Breton nationalism and World War II
Encyclopedia
Before and during World War II, the Breton
nationalist movements were associated, as a whole, with anti-French and even pro-Nazi positions. The extent of and motivation for these affiliations has been a matter of historical controversy.
remained organized; dissolved in 1939, it was rapidly reconstituted in the autumn of 1940 and became the most active political party in Brittany under the Occupation. Having broken in 1931 from regionalism, its founders (Olier Mordrel
and François Debeauvais
) were inspired by the Irish Revolution and played the nationalist card. When war broke out, the Breton National Party
chose a position of strict neutrality. This party's ideas were anti-democratic and complacent towards xenophobia and antisemitism, influenced by German racism and close to all the varieties of European fascism. During the war the activism of the Breton National Party completely dominated the other branches of the Breton movement, who found themselves discredited.
. On 22 January 1941, the Vichy government named Hervé Budes de Guébriant President of the National Commission for Agricultural Cooperation. The daily journal La Bretagne was created by Yann Fouéré on 21 March 1941. It took a regionalist point of view, opposed to the separatism of the Breton National Party
. An appreciable number of Breton nationalists were also to be found in the Consultative Committee of Brittany, created on 11 October 1942 by Jean Quénette, prefect of the region of Brittany. "An organization of study and work", according to Yvonnig Gicquel, it did not wield any executive or decisive powers (against the wishes of the provincial parliament which conceived the adoption of the Breton regionalist doctrine). The will of its members (including members of the Breton National Party Yann Fouéré, Joseph Martray, etc.) was to transform this consultative committee into a true legislative assembly to tackle regional problems. Many of its members were to resurface when CELIB was created.
The work of Henri Fréville
and Kristian Hamon have opened up this field for research. Three different periods can be considered.
Before 1939, Germany was trying to stop France and the United Kingdom from entering the war. During the phony war
, Germany planned to favor regionalist movements (particularly those of Flanders
and Brittany) in order to undermine France. This was in revenge for the Treaty of Versailles
. and to ensure that Germany remained the only Continental power, with no threats on its western border. Some weapons were delivered but never used. By the end of June and early July some Breton nationalists could take it for granted independence of Brittany on the good way when the Germans appointed a military governor in Brittany ruling over the five départements of ancient Brittany.
But after the defeat of France a settlement was quickly made with the occupying power. The projects to undermine France were abandoned and the support for the nationalists disappeared (in particular it was formally forbidden to proclaim a Breton state or to harm public order). Moreover, the formal annexation of Alsace-Lorraine was never proclaimed. After the Conference of Montoire nationalist movements were simply tolerated (transport permits were given as well as authorizations for purchases of gasoline that soon meant little in practice), and German support went no further than preventing the Vichy regime from suppressing the nationalist movements.
ideology. Other Nationalists, such as Perrot, adopted a more conservative-Catholic stance consistent with longstanding Breton anti-radical ideologies that had emerged among the Royalist-Catholic "Whites" during the French Revolution.
Nazi scholar Rudolf Schlichting toured the region and sent the following comment to his superiors: "from a racial point of view there would be no objection to a Germanization of the Breton population. It is evident that we have no interest in promoting the Breton national consciousness, once the separation [with France] is accomplished. Not a penny should be spent on the promotion of the Breton language. The French language will however be replaced by German. In one generation Brittany will be a predominately (sic) German country. This goal is definitely attainable through the schools, the authorities, the army and the press."
and Alan Heusaff
began collaborating with the Germans to one degree or another. The example of Ireland, or even the ideal of an independent Brittany - continued to be their reference points. Recent studies have shown the close links that Breton separatist leaders such Célestin Lainé
and Alan Louarn had with German military intelligence (the Abwehr
), going back well before the war, to the 1920s. After the defeat of 1940 the Germans used these separatist agents in military operations or in repression against the Resistance. A short-lived breakaway faction of the Breton National Party, created in 1941, was the Mouvement Ouvrier Social-National Breton (Breton National-Socialist Workers Movement) led by Théophile Jeusset
.
— developed the doctrine of the Brezona movement: supremacy of the Breton race, formation of a national community, and government by the elite. This movement was to have but a brief existence. To prevent a possible takeover of the BNP by this splinter group, Yann Goulet
appeared at Nantes
to pronounce the excommunication of the Brezona "deviationists." With his revolver in plain sight on the hip of the black uniform he wore as chief of the Youth Organizations, he left no doubt as to his intentions. The Nantes PNB meeting, at which the Brezona movement had hoped to take control, took place without incident.
and Alan Heusaff
. As many as 70 to 80 people joined its ranks at one point or another, with typically 30 to 66 at any one time depending on recruiting and defection. At the end of the war a handful of Breton militants decided to ask for German support in the face of the assassination of several leading figures of the Breton cultural movement, such as Abbé Perrot
. Having originally been named Bezen Kadoudal, the 1943 assassination of the priest prompted Lainé to give his name to the organization in December of that year.
