dreyfusards at Rennes, who were placed in a serious and difficult position when the case was tried in that city. Both as a Jew and a Dreyfusard, Basch was subjected to persecution at the hands of the fanatical

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

populace. In a 1916 interview cited by his biographer and granddaughter, the French historian Françoise Basch, Victor Basch declared, " I'm really a Jew. I struggle and suffered for my Jewishness."Basch, Françoise ''Victor Basch: de l'affaire Dreyfus au crime de la milice.'' Librairie Plon. Paris: 1994. However, biographer Françoise Basch underscores that her grandfather identified with his family history and the suffering of persecuted Jews, and not with Judaism as a religion. As both a member of the

League against Imperialism The League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (french: Ligue contre l'impérialisme et l'oppression coloniale; german: Liga gegen Kolonialgreuel und Unterdrückung) was a transnational anti-imperialist organization in the interwar period. ...

created in Brussels in 1927, and as President of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme from 1926–1944, Basch was one of the architects of the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

. He fought and suffered for the principles of legal and social justice as well as human rights. On 10 January 1944, Victor Basch and his wife, Ilona Basch (née Helene Furth) aged 81, were taken from their home in Lyon and assassinated by Joseph Lecussan and Henri Gonnet of the antisemitic Vichy French

Milice Française The ''Milice française'' (French Militia), generally called ''la Milice'' (literally ''the militia'') (), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy regime (with German aid) to help fight against the Fr ...

under orders of the regional chief

Paul Touvier Paul Claude Marie Touvier (3 April 1915 – 17 July 1996) was a French Nazi collaborator during World War II in Occupied France. In 1994, he became the first Frenchman ever convicted of crimes against humanity, for his participation in the Ho ...

Literary works

His published works include an important study: * "''(Essai critique sur) L'Esthétique de Kant''", Paris, 1896; the first volume of a work in 4 volumes on the history of esthetics; * "''(La) Poétique de Schiller''"; * "''La Vie Intellectuelle à l'Etranger''"; * "''Les Origines de l'Individualisme Moderne''" * ''L'indivisualisme anarchiste'', 1904 * ''Max Stirner'', 1904 * ''Titian'', 1927 * "Schumann, A Life of Suffering", 1931, translated from French by Catherine Alison Phillips * ''Essai d'esthétique de Kant'', 1936 He also contributed frequently to the "''Siècle''" and the "''Grande Revue''" of Paris.

Notes

References

* * Basch, Françoise. ''Victor Basch: de l'affaire Dreyfus au crime de la milice.'' Librairie Plon. Paris: 1994. * George R. Whyte, ''The Dreyfus affair : a chronological history'', Basingstoke 2008

External links

* __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Basch, Victor 1860s births 1944 deaths People from the Kingdom of Hungary French anti-fascists Austro-Hungarian Jews Austro-Hungarian emigrants to France Politicians of the French Third Republic Individualist anarchists French Zionists Egoist anarchists French anarchists Jewish anarchists University of Paris alumni University of Lorraine faculty University of Rennes faculty University of Paris faculty Nancy-Université faculty Dreyfusards French Jews who died in the Holocaust French civilians killed in World War II