WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, Monde Libertaire - PAGES OF HISTORY No. 92: Still an ordinary Nazi... (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 Jacques Benoist-Méchin, an intellectual fascinated by Germany, a

supporter of Franco-German rapprochement between the two wars. Bernard
Costagiola traces the journey of one of the leading figures of
collaboration who became, after the war, a figure in the popularization
of history. Born in 1901 into an upper-middle-class family, his father,
a professional explorer, claimed to be a Baron of the Empire. The young
man pursued the classical studies of a child of the upper middle class:
music, Latin, and Greek in particular. Becoming a journalist, he
expressed a fascination with Germany and the German nationalist movement
from an early age. This admiration for him led him to make early contact
with Otto Abetz and the German intelligence services. Passionate about
history and military affairs, he published an apologetic history of the
German army and then a work glorifying Hitler. At the same time, he
joined Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party in 1936. Germany's victory
in 1940 came as a "divine surprise" to him. Joining the Vichy
government, he became Darlan's principal secretary and then Secretary of
State for Franco-German relations. He advocated an understanding between
the two countries to foster a "new Europe." He was one of the
hardliners, anticipating not only German demands but also making
proposals to help the Nazis win the war, defending all of Hitler's choices.

Arrested in 1944, he was sentenced to death for high treason and then
had his sentence commuted to hard labor. Released from prison in 1953,
he resumed his work as a journalist, publishing numerous books on the
Middle East, in which he consistently expressed a fascination with
authoritarian powers, continuing to wander until his death in 1983 among
former collaborators and notorious anti-Semites.

This biography brilliantly retraces the life of an almost ordinary
French Nazi.

Benoist-Méchin, a French Nazi
Bernard Costagiola
CNRS éditions, 2025, 480 p. €14

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8433
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