Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont (14 May 1914 – 2 August 2006) was a militant
communist who took part in the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, and a
French politician. Along with
General Leclerc and
Henri Rol-Tanguy
Henri Rol-Tanguy (12 June 1908 – 8 September 2002) was a French communist and a leader in the Resistance during World War II. At his death ''The New York Times'' called him ''"one of France's most decorated Resistance heroes"''.
Biograp ...
, he accepted the surrender of
Dietrich von Choltitz at the
Liberation of Paris.
Early years
He was born Maurice Kriegel in
Strasbourg to a Jewish family with central European origins. He studied law at the University of Strasbourg, and then became legal adviser to an insurance company after a move to Paris in 1936.
1930s and the outbreak of war
During the period of the
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
, Kriegel became a trade union activist. He headed the organisation in the insurance sector of the
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
It is ...
(CGT), and he was also active in the
Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France (MJCF).
Not having been called up in 1939 due to ill health, he moved to Toulouse in the
unoccupied zone.
Resistance activities
In early 1942, he was approached by leaders of a left-wing resistance organisation, and he went on to play a leading role in setting up an embryonic paramilitary section. During the resistance he adopted the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Valrimont, among others. When arrested in Lyon on 15 March 1942, his knowledge of German as a native of Alsace allowed him to conceal his true identity from his interrogators, and he thus faced only minor charges. On 24 May he escaped from prison with several colleagues and resumed his activities, organising sabotage in factories and opposing the drafting of French labour for the German war effort. By 1944 the resistance had complex coordination structures including a military action committee (Comac) which directed the
French Forces of the Interior
The French Forces of the Interior (french: Forces françaises de l'Intérieur) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation ...
(FFI). As a member of Comac, Kriegel was at the very top of the resistance.
At the moment of the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
, Kriegel supported an immediate internal uprising of the French population. This was in contrast with the attitude of General
Charles de Gaulle, whose strategy was tied to close cooperation with the allies. When street fighting broke out in Paris on 19 August, de Gaulle's representatives negotiated a truce with the German commander. Kriegel and
Henri Rol-Tanguy
Henri Rol-Tanguy (12 June 1908 – 8 September 2002) was a French communist and a leader in the Resistance during World War II. At his death ''The New York Times'' called him ''"one of France's most decorated Resistance heroes"''.
Biograp ...
, the communist leader of the FFI in the city, denounced this. When the allied troops led by
General Leclerc arrived in the city, Kriegel was one of the three leaders of the resistance who received the surrender of the German military governor of Paris, General
Dietrich von Choltitz, on 25 August 1944.
Obituary in ''The Guardian'' 18 August 2006
/ref>
Complex relationship with PCF
Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont, as he was now known, formally joined the French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
(PCF) after the war and was elected to parliament in 1945 to represent an Alsace constituency. From 1947 onward, he was a member of the party's central committee, and was given responsibility for its press bureau. In 1952, André Marty
André Marty (6 November 1886 – 23 November 1956) was a leading figure in the French Communist Party (PCF) for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern ...
and Charles Tillon
Charles Joseph Tillon (3 July 1897 – 13 January 1993) was a French metal worker, Communist, trade union leader, politician and leader of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45).
Tillon was born into a working-class family and trai ...
were excluded from the direction of the PCF. Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont voted for their exclusion but later wrote in his memoirs: "When I ask myself questions about my life, it is the only point where I find no excuses."
After Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's 1956 denunciation of the crimes of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
, Kriegel tried to get the French communist party to adopt a more liberal line. This resulted in his disgrace, and he left the party in 1961, finding employment as an administrator in the social security system until retirement. In 1995, he was formally rehabilitated by the leader of the Communist party, and in 1997 he stood on the Communist list for the European parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
elections.
Other
Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont was the father of the president of (''high council on immigration''), Blandine Kriegel, the father-in-law of journalist Alexandre Adler
Alexandre Adler (23 September 1950 – 18 July 2023) was a French historian, journalist and expert of contemporary geopolitics, the former USSR, and the Middle East. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honour (2002). A Maoist in his youth and then ...
and the brother-in-law of historian Annie Kriegel.
He died of a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream ( embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...
at the age of 92 in Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
References
Further reading
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
Dominique Lapierre (30 July 1931 – 2 December 2022) was a French author.
Life
Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France. At the age of thirteen, he travelled to the U.S. with his father who was a diploma ...
, Is Paris Burning?, New York: Pocket Books, 1965.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kriegel-Valrimont, Maurice
1914 births
2006 deaths
Politicians from Strasbourg
People from Alsace-Lorraine
Alsatian Jews
Jewish French politicians
French Communist Party politicians
Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945)
Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946)
Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Members of the General Confederation of Labour (France)
Communist members of the French Resistance
Jews in the French resistance
Deaths from pulmonary embolism