René Charles Joseph Marie Lefebvre (23 February 1879 – 4 March 1944) was a French factory-owner from

Tourcoing Tourcoing (; nl, Toerkonje ; vls, Terkoeje; pcd, Tourco) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubai ...

,The ghost at all our tables
, Stephen McInerney on ''Marcel Lefebvre: The biography'', Oriens, Summer 2005 who died in the German concentration camp in Sonnenburg, in the

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

(today in Lubusz Province in western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

), where he had been imprisoned by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 ...

'' because of his work for 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 ...

and British Intelligence. René Lefebvre was the father of French Roman Catholic archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the international Traditionalist Catholic organisation Society of St. Pius X, Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (SSPX). Jeanette M. Pryor & J. Christopher Pryor,
René Lefebvre and the Holocaust
''Le Floch Report'', 19 March 2006.

Life

Lefebvre was born in

in Nord (French department), Nord, in northern France in 1879, from a family which gave almost fifty of its members to the Roman Catholic Church, Church since 1738, including a Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal, a few bishops and many priests and religious He was a devout Catholic who brought his children to daily Mass (liturgy), Mass. In 1923, he advised two of his sons, Marcel Lefebvre, Marcel and René, to begin studies for the priesthood at the French Seminary in Rome. Of his eight children, two became missionary Priests, three girls entered in different religious congregations and the other three founded large Catholic families.Archbishop Marcel LEFEBVRE
, by Father Ramón Anglés Lefebvre was also an outspoken monarchist who ran a spy-ring for British Intelligence when Tourcoing was occupied by the Imperial German Army during World War I. Later, during World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied France, he resumed this work, smuggling soldiers and escaped prisoners to un-occupied France and London. He was arrested and sentenced to death in Berlin on 28 May 1942 for "complicity with the enemy and recruitment of young people to bear arms against the Greater German Reich". He was sent to ''KZ Sonnenburg'', a former prison converted into a concentration camp, mainly holding Communist and Social Democrat activists.Kaspar Nürnberg (1986) "Sonnenburg", in: ''Der Ort des Terrors. Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager'', Volume H 2, by Wolfgang Benz, and Barbara Distel (ed.), C.H. Beck Verlag : Munich. (German) Lefebvre died in Sonnenburg after one year of sufferings and privations; his body has never been recovered.

Legacy

On 16 July 1953, Lefebvre was Posthumous recognition, posthumously decorated by the Government of the Fourth French Republic with the ''Médaille militaire'' for his active participation in the

. Lefebvre was married to Gabrielle Watine, who died in 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lefebvre, Rene French Resistance members French monarchists People who died in Sonnenburg concentration camp People from Tourcoing French Roman Catholics World War I spies for the United Kingdom World War II spies for the United Kingdom 1879 births 1944 deaths French industrialists French civilians killed in World War II