Pierre Guillaume (22 December 1940 – 11 July 2023) was a French political activist and publisher. He was born in Rambervillers and died in Ambernac. He was the founder of the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

book shop La Vieille Taupe in 1965 and later the Holocaust denying publishing house of the same name. A former member of ''

Socialisme ou Barbarie Socialisme ou Barbarie (SouB; "Socialism or Barbarism") was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period whose name comes from a phrase which was misattributed to Friedrich Engels by Rosa Luxemburg in the ...

'', he moved to ''Pouvoir Ouvrier'' with

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and p ...

and Pierre Souyri.

Biography

Guillaume's name is associated with La Vieille Taupe, which was an ultra left bookstore founded in 1965 and closed in 1972. The name was taken over by Guillaume, Serge Thion and Alain Guionnet in 1979 for the distribution of

Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...

books and the Bordigist pamphlet, '' Auschwitz, or the great alibi''. From 1957 to 1959, he prepared for archery at the

École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (, , abbr. ESM) is a French military academy, and is often referred to as Saint-Cyr (). It is located in Coëtquidan in Guer, Morbihan, Brittany. Its motto is ''Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre'', litera ...

at the Prytanée National Militaire, and became eligible, but changed his mind. He joined

, without playing a "remarkable role" according to the account of

Cornelius Castoriadis Cornelius Castoriadis (; 11 March 1922 – 26 December 1997) was a Greeks in France, Greek-FrenchMemos 2014, p. 18: "he was ... granted full French citizenship in 1970." philosopher, sociologist, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, au ...

. He fought in the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. In 1965, with the help of Jacques Baynac, he opened La Vieille Taupe bookstore, which was linked to the group ''Pouvoir ouvrier'', a French ultra-left group sharing a critical stance to

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

as Socialisme ou Barbarie from whom they had split in 1963. In 1980, Guillaume edited the

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

essay "Some Elementary Comments on the Rights of Freedom of Expression" and the 1996 Roger Garaudy book '' The Founding Myths of Modern Israel''. The politics of Guillaume and other ultra-left Holocaust deniers (including Serge Thion and

Paul Rassinier Paul Rassinier (18 March 1906 – 28 July 1967) was a French political activist and writer who is viewed as "the father of Holocaust denial". Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert; Jacobs, Steven L. "Rassinier, Paul", ''Dictionary of Genoci ...

) have been characterized as "anarcho-Marxist." According to

Alain Finkielkraut Alain Luc Finkielkraut (; ; born 30 June 1949) is a French essayist, radio producer, and public intellectual. Since 1986, he has been the host of ''Répliques'', a talk show broadcast weekly on France Culture. He was elected a Fellow of the Ac ...

, Guillaume's commitment to Holocaust denial stemmed from his ultra-left politics, rather than from antisemitism. The genocide of the Jews was seen by Guillaume and others as a distraction from

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

, and as playing into the hands of

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

ideologies, and was hence denied.

Biography

References

See also