Eugène Bridoux (1888-1955) was a French general. He served as Secretary of State for War, later Secretary of State for Defence, under

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...

during

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Early life

Eugène Bridoux was born on 24 June 1888 in Doulon, now a suburb of

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, France. He graduated from the

École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM, literally the "Special Military School of Saint-Cyr") is a French military academy, and is often referred to as Saint-Cyr (). It is located in Coëtquidan in Guer, Morbihan, Brittany. Its motto ...

Career

Bridoux served as Secretary of State for War from 1942 to 1943, and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1943 to 1944, under Prime Minister

Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. During the Third Republic, he served as Prime Minister of France from 27 January 1931 to 20 February 1932 and 7 June 1935 to 24 January 1936. He again occ ...

during

. He fled to the

Sigmaringen enclave The Sigmaringen enclave was the exiled remnant of France's Nazi-sympathizing Vichy government which fled to Germany during the Liberation of France near the end of World War II in order to avoid capture by the advancing Allied forces. ...

in 1944, and he was arrested by the United States Army in 1945. He was jailed at the

Val-de-Grâce The (' or ') was a military hospital located at in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016. History The church of the was built by order of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. After the birth of h ...

, but he escaped in 1947, settling in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

. He was sentenced to the death penalty

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in ab ...

and

dégradation nationale The ''dégradation nationale'' ("National demotion") was a sentence introduced in France after the Liberation of France. It was applied during the ''épuration légale'' ("legal purge") which followed the fall of the Vichy regime. The ''dégra ...

on 18 December 1948.

Death

Bridoux died in 1955 in Madrid, Spain.

References

1888 births 1955 deaths People from Loire-Atlantique École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr alumni French generals People of Vichy France French exiles French politicians convicted of crimes People sentenced to death in absentia {{France-mil-bio-stub