View source for Jacques Doriot

{{short description|French journalist, communist, later fascist politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Jacques Doriot
| image               = Jacques Doriot PPF.jpg
| image_size          = 
| alt                 = 
| caption             = Picture of Doriot during the occupation, 1941
| office              = Leader of [[French Popular Party]]
| successor           = Christian Lesueur
| term_start          = 28 June 1936
| term_end            = 22 February 1945
| office1             = [[Mayor (France)|Mayor]] of [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint-Denis]]
| predecessor1        = Gaston Venet
| successor1          = Fernand Grenier
| term_start1         = 1 February 1931
| term_end1           = 25 May 1937
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1898|09|26|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Bresles]], [[Oise]], [[French Third Republic|France]]
| death_cause         = Air attack
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1945|02|22|1898|09|26|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Mengen, Germany|Mengen]], [[Württemberg]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]
| resting_place       = [[Mengen, Germany|Mengen]], [[Germany]]
| nationality         = [[French people|French]]
| spouse              = Madeleine Claire Raffinot 
| occupation          = Politician
| party               = [[French Communist Party]] {{small|(1928–1934)}}<br />Independent {{small|(1934–1936)}}<br />[[French Popular Party]] {{small|(1936–1945)}}
| allegiance          = {{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}<br />{{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}
| branch              = {{army|France}} (1916)<br />{{military|Nazi Germany}} (1941)<br />{{flag icon|Schutzstaffel}} [[Waffen-SS]] (1944)
| unit                = [[Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism]]
| serviceyears        = 1916–1918 ([[French Third Republic]])<br />1941–1944 ([[Nazi Germany]])
| rank                = [[Oberleutnant]] ([[Wehrmacht]])<br />[[Sturmbannführer]] ([[Waffen-SS]])
| battles             = [[First World War]]<br />[[Second World War]]
| mawards             = [[Croix de Guerre]]<br />[[Iron Cross|Iron Cross Second Class]]<br />[[War Merit Cross|War Merit Cross Second Class]]<br />[[Eastern Front Medal]]
}}
{{Fascism sidebar}}
'''Jacques Maurice Doriot''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒak dɔʁjo|lang}}; 26 September 1898 – 22 February 1945) was a French politician, initially communist, later fascist, before and during [[World War II]].

In 1936, after his exclusion from the [[French Communist Party]], he founded the [[French Popular Party]] (PPF) and took over the newspaper ''[[La Liberté (French newspaper)|La Liberté]]'', which took a stand against the [[Popular front|Popular Front]].

During the war, Doriot was a radical supporter of [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaboration]] and contributed to the creation of the [[Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism|Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism]] (LVF). He fought personally in German uniform on the Eastern Front, with the rank of lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jacques Doriot |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095727332 |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en }}</ref>

==Early life and politics==
Doriot was born on 26{{nbsp}}September 1898 in [[Bresles]], [[Oise]], France to Georges Octave and Augustine Diéraert. He moved to [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint Denis]], near Paris, at an early age and became a labourer. In 1916, in the midst of World War I, he became a committed [[Socialism|socialist]], but his political activity was halted by his joining the [[French Army]] in 1917. Participating in active combat during [[World War I]], Doriot was captured by enemy troops and remained a [[prisoner of war]] until 1918. For his wartime service, especially for rescuing a fellow wounded soldier from [[No man's land|no-mans-land]], Doriot was awarded the [[Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de guerre]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carrier |first=Fred James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9B8AAAAMAAJ&q=Jacques+Doriot+croix+de+guerre |title=Jacques Doriot: A Political Biography |date=1968 |publisher=University of Wisconsin |pages=6 |language=en}}</ref>

After being released, he returned to France and in 1920 joined the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF), quickly rising through the party - within a few years, he had become one of the PCF's major leaders. In 1922 he became a member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the [[Comintern]], and a year later was made Secretary of the [[Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France|French Federation of Young Communists]]. In 1923, Doriot was arrested for violently protesting [[Occupation of the Ruhr|French occupation of the Ruhr Area]]. He was released a year later, upon being elected to the [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|French Chamber of Deputies]] (the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] equivalent of the [[French National Assembly|National Assembly]]) by the people of Saint Denis.

