- Pierre Goldman
Pierre Goldman, (
Lyon ,June 22 1944 –September 20 1979 inParis ) was aFrench left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies and assassinated mysteriously. It has been suspected that the "Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación " (GAL)death squad was involved in his murder. His half-brotherJean-Jacques Goldman is a popular French singer.Biography
Pierre Goldman was born near the end of
World War II , the illegitimate son ofAlter Mojze Goldman and Janine Sochaczewska, who were active in theFTP-MOI Resistant movement composed of immigrants Michaël Prazan, "L'assassinat de Pierre Goldman" (2005) - film documentary ] . After the Liberation, his parents separated, and his father kidnapped him with a group of former FTP-MOI members. Thereafter, he only had contacts from time to time with his mother, who returned toPoland . In travel there, Goldman visited Auschwitz . Excluded from various high-schools and boarding schools, he obtained his "baccalauréat " and followed, as an independent auditor, courses in theSorbonne . In 1963, he integrated the "Union des Etudiants Communistes " . In 1966, he refused to do his military service, and travelled toCuba , where he heardFidel Castro at the occasion of theTricontinental Conference in January 1966 . Still inLa Havana for the funerary eve afterChe Guevara 's death, he then met Venezuelan guerrilleros through the intermediary ofRégis Debray .Returning to Paris, he remained distant towards
May '68 activism. In June 1968, he returned to Venezuela, and spent there a year inguerrilla activities. OnJune 11 ,1969 , After the attack of an arms depot, his group withdrew in the "sierra", and then lost all support from Cuba who had rallied to the Venezuelan government's side. Goldman's then robbed theRoyal Bank of Canada inPuerto La Cruz onJune 11 ,1969 , taking 2,6 millionBolivar s (the biggest hold-up of that year ), a robbery later claimed by the FALN guerrilla . Of his comrades, only Goldman was not identified, and he fled afterwards to Paris, in September 1969 .Having quickly spent his remaining money, he staged several robberies of small businesses, in December 1969 and January 1970. He reportedly thought during this period in secuestrating the writer
Jean-Edern Hallier , whom he profoundly disliked . In 1974, he was given a life-sentence by the Pariscour d'assises , after being convicted of a bloody robbery on December 19, 1969, on the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir nearPlace de la Bastille in Paris, in which two pharmacists were killed. He denied having committed this robbery, although he admitted to three earlier robberies . He was condemned to twelve years in prison for the other three robberies and given alife sentence for the December 1969 assassination .During the five years he spent in prison, he studied philosophy and Spanish, and wrote a book on his own case, "Souvenirs obscurs d'un juif polonais né en France" (Obscure Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France), published in 1975. The impact of the book on some French intellectuals and personalities, including the actress
Simone Signoret , the writerFrançoise Sagan ,Jean-Paul Sartre and Régis Debray, etc. , plus many inconsistencies recorded during the investigation led to a second trial, which started onApril 26 ,1976 . He was finally acquitted for good and freed in October 1976 . Afterward, he contributed to left-wing newspapers, joining the "Temps Modernes " and "Libération " .September 20, 1979 assassination
On
September 20 ,1979 , he was assassinated at point-blank range in Paris. Eye-witnesses described three Spanish-looking persons. The police first suspected theMafia , however the murder was revendicated to the AFP news agency in the name of an unknownfar-right group, Honneur de la police (Honour of the Police). Pierre Goldman's funeral was followed by 15, 000 persons. A few hours after his death, his wife Christiane gave birth to a son, Manuel.The perpetrators of Pierre Goldman's murder haven't been found. Various theories exist. The most serious one points to
Marseilles ' criminal underground, which would have assassinated him on behalf of the GAL ("Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación"), adeath squad set up by Spanish officials to fightETA in the 1980s. Pierre Goldman allegedly was helping ETA get weapons and planned to create an organization to fight the GAL. On the other side,VSD magazine points out toward the French secret services — while the former police officerLucien Aimé-Blanc , in charge of the Narcotics Department, also pointed out to the presence of aSDECE officer.In April 2006, "
Libération " published an interview of former police officerLucien Aimé-Blanc , who stated that one of his informants,Jean-Pierre Maïone , had admitted, a few years later, having killed Goldman on behalf of the GAL: cquote|Marseille boys members of GAL killed him with Maïone, who also talked about a commandant, former member of theSDECE [French secret service] , without revealing me his identity. [ " 'Mon indic a flingué Pierre Goldman', entretien avec Lucien Aimé-Blanc" in "Libération ", April 20, 2006 fr icon ]Bibliography
* "Souvenirs obscurs d'un juif polonais né en France",
Le Seuil , 1975.
* "L'ordinaire mésaventure d'Archibald Rapoport" (1977)Books about him:
* "La vie rêvée de Pierre Goldman" by Antoine Casubolo (2005, ISBN 2-35076-007-3)
* "Pierre Goldman, le frère de l'ombre" by Michaël Prazan, (2005, ISBN 2-02-067895-0)
* " _fr. Matricule 518.941-2.87 : prison de Fresnes : correspondance d'un prévenu avec son professeur", Amnassar (2005, ISBN 2-35073-044-1)References
External links
*fr icon [http://www.nouvelobs.com/articles/p2118/a270845.html] June 9, 2005 "
Nouvel Observateur " article on Michaël Prazan's book
*fr icon [http://www.parler-de-sa-vie.net/pierre/pierre.html About Pierre Goldman] (onJean-Jacques Goldman 's website)
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