- Louis Noguères
Louis Noguères (
4 October 1881 –5 May 1956 ) was a French politician and member of theFrench Resistance .Son of a
magistrate , Louis Noguères was born at Laval. His family moved frequently and Louis attended schools in Laval,Angers ,Chambéry , andLe Havre . He studied law and history at theSorbonne inParis . In Paris he metJean Jaurès and collaborated with him on the sixth volume of "L'Histoire de la Révolution et de l'Empire". Although supportive of socialism, Noguères did not join theSFIO at this time. Recalled to active service during theFirst World War , he served in the infantry and the air force, and received theLégion d'honneur .He worked as a lawyer for many years before first standing for election as mayor of
Thuir in thePyrénées-Orientales in 1931. In 1935, now a member of the SFIO, he was reelected as mayor and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in at the end of 1937.On
10 July 1940 , Louis Noguères was one of the eighty who voted against granting special powers to MarshalPhilippe Pétain . Placed under police surveillance, he was ejected from the Chamber of Deputies in February 1941 when a letter which expressed his hostility to theVichy Regime ,Nazi Germany , andFascism , was intercepted. He publicly expressed opposition to Vichy at the funeral of SenatorGeorges Pézières in March 1941, and was placed underhouse arrest , firstArgentat inCorrèze , then atFlorac inLozère .His activities came to the attention of the
Gestapo , who decided to arrest him in the autumn of 1943. Forewarned by the resistance, he escaped and joined the Maquis inAveyron where he contributed to resistance journals such as "Le Populaire ", "Libération " and "Vaincre".After the liberation of France, Noguères was a member of the
French National Assembly , and served as president of the High Court, presiding over trials of Vichy ministers and functionaries. He stepped down from the court in 1951. He also served as president of the General council from 1945 until his death.He died at Bages. He was the father of
Henri Noguères .ources
*
Jean Maitron (dir.), "Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français", éd. de l'Atelier, cd-rom, 1997
*Louis Nogueres, "Vichy, juillet 1940", Collection "Pour une histoire du XXe siècle", Paris, Fayard, 2000, 156p.
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