==Fascism==
In 1931, Doriot was elected [[mayor]] of [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint Denis]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlD0JS16w9oC&dq=Jacques+Doriot+mayor+1931&pg=PA9 |title=The French Empire Between the Wars: Imperialism, Politics and Society |date=2005 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6518-7 |language=en}}</ref> Around this time, he opposed the "[[social fascism]]" theory and came to advocate a [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] alliance between the Communists and other French socialist parties with whom Doriot sympathized on a number of issues and worried that exclusion would alienate valuable political allies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoisington |first=William A. |date=1970 |title=Class Against Class: The French Communist Party and the Comintern: A Study of Election Tactics in 1928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44581635 |journal=International Review of Social History |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=19–42, 28 |doi=10.1017/S0020859000003746 |jstor=44581635 |issn=0020-8590}}</ref> Although this would soon become official Communist Party policy, at the time it was seen as heretical and Doriot was expelled from the Communist Party in 1934.<ref>Alexander 145.</ref> This expulsion provoked a great sadness in Doriot, but above all a great anger and a thirst for revenge against the PCF leadership.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1998-12-30 |title=Les grands exclus du PCF. |url=http://www.liberation.fr/evenement/1998/12/30/les-grands-exclus-du-pcf_254623 |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=Libération.fr |language=fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803171454/http://www.liberation.fr/evenement/1998/12/30/les-grands-exclus-du-pcf_254623 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Jacques Doriot 1936.jpg|thumb|left|Doriot speaking at the first meeting of the French Popular Party, 1936]]
Still a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Doriot struck back at the Communists who had renounced him: now bitter towards the [[Comintern]], his views turned to embrace the French nation, evolving into a 'national' socialism—as opposed to the socialism of the [[Communist International|Third International]]. By now embodying fascist more than socialist ideals, Doriot founded the [[ultra-nationalist]] ''[[Parti Populaire Français]]'' (PPF) in 1936.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lepage |first=Jean-Denis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUKqDQAAQBAJ&dq=Doriot+founded+the+ultra-nationalist+Parti+Populaire+Fran%C3%A7ais+(PPF)+in+1936&pg=PT151 |title=Hitler's Stormtroopers: The SA, The Nazis' Brownshirts, 1922–1945 |date=2016-12-19 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1-84832-427-5 |language=en}}</ref> Doriot and his supporters were vocal advocates of France becoming organized along the lines of [[Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime .281922.E2.80.931943.29|Fascist Italy]] and [[Nazi Germany]] and were bitter opponents of Socialist Premier [[Léon Blum]] and his [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] coalition.

==Collaboration==
[[File:Robert Brasillach, Jacques Doriot, Claude Jeantet.jpg|thumb|left|[[Robert Brasillach]], Jacques Doriot and [[Claude Jeantet]] photographed on the Eastern Front, 1943]]
When France went to war with Germany in 1939, Doriot was mobilized and fought at the front as a sergeant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fascism - Extreme Nationalism, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Extreme-nationalism |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> After the armistice in June 1940, he was demobilized. He became a staunch pro-German and supported [[Military Administration in France (Nazi Germany)|Germany's occupation of northern France]] in 1940, specifically due to Hitler's anti-Bolshevik policy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saxena |first=Shalini |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TX9hDwAAQBAJ&dq=Doriot,+subordinated+their+nationalism+to+Hitler%E2%80%99s+crusade+against+bolshevism&pg=PA75 |title=Dictatorship, Fascism, and Totalitarianism |date=2014-07-15 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc |isbn=978-1-62275-350-5 |pages=75 |language=en}}</ref> Doriot resided in [[Wartime collaboration|collaborationist]] [[Vichy France]] for a time and was made a member of the National Council of Vichy France in January 1941, but he eventually found that the Vichy regime was not nearly as Fascist as he had hoped it would be and moved to occupied Paris, where he espoused pro-German and anti-communist propaganda on [[Radio Paris]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Fenby |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhuNIR6GKPcC&dq=%22radio+paris%22+doriot&pg=PT71 |title=The General: Charles De Gaulle and the France He Saved |date=2010-06-24 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-85720-067-9 |language=en}}</ref> In 1941, he and fellow fascist collaborator [[Marcel Déat]] founded the ''[[Légion des Volontaires Français]]'' (LVF), a French unit of the [[Wehrmacht]].<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Jacques Doriot na froncie w Normandii. (2-364).jpg|thumb|Doriot in conversation with residents of the [[Battle of Saint-Lô|destroyed]] city of [[Saint-Lô]], July 1944.]]
Doriot fought with the LVF and saw active duty on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and was awarded the [[Iron Cross]] in 1943.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Milner |first1=S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QCBDAAAQBAJ&dq=Jacques+Doriot+iron+cross&pg=PA170 |title=Reinventing France: State and Society in the Twenty-First Century |last2=Parsons |first2=N. |date=2003-11-25 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4039-4818-2 |pages=170 |language=en}}</ref> In his absence leadership of the PPF officially passed to a directorate, although real power came to lie with [[Maurice-Yvan Sicard]].<ref>David Littlejohn, ''[[The Patriotic Traitors]]'', London: Heinemann, 1972, p. 272</ref> In December 1944, Doriot travelled to Germany and made contact with the former members of the Vichy regime and other collaborators who had gathered together in the [[Sigmaringen enclave]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mauthner |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i16VEAAAQBAJ&dq=radio+paris+doriot&pg=PT441 |title=Otto Abetz and His Paris Acolytes: French Writers Who Flirted with Fascism, 1930-1945 |date=2016-04-26 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78284-295-8 |language=en}}</ref> Doriot's PPF struggled to assume a leadership role within the French expatriate community, basing itself in [[Mainau]] and setting up its own radio station, ''Radio-Patrie'', at [[Bad Mergentheim]] and publishing its own paper ''Le Petit Parisien''.<ref>Olivier Pigoreau, "Rendez-vous tragique à Mengen" 53-61 in (2009) 34 ''Batailles: l'Histoire Militaire du XXe siècle''</ref> The PPF was also involved in conducting intelligence and sabotage activities by supplying some volunteers whom the Germans dropped by parachute into liberated France.<ref>Pierre-Philippe Lambert and Gérard Le Marrec, ''Les Français sous le casque allemand'' Granchier, 1994. Some 95 Frenchmen were dropped into liberated France, but some were Milice or Franciste members.</ref> He was killed on 22 February 1945 while traveling from Mainau to Sigmaringen when his car was strafed by Allied fighter planes. He was buried in [[Mengen, Germany|Mengen]].<ref>"Doriot, French Pro-Nazi" 4.</ref>

