Fernand de Brinon

Fernand de Brinon (August 26, 1885 – April 15, 1947) was a French lawyer and journalist who was one of the architects of collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. He claimed to have had five private talks with Adolf Hitler between1933 "-" 1937.

Born into a wealthy family in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département, the aristocratic Marquis Fernand de Brinon studied political science and law at university but chose to work as a journalist in Paris. After World War I, he advocated a rapprochement with Germany along the lines being promoted by some of right leaning politicians such as Edouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud. He became friends with Joachim von Ribbentrop who was a delegate to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Fernand de Brinon married Jeanne Louise Rachel Franck, a Jewish divorcée known as "Lisette." They became leading socialites in 1930s Paris, and close friends of the political right-wing elite. A leading advocate for collaboration following France's defeat by Germany in World War II, in July of 1940 de Brinon was invited by Pierre Laval, Vice-Premier of the new Vichy regime, to act as its representative to the German High Command in occupied Paris. In 1942, Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, gave him the title: Secretary of State.

As the third ranking member of the Vichy regime and because of his enthusiastic support for the fascist cause, de Brinon's importance to the Nazis was such that he was able to obtain a special pass for his Jewish wife that exempted her from deportation to a German concentration camp. With the march of the Allied Forces towards Paris in 1944, de Brinon and his wife tried to flee the country but were caught and returned to Paris for trial. He and his wife were both held in Fresnes prison but she was eventually released.

Fernand de Brinon was tried by the High Court of Justice for war crimes, found guilty, and sentenced to death on March 6, 1947."The Collapse of the Third Republic", William L. Shirer, Pocket Books, June 1971, 3rd Printing, pg. 374.] He was executed by firing squad on April 18 at the military fort in the Paris suburb of Montrouge.

In 2002, French historian Gilbert Joseph published "Fernand de Brinon : L'Aristocrate de la collaboration". In 2004, Bernard Ullmann, Lisette de Brinon's son from her first marriage, broke his 60-year silence and told his family's story in his book, "Lisette de Brinon, Ma Mère".

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