Jean-Pierre Renouard

Biography

Jean-Pierre Renouard was born in Paris in 1922 to a family of French "bourgeois".His ancestors include Armand Bertin, founder and owner of Journal des Débats, of whom Ingres painted the famous portrait, and Jules Bapst, jeweller to the crown of France. His mother, Marie Patinot, gave Joseph Kessel his first assignment for the "Journal des débats"

His studies at the Janson de Sailly high school were interrupted by the war. He took refuge with his family in the south of France and entered into the French resistance, with his younger brother Jacques, in September 1941, by delivering several cases of weapons to Jean Guyot, aka Gallois, the leader of several resistance networks. Eventually a member of the Sosies network led by Dominique Ponchardier, Jean-Pierre Renouard and his brother were arrested in May 1944 and imprisoned at the Fort du Ha in Bordeaux before being deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg ["Le Figaro" – Jean-Pierre Renouard : douze mois qui valent des années, Anne Muratori-Philip, Le Figaro Lettres, 19 April 1993] ..

His brother Jacques, died at age 20, on the 31st of December 1944 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Jean-Pierre Renouard was freed by British troops from Bergen Belsen concentration camp on the 15th of April 1945 ["Le Figaro" – Jean-Pierre Renouard : douze mois qui valent des années, Anne Muratori-Philip, Le Figaro Lettres, 19 April 1993] . [Présent – L'horreur concentrationnaire, Benoît Lorrain, 17 mars 1993] . After a long recovery he left for the United States and studied at the School of Business Administration at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Then followed an international career of forty years in the oil industry. From 1975 to 1987 was president of Copechim France, a company trading in raw oil.

His Daughter Ophélie Renouard founded the modern version of the "débutante Ball" which happens every year in the fall at the hotel de Crillon in Paris.

His son Philippe Renouard founded the French cosmetics brand "studio face paris" which is one the first luxury brands available through the web.

Decorations

Jean-Pierre Renouard is commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur, Médaillé de la Résistance, Croix de Guerre 39-45.

Publications

He is the author of « My Stripes were earned in Hell » published by the Editions du Rocher in 1993 and prefaced by M. Maurice Druon , perpetual secretary to the Académie Française. This book has been translated into German by historian Raïner Fröbe and published in Germany in 1988 under the title Die Hölle Gestreift and later, under the same title, by the University of Leipzig. The book was also translated into Chinese by M. Fu Yong Qiang and published in Beijing in 2001. Other than this book, Jean-Pierre Renouard is the author of numerous articles published in Le Déporté and other publications concerning the resistance and deportation.

Distinctions

My Stripes Were Earned in Hell received an academy prize from the Institut de France and the prix Prévost in 2001. The author was named a member of the Cornell Council in 1989.

Bibliography

Un Costume rayé d'enfer, Editions Du Félin, 2001 ISBN 2-86645-390-5

References

"Le Figaro" – Jean-Pierre Renouard : douze mois qui valent des années, Anne Muratori-Philip, Le Figaro Lettres, 19 April 1993.

"Présent" – L'horreur concentrationnaire, Benoît Lorrain, 17 mars 1993.

"Le Déporté" – Lettre à mon ami Jean-Pierre Renouard, G.G., Feb-March 1993

"Zellesche Zeitung", 18 July 1998

"Hannoverische Allgemeine Zeitung", 22 July 1998

"Hannover Allgemeine Zeitung", 26 October 1999

"Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung", 14 December 2000

Notes