==Family==
Doriot married Madeleine Claire Raffinot (17{{nbsp}}November 1896 {{endash}} 3{{nbsp}}August 1982) on 20{{nbsp}}December 1924.<ref name="fr-oise-arch">{{cite web |title=Acte de naissance n° 88 |url=https://ressources.archives.oise.fr/v2/ark:/44803/g7ecb7bdaf4f233d96c1c3b05fb59a712/2efc62a3bcc3ecfd91fbfe954b094af9/42/YWQ2MF8zZTEwM18yOV8wMDQyX2UuanBn |publisher=Department of Oise |access-date=19 June 2025 |page=42 |language=French}}</ref> The couple had twin daughters, Jacqueline (23{{nbsp}}April 1929 {{endash}} 20{{nbsp}}January 2021) and Madeleine (23{{nbsp}}April 1929 {{endash}} 10{{nbsp}}March 2010). Doriot also had a child with his mistress Ginette Garcia<ref name="dt-12-12-mistress">{{cite news |title=Mistress of Facist Leader Jailed |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/27305412 |access-date=19 June 2025 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]] |date=1945-12-12 |volume=10 | number=227}}</ref> ({{nee}} Dezouche).<ref name="f-s-1945">{{cite news |title=L'amie de Doriot va plaider l'excuse de l'amour |url=https://archive.org/details/francesoir/1945-12-11-ocr/ |language=French |work=[[France-Soir]] |volume=5 |issue=457 |date=1945-12-11}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Nicola Bombacci]], one of the founders of the [[Communist Party of Italy]] but later became a fascist and a supporter of the [[Italian Social Republic]]
* [[Ernest Granger]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Alexander, Martin and Helen Graham (1989). '' The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Allardyce, Gilbert (1966). "The Political Transitions of Jacques Doriot." ''Journal of Contemporary History''. 1 (1966).
*Arnold, Edward (2000). ''The Development of the Radical Right in France: From Boulanger to le Pen''. London: Macmillan.
*(1945). "Jacques Doriot, French Pro-Nazi, is Killed by Allied Fliers, Germans Report." ''[[New York Times]]''. February 24.
*Soucy, Robert (1966). "The Nature of Fascism in France." ''Journal of Contemporary History''. 1 (1966).

==External links==
* {{cite magazine
|title=The Great Is Back
|date=1942-05-11
|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,790459,00.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002042617/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,790459,00.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=October 2, 2008
|access-date=2008-08-10
}} Time Magazine, May 11, 1942.
* {{PM20|FID=pe/004173}}
{{commons}}
{{French far right}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doriot, Jacques}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Oise]]
[[Category:French Communist Party politicians]]
[[Category:French Popular Party politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the 15th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Seine]]
[[Category:Members of the National Council of Vichy France]]
[[Category:Former Marxists]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:La Liberté (French newspaper) editors]]
[[Category:20th-century French journalists]]
[[Category:French Army soldiers]]
[[Category:French broadcasters for Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:French military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:French Waffen-SS personnel killed in action]]
[[Category:French prisoners of war in World War I]]
[[Category:World War I prisoners of war held by Germany]]
[[Category:SS-Sturmbannführer]]
[[Category:Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism personnel killed in action]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939)]]
[[Category:Deaths by airstrike during World War II]]