René Hardy (31 October 1911 – 12 April 1987) was a member of 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

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Hardy was born in Mortrée,

Orne Orne (; nrf, Ôrne or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.Combat (French Resistance) Combat was a large movement in the French Resistance created in the non-occupied zone of France during the Second World War (1939–1945). Combat was one of the eight great resistance movements which constituted the Conseil national de la Résist ...

, he was still suspected of being instrumental in the arrest of

Jean Moulin Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance, resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less ...

, General

Charles Delestraint Charles Delestraint (12 March 1879 – 19 April 1945) was a French Army lieutenant general and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He also befriended Charles de Gaulle. Delestraint was killed by the Gestapo in 1945. Early life H ...

and other members of the resistance. Despite later being acquitted in 2 separate trials, those suspicions never went away.

Treason

In January 1943 Hardy was seduced by the 20-year-old Lydie Bastien, described by one journalist as a great "French beauty" whose true loyalty was to her German lover, Gestapo officer Harry Stengritt. Hardy was arrested on 7 June 1943 when he walked into a trap laid by Bastien. Bastien, a devotee of the occult and the philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche, had taken Stengritt as her lover and was paid for her work for the Gestapo in the form of gems that Stengritt had confiscated from French Jews before deporting them to Auschwitz. In turn, Stengritt worked for

Klaus Barbie Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primar ...

, the "Butcher of Lyon". Bastien recalled: "I was already working for the Germans and they told me how to find and get to know Hardy, who I met and seduced at their request". Hardy fell madly in love with her, and Bastien later mentioned: "He was soon obsessed with me. Very quickly he was telling me all his secrets and I had complete access to his secret files." Bastien loathed Hardy and slept with him only out of her loyalty to Strengritt and the gems he paid her. On 7 June 1943, Hardy bought a train ticket; as Bastien recalled: "The fool even thought I was coming with him. I warned the Germans he was on his way. Then Barbie called me to Lyon where they had taken Hardy and I told him that he had no choice. He had to collaborate with Barbie, or my parents and myself would be arrested as well."" Faced with the prospect of losing Bastien forever, and unaware of her true loyalties or the fact that she secretly hated him, Hardy agreed to start working for Barbie. When, in 1943,

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

officers under the orders of

stormed the house in Caluire where the French Resistance leadership was secretly meeting, only Hardy was not put in handcuffs. As the seven other men were led away, Hardy successfully made a break for it. The incident seemed suspicious to

Raymond Aubrac Raymond Aubrac (31 July 1914 – 10 April 2012) was a leader of the French Resistance during the Second World War and a civil engineer after the Second World War. Early life Aubrac was born Raymond Samuel into a middle-class Jewish family in Ves ...

, who, based on the ease with which the SS had let him go, always remained convinced that Hardy had alerted the Gestapo of their meeting. "From all the Germans with their submachine guns, there were only a couple of scattered shots," Aubrac later stated.

After the war

After the war, he was tried twice for collaboration for a number of reasons but was found not guilty, despite committing

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

at the first trial. Shortly before his death, he was accused again by Barbie himself, but died before any new charges could be brought. After his trials, Hardy became a novelist and wrote the book '' Bitter Victory'' (French title ''Amère victoire'') which was adapted for the cinema in a Franco-US co-production starring

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

and directed by

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features p ...

. Shortly before his death, a destitute, broken-down Hardy — dressed in pajamas and apparently living in somebody's attic — was interviewed by film-maker

Marcel Ophüls Marcel Ophuls (; born 1 November 1927) is a German-French documentary film maker and former actor, best known for his films ''The Sorrow and the Pity'' and '' Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie''. Life and career Ophuls was bo ...

for '' Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie''. Hardy denied having betrayed Moulin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Rene 1911 births 1987 deaths People from Orne French Resistance members Recipients of the Resistance Medal Prix des Deux Magots winners French male writers 20th-century French male writers