The colonel of the Croix-de-Feu who turned his columns away from the Chamber
That night his columns reached the rear of the Chamber and he ordered them to disperse rather than storm it. The left saw a dress rehearsal for fascism in the same night; the far right called him a traitor. Both verdicts followed him for the rest of his life
The son of a general, trained at Saint-Cyr, who served in Morocco and the First World War and retired as a lieutenant-colonel. From 1931 he led the veterans' association Croix-de-Feu and built it into a mass movement of several hundred thousand, whose discipline and motorised rallies looked to the French left like the face of fascism. On the night of 6 February 1934 his columns reached the rear of the Chamber and he ordered them to disperse rather than storm it, a caution for which the far right called him a traitor. When the Popular Front government dissolved the leagues in 1936 he founded the Parti Social Français and turned toward electoral politics, building what became the largest party of the French right by the late 1930s. He backed Pétain and sat on Vichy's National Council while running an intelligence network that passed information to the British, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and interned in Germany, and after the liberation was detained again by the French authorities as a Vichy man before dying of illness in 1946. Whether he was a fascist or the French form of authoritarian conservatism has been the central argument in the study of the French right from Sternhell onward.
Activities and affiliations
- 1930–1940 Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1885Born at Lorient, the son of a general
- 1907–1918Saint-Cyr, service in Morocco and the First World War
- 1919–1928Staff service; retires as a lieutenant-colonel
- 1929–1931Joins the Croix-de-Feu and becomes its president
- 1931–1936Expands the Croix-de-Feu into a mass movement of hundreds of thousands
- 1934.02.06Disperses his columns at the Chamber
- 1936.06Founds the Parti Social Français after the leagues are dissolved
- 1936–1939Builds the PSF into the largest party of the French right
- 1940–1942Backs Pétain; sits on Vichy's National Council
- 1942–1943Runs an intelligence network for the British; arrested by the Gestapo in March 1943
- 1943–1945Deported to Germany and interned
- 1945–1946Detained by the French authorities after the liberation; dies the next year
- 1961Posthumously recognised as a deported member of the Resistance
Related historical events
- 1934.01–07The Fascist Riot of 6 February 1934President of the Croix-de-FeuHe led the largest organisation on the square and ordered it to disperse rather than storm the Chamber. His conduct is a main ground for the present judgement that the night was not an organised coup.
- 1934–1938The French Popular Front and the Strikes of 1936League leader whose organisation the Popular Front dissolvedAfter the Popular Front government dissolved the leagues in 1936, he founded the Parti Social Français.
- 1940–1944The Fall of France and the Vichy RegimeVichy National Council memberHe backed Pétain and sat on Vichy's National Council.
- 1940–1944The French Resistance and the Liberation of FranceResistance intelligence network organiserFrom 1941, he collected intelligence and made contact with the Resistance.
The Klan network and intelligence work, 1941–1944
This is the phase in which loyalty to Vichy and resistance activity overlapped in one person. From 1941 La Rocque made contact with the Resistance by collecting intelligence, and in 1942 he built the Klan network on the manpower of the French Social Party (PSF). Klan was a sub-network of the Alibi network, tied through Colonel Charaudeau in Madrid to the British Intelligence Service, which authenticated and twice commended its organisation and operation and issued a confirming attestation in June 1945.
At British request, La Rocque had to keep up a formally loyal public attitude toward Pétain so as not to arouse suspicion. While sending Pétain letters and reports warning of the danger of courses such as the single party, the Legion and the Milice, he sharply condemned the Milice and the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF), rejected the forced labour service (STO), and threatened to expel any party member who joined the Milice or the LVF. His own statements show that this work ran on a different track from de Gaulle's Free France. He was at odds with Free France, described the Gaullists from the outset as allies of the communists, and had called de Gaulle a deserter.
Arrested by the Gestapo at Clermont-Ferrand on 9 March 1943, he was seized along with 152 PSF cadres across France within the following two days. The arrest beheaded Klan, but intelligence collection did not stop. In the occupied zone Professor Pierre Lépine took over from Noël Ottavi and led French Social Progress until the Liberation, and information such as microfilmed photographs of Atlantic Wall fortifications reached the Allies through Spain. Only in 1961, after his death, was his deportation for Resistance activity recognised; the Déporté-Résistant card was issued posthumously, and de Gaulle paid tribute to the memory of a man to whom the enemy had inflicted cruel deportation for acts of Resistance.