Jean zay biography livrelief

Jean Zay

French politician and anti-Nazi resistant (–)

Jean Élie Paul Zay (6 August – 20 June ) was a French politician. He served as Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from until He was imprisoned by the Vichy government from August until he was murdered in

Early life

Zay was born in Orléans, in the department of Loiret, about kilometres (81&#;mi) south of Paris. His father, Leon Zay, descended from a Jewish family from Metz, but was born and died in Orléans, where he was the director of a radical socialist regional newspaper, Le Progrès du Loiret. His mother Alice Chartrain was a Protestant and a teacher. He grew up with his sister in the Protestant religion.

Zay was educated at the Lycée Pothier in Orléans, and became a lawyer in He was politically active from his early days, joining the Radical Party aged

With his wife, Madeleine Dreux, he had two daughters, Catherine Martin-Zay, and Hélène Mouchard-Zay (born ).

Political career

In May , he was elected to the French parliament as député to represent Loiret, for the Radical Socialist Party. He defeated the incumbent representative of the Popular Democratic Party, Maurice Berger. He became one of the Jeunes Turcs (Young Turks) who wanted to renew the Radical Party, and was instrumental in the party joining the Popular Front in After the election, he was the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from June While serving in his position, he extended the school leaving age and introduced a common curriculum in elementary schools.^[1]

In , Jean Zay proposed the creation of an international film event in France, which was planned to debut in Cannes in Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, the inauguration of the Cannes Film Festival was postponed until ^[2]

He was a freemason.^[3]

Second World War

He resigned as minister in to join the French Army on the outbreak of the Second World War, serving as a second lieutenant attached to the headquarters of the Fourth Army. He remained a député until , and he was given leave to attend the last session of the French Parliament, held in Bordeaux in June After the invasion of France by Nazi Germany in , he was one of the passengers aboard the vessel Le Massilia that left from Bordeaux bound for Casablanca on 21 June , with the intention of forming a resistance government in North Africa. He was arrested in August , for desertion, and returned to France where he was held at the military prison in Clermont-Ferrand.

A press campaign, organised by Philippe Henriot, the minister of information in the Vichy government, called for his execution for being "Jewish, freemason and member of the Radical Party",^[4]^[5] and pointing to his anti-war poem of March , Le Drapeau (The Flag), as evidence of his lack of patriotism. In October , Zay was put on trial by the Vichy regime at the courthouse in Clermont-Ferrand for desertion after he boarded the liner SS Massilia for Casablanca in Morocco to continue the fight against the Nazis. He was sentenced to deportation.^[6]^[7] Held in Marseille, his sentence was commuted to one of internment in France, and he was held in the prison in Riom, sharing a cell with Rabbi Edward Gourévitch. He was allowed to communicate with friends and family, and did not attempt to escape. He was removed from the prison by three miliciens on 20 June , Henri Millou, Charles Develle and Pierre Cordier, purportedly so he could be transferred to Melun. They murdered him in a wood near an abandoned quarry, at a place called Les Malavaux in the faille du Puits du diable, at Molles in Allier.^[8]

Post-war rehabilitation

Zay's conviction was posthumously annulled by the appeal court in Riom in July His body was found with those of two others in , under a pile of stones. The three were initially reburied together in Cusset, but Zay's body was exhumed in and identified through his dental records. The surviving milicien Charles Develle was convicted of Zay's murder in February , and sentenced to forced labour for life, but released in Zay was buried in Orléans in A memorial was erected near the site of his death in Molles, and a plaque at his high school in Orléans. The rue Jean Zay in Trélazé is named after him.

A French literary prize, the Prix Jean-Zay, was created and named in his honour in

In March , French PresidentFrançois Hollande announced his intention to recognize Jean Zay at the Panthéon in Paris as a leading figure in the Resistance, along with Pierre Brossolette, Germaine Tillion, and Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz.^[9] The official ceremony was held on 27 May , National Day of Resistance.