It had already been envisaged by German strategists that in the event of Allied invasion the Breton nationalists would form a rearguard, and that further nationalist troops could be parachuted into Brittany. In late 1943 sabotage dumps had been hidden for use by the militia.
, on August 7, 1943. Yann Goulet, their leader, forbade participation in Bezen Perrot
.
. Formed at the end of April 1944 in Landerneau
, the Landerneau Kommando
took part in these units. It was composed of 18 German soldiers and ten French agents (some of whom were Breton separatists as well as former Resistance members). They fought against the maquis
(rural French Resistance units) of Trégarantec
, Rosnoen
, and Ploumordien. Several Resistance members were tortured, and the Kommando also summarily executed some prisoners.
, killed on 12 December 1943 by Jean Thépaut, a member of the Communist Resistance. Earlier, on the 3 September, Yann Bricler had been shot in his office by three FTP members, and similarly Yves Kerhoas was killed by the Resistance when leaving a fete in the village of Plouvenez. Jeanne Coroller was kidnapped and stabbed to death on July 13, 1944.
When American troops arrived in 1944, communist maquis members began their repressive actions. Jeanne Coroller-Danio
, the Breton historian who worked under the name Danio, was beaten to death along with her brother-in-law, Commander Le Minthier ; the Tastevint brothers were castrated, and the Maubré sisters and their brother were savagely murdered in Morbihan
.
The BNP, dissolved along with the French Communist Party
in 1939, no longer legally existed. Its activists were hunted down and not distinguished from the Breton militants who wore the symbol of the dukes of Brittany ("ermine-trimmed berets"). Many were deported to detention camps; notably at the Camp Marguerite in Rennes where 150 nationalists were detained for alleged collaborationism. The Breton nationalists sought to defend the fact that their widespread image as an overtly fascist, even Nazi, movement had nothing to do with the actual political backgrounds of their activists, as varied as the Action française
(royalist), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist), the separatist Breton National Party
(PAB), or the French Communist Party. Moreover, Yann Goulet received financial and public backing from several communist militants at the time of the Liberation. Other militants accused of collaboration demonstrated to the courts that they had protected Jewish families during the occupation (Alan Eon–Yann Goulet
).
Still today, some people are worried by the "collective amnesia" of the current Breton autonomist movement about World War II or by their attempts to rehabilitate the nationalist collaborationnists.
On the other hand, the standpoint of the Breton nationalists consider that the representation of the Breton nationalism during World War II in the medias is a pretext to discredit the current aspirations of the autonomist movement, such as the recognition of linguistic rights.
which would have given Brittany a number of political freedoms after the return of peace. According to Yann Fouéré, this plan was close in spirit to the one that the Breton Consultative Committee wanted to submit in 1943 to Marshal Petain. Neither of these two plans resulted in anything.
has often concealed a very different reality, for example the members of Bagadou Stourm who founded the Forces Bretonnes de l'Intérieur (Breton Forces of the Interior, a Breton wing of de Gaulle's French Forces of the Interior), and were deported to Buchenwald.
(composed of young former members of Bagadoù stourm), pro-British feeling was the determining factor in pushing them to ally themselves with the Resistance. The Liberty Group, under the name of Bataillon de la Poche ("Pocket Battalion"), helped to liberate Saint-Nazaire from a pocket of German holdouts in May 1945.
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
nationalist movements were associated, as a whole, with anti-French and even pro-Nazi positions. The extent of and motivation for these affiliations has been a matter of historical controversy.
