Maurice Bardèche

File:Maurice Bardèche.png

Maurice Bardèche (b. 1 October 1907 in Dun-sur-Auron, France; d. 30 July 1998 in Canet-Plage, France) was a French essayist, literary and art critic, journalist, Holocaust revisionist, and a prominent nationalist.

Life

He was also the brother-in-law of the "collaborationist" novelist, poet and journalist Robert Brasillach, executed in 1945. Leftist Wikipedia claims that Bardèche was "one of the leading exponents of neo-fascism in post–World War II Europe" and to have been involved in the founding of various organizations.

In 1948, he wrote the book Nuremberg ou la Terre promise (Nuremberg or the Promised Land), critical of the Nuremberg trials. This has been claimed to be the origin of Holocaust revisionism by some politically correct sources. Prominent Holocaust revisionist Carlo Mattogno has criticized this, stating that Bardèche has been "promoted for tactical purposes to the world's first revisionist", but that the book actually was not Holocaust revisionist. See also Paul Rassinier.

However, other aspects caused the book to banned in France, copies of it were seized, and Bardèche in 1952 was sentenced to a year in prison, although he spent only a few weeks there before being pardoned. Also in 1952, he founded the journal Défense de l'Occident, where Paul Rassinier was a frequent contributor.

Academic career

Bardèche was born in a modest family of Dun-sur-Auron in the Cher department on 1 October 1907. A product of the educational opportunities of the Third Republic, Bardèche had received a scholarship, and completed hypokhâgne at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. There, he met Thierry Maulnier and his future brother-in-law Robert Brasillach, establishing lifelong connections. In 1928, he entered the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), where he met with the philosopher Simone Weil (whom he nicknamed the "Red Virgin", after Louise Michel), Claude Jamet, Jacques Soustelle, Roger Vailland and Georges Pompidou, future President of France. He was received at the Agrégation (literary section) in 1932, and started teaching at the Sorbonne University. A year later, he described himself as "a snail withdrawn into its shell"..

He was heavily influenced by the nationalist intellectual Maurice Barrès and the leader of the monarchist Action Française (AF), Charles Maurras

Bardèche initially came to prominence as an associate of Brasillach and Maulnier, writing in their journals from 1933 to 1935, essentially as a literary chroniquer. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he traveled several times to the country and wrote with Brasillach a History of the Spanish War, in which he supported the Spanish Nationalists. His support of fascism (broad sense) may be dated to this period. Bardèche also co-authored with Brasillach a History of Cinema (1935), a work that influenced cinema history for years. .

Bardèche completed his thesis on Balzac in 1940, titled La formation de l’art du roman chez Balzac jusqu’à la publication du Père Goriot, from which he would publish a biography, Balzac romancier. He continued to teach at the Sorbonne, moving to the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille from 1942-4. He then became recognized for his critical works.

Bardèche began to write for the national journal Je suis partout in 1938. During the German occupation, he didn't take a position. After the execution of Brasillach he claimed that the Resistance's excesses, the bombing of Dresden and post-"liberation" atrocities were war crimes .

After World War II

After the "Liberation", he was briefly arrested for "Collaborationism" but quickly released, while his brother-in-law, Robert Brasillach, was executed. He considered this as criminal. Bardèche was expelled from the National Education, proscribed from giving courses in the public education system. He then founded his own literary publishing house, Les Sept Couleurs (The Seven Colours), and also founded a national journal titled Défense de l'Occident in 1952, dedicating himself to rehabilitating Brasillach's works and ideology .

He wrote a Lettre à François Mauriac in 1947, in which he attacked the épuration légale (legal purge) of Vichy supporters, defended Collaborationism and criticized Resistance members whom he called "rebels against legality". His 1948 follow-up, Nuremberg ou la Terre Promise, which was an attack on the Nuremberg trials and one of the earliest expression of Holocaust revisionism, saw him sentenced to a year's imprisonment for "apology of war crimes", while the book was censored. This feat saw him become recognized as one of the leading nationalists. However, Bardèche never served his prison term, as his sentence was commuted by President René Coty, but he was imprisoned for a few weeks in Fresnes.

He was a founder of the European Social Movement (MSE) in 1951 and became its vice-president, which brought him together with leaders such as Oswald Mosley, Karl-Heinz Priester and Per Engdahl. He continued publishing his journal Défense de l'Occident from 1952-1982, in which ideas of a European nationalism were espoused.

In 1952, he wrote another Holocaust revisionist book, basing it on Paul Rassinier's arguments. Bardèche self-described himself as a fascist, in the introduction to his 1961 work Qu'est-ce que le fascisme? "I am a fascist writer". He was particularly attracted to the Italian Social Republic and sought to use that model as the basis for a more contemporary ideology that he termed fascisme amélioré ("improved fascism"). Bardèche also became a leading Holocaust revisionist and wrote extensively on the subject in his later life.

Death

He died in Paris in 1998. He was described as "a prophet of a European renaissance for which he had long hoped" by Jean-Marie Le Pen [1], leader of the National Front party.

External links

• Bardèche, Maurice
• Maurice Bardèche’s Vision of the Future, Part I
  • Maurice Bardèche’s Vision of the Future: Excerpts from “Nuremberg or the Promised Land”
• Nuremberg or the Promised Land