Jacques de Bernonville

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Jacques de Bernonville
de Bernonville in 1938
Born(1897-12-20)20 December 1897
Paris, France
Died26 April 1972(1972-04-26) (aged 74)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Cause of deathMurder by asphyxiation
OrganizationMilice
Political partyAction Française

French Jews to Drancy and extermination camps
. After his escape from France, he was convicted in absentia of war crimes and sentenced to death.

He was aided in entering

Supreme Court of Brazil refused to approve an extradition order. He was murdered by asphyxiation in 1972 by his servant's son.[1]

Early life and education

Count Jacques Dugé de Bernonville was born in

Jesuit
schools. He became aligned with reactionary political groups.

Career

In 1938, he was imprisoned for several months, charged with having taken part in the conspiracy of

terrorist
group. He was released because of lack of proof.

Following the 1940 defeat of France against Nazi Germany, Jacques de Bernonville joined the Vichy government. In 1943 he was appointed as a commander of the collaborationist Milice, the Vichy police. Working in conjunction with the head of the Milice Joseph Darnand, de Bernonville hunted down members of the French Resistance. They were almost always summarily executed.

As a right-hand man to

Auschwitz and other German extermination camps
.

Post-war escape to Canada

After the liberation of France by the Allied Forces and the French Resistance, de Bernonville was charged first, by the Dijon special tribunal, with endangering the safety of the State in 1946 and, second, in 1947, of treason by the Toulouse "cour de justice". Found guilty and condemned to death, he fled the country. It is noteworthy that those tribunals were exceptional jurisdictions set up during the "Epuration" to "purge" all organs of state and civil society of those suspected of, or guilty of collaboration with the German occupiers.

Escaping French authorities in 1946, Count de Bernonville sailed to New York City. According to Kevin Henley, professor of history at

Roman Catholic priest Lionel Groulx helped Count de Bernonville get into Quebec and established a new identity as Jacques Benoit.[2] He was welcomed by a significant number of the Quebec nationalist elite, but in 1948, Canadian immigration authorities discovered his identity and instituted deportation proceedings. In an attempt to keep Count de Bernonville in Canada, 143 Quebec notables signed a 1950 petition defending him and stating that he should be allowed to stay.[3] Signers included the secretary general of the Université de Montréal; Camillien Houde, mayor of the city of Montreal; plus Camille Laurin and Denis Lazure, two future cabinet ministers in the Parti Québécois
government.

Faced with a deportation order, Count de Bernonville fled again, going to

Supreme Court of Brazil
refused to extradite him in October 1957. Count de Bernonville remained in Brazil. He died in 1972, murdered by the son of his servant.

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-88978-153-5
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-7748-2395-1
    .
  3. ^ Commons, Canada Parliament House of (1950). Official Report of Debates, House of Commons. Queen's Printer. pp. 396–398.
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