Situation before World War II
Before the occupation, Breton nationalists were split between regionalism, federalism, and separatism. Essentially these factions, though divided, remained insensitive and frankly hostile to democratic ideals. Among these groups, only the openly separatist Breton National PartyBreton National Party
The Breton National Party was a nationalist party in Brittany that existed from 1931 to 1944. The party was disbanded after the liberation of France in World War II, because of ties to the Nazi party....
remained organized; dissolved in 1939, it was rapidly reconstituted in the autumn of 1940 and became the most active political party in Brittany under the Occupation. Having broken in 1931 from regionalism, its founders (Olier Mordrel
Olier Mordrel
Olier Mordrel is the Breton language version of Olivier Mordrelle, a Breton nationalist and wartime collaborator with the Third Reich who founded the separatist Breton National Party. Before the war he worked as an architect. His architectural work was influenced by Art Deco and the International...
and François Debeauvais
François Debeauvais
François Debeauvais was a Breton nationalist and wartime collaborator with Nazi Germany. His name is also spelled in many "Breton" variants: François Debauvais, Fransez Debeauvais, Fransez Debauvais, Fañch Debeauvais, Fañch Debauvais, Fañch deb.-Breiz Atao:Debeauvais was the son of a gardener from...
) were inspired by the Irish Revolution and played the nationalist card. When war broke out, the Breton National Party
Breton National Party
The Breton National Party was a nationalist party in Brittany that existed from 1931 to 1944. The party was disbanded after the liberation of France in World War II, because of ties to the Nazi party....
chose a position of strict neutrality. This party's ideas were anti-democratic and complacent towards xenophobia and antisemitism, influenced by German racism and close to all the varieties of European fascism. During the war the activism of the Breton National Party completely dominated the other branches of the Breton movement, who found themselves discredited.
Collaboration with the Vichy regime
On 15 December 1940 a "petition" signed by 46 Bretons requesting "administrative autonomy" in the confines of a united France was sent to Philippe PétainPhilippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
. On 22 January 1941, the Vichy government named Hervé Budes de Guébriant President of the National Commission for Agricultural Cooperation. The daily journal La Bretagne was created by Yann Fouéré on 21 March 1941. It took a regionalist point of view, opposed to the separatism of the Breton National Party
Breton National Party
The Breton National Party was a nationalist party in Brittany that existed from 1931 to 1944. The party was disbanded after the liberation of France in World War II, because of ties to the Nazi party....
. An appreciable number of Breton nationalists were also to be found in the Consultative Committee of Brittany, created on 11 October 1942 by Jean Quénette, prefect of the region of Brittany. "An organization of study and work", according to Yvonnig Gicquel, it did not wield any executive or decisive powers (against the wishes of the provincial parliament which conceived the adoption of the Breton regionalist doctrine). The will of its members (including members of the Breton National Party Yann Fouéré, Joseph Martray, etc.) was to transform this consultative committee into a true legislative assembly to tackle regional problems. Many of its members were to resurface when CELIB was created.
German politics
Henri Fréville
Henri Fréville was a French history professor, resistor, writer and politician.-Life:...
and Kristian Hamon have opened up this field for research. Three different periods can be considered.
Before 1939, Germany was trying to stop France and the United Kingdom from entering the war. During the phony war
Phony War
The Phoney War was a phase early in World War II – in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940 – that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies against the German Reich...
, Germany planned to favor regionalist movements (particularly those of Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and Brittany) in order to undermine France. This was in revenge for the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. and to ensure that Germany remained the only Continental power, with no threats on its western border. Some weapons were delivered but never used. By the end of June and early July some Breton nationalists could take it for granted independence of Brittany on the good way when the Germans appointed a military governor in Brittany ruling over the five départements of ancient Brittany.
But after the defeat of France a settlement was quickly made with the occupying power. The projects to undermine France were abandoned and the support for the nationalists disappeared (in particular it was formally forbidden to proclaim a Breton state or to harm public order). Moreover, the formal annexation of Alsace-Lorraine was never proclaimed. After the Conference of Montoire nationalist movements were simply tolerated (transport permits were given as well as authorizations for purchases of gasoline that soon meant little in practice), and German support went no further than preventing the Vichy regime from suppressing the nationalist movements.
Ideology
Bretons were not considered untermenschen (subhuman) by the Nazi racial theorists, as opposed to the Slavs, for example. Mordrel, Lainé and some other Celticists argued that the Bretons were a 'pure' strain of the Celtic race, who had retained their "Nordic" qualities, a view consistent with Nazi master raceMaster race
Master race was a phrase and concept originating in the slave-holding Southern US. The later phrase Herrenvolk , interpreted as 'master race', was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic peoples, one of the branches of what in the late-19th and early-20th century was called the Aryan race,...
ideology. Other Nationalists, such as Perrot, adopted a more conservative-Catholic stance consistent with longstanding Breton anti-radical ideologies that had emerged among the Royalist-Catholic "Whites" during the French Revolution.
Strategic rationale
A main intention of the German occupiers was to break French national unity. Its support for Breton nationalism needs to be seen in this wider context which included other aspects, for example the division of France into the occupied zone