Camille Fernand Bedin (18 January 1893 – 7 February 1979) was a French politician.

Biography

Camille Bedin was born at

Saint-Satur Saint-Satur () is a commune in the Cher department in central France. It is a medieval town near the river Loire in the former province of Berry. History Located in the area of Gaul settled by the powerful Celtic tribe, the Bituriges, or t ...

in the

Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...

département. He worked as a cloth merchant. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

as a junior officer in the 50th Infantry Regiment. After the war he settled in

Excideuil Excideuil (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Dordogne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Geography Excideuil is located in the ''Périgord Vert'' area, on a limestone plateau between the upp ...

. He received the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1925 for his services during the war and was active in the Fédération ouvrière et paysanne des anciens combattants, a veterans association. He was a member of the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

(SFIO), the French socialist party, and was elected to represent

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is also the seat of ...

in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

in 1936. The next year he was elected as a general councillor (''conseiller général'') for Excideuil. In the Chamber of Deputies he served on the Navy committee and the Commerce and Industry committee. In June 1940, he was one of the 80 who voted against the grant of special powers to

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

and the creation of the Vichy régime. This, together with the fact that he was a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, led to his dismissal as general councillor for Excideuil in January 1942. Bedin was active in the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

and was a member of the Comité d'action socialiste, the clandestine form of the banned SFIO. He headed

Libération-sud ''Libération-sud'' ( French for "Liberation-South") was a resistance group active between 1940-1944 and created in the Free Zone of France during the Second World War in order to fight against the Nazi occupation through coordinated sabotage a ...

in the ''département''s of

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

and

Corrèze Corrèze (; ) is a département in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, on the bo ...

. He was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

on 8 October 1943 and deported to

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flos ...

, later being moved to a camp in German-occupied

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. He later received the

Médaille de la Résistance The Resistance Medal (, ) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 February 1943 "to recognize the ...

for his services and was made a commander of the Légion d'honneur. On being freed in 1945 he returned to France where he sat in the

Provisional Consultative Assembly The Provisional Consultative Assembly (, ) was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resistance movements, political parties, and ter ...

. He failed to win re-election as ''conseiller général'' in October 1945 and did not stand for election to the new

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

. He served as mayor of Excideuil until he retired from politics altogether in 1957 following the death of his wife.

References and further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bedin, Camille Fernand 1893 births 1979 deaths People from Cher (department) French Section of the Workers' International politicians Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of Parliament for Dordogne Members of the Provisional Consultative Assembly French Freemasons French military personnel of World War I The Vichy 80 French Resistance members Flossenbürg concentration camp survivors Commanders of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Resistance Medal