Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac
CBE (22 January 1917 – 8 April 2015) was a French journalist, a member of the
French resistance and a historian.
During World War II he directed the
Free French propaganda radio broadcasts to Europe.
After the war he helped create France's state-owned publishing house, ''
La Documentation Française''.
Early life
Crémieux was born to a middle class Jewish family in the Colombes suburb of Paris. His political awareness was raised in high school by his uncle
Benjamin Crémieux
Benjamin Crémieux (1888–1944) was a French author, critic and literary historian.
Early life
Crémieux was born to a Jewish family in Narbonne, France in 1888. His family had long ties in the region, having 'settled in France as early as th ...
(1888-1944), a literary critic.
Through his uncle, Crémieux met and was influenced by the anti-authoritarian surrealism of
André Malraux and the liberal
internationalism of
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig (; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular write ...
. He graduated from the
Lycée Condorcet in 1933. But it was first during a school vacation in 1931 that he visited Germany and in subsequent trips saw first-hand the work of the
Nazi Party. In 1935 he joined, and became the youngest member of the
Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes (CVIA) which spearheaded the unification of left-wing politics in France.
During the
Second World War he served as
General Charles de Gaulle's 'propaganda chief in London'.
Honours
2016: Knight Grand Cross in the
Legion of Honour.
[http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/sites/default/files/promotion/lh_20150101.pdf ]
Notes and references
Further reading
*
External links
Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhacin ''
The Guardian''
Cremieux-Brilhac: A farewell to France's war broadcasterat
BBC News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cremieux-Brilhac, Jean-Louis
1917 births
2015 deaths
People from Colombes
French Resistance members
20th-century French historians
Lycée Condorcet alumni
Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Recipients of the Resistance Medal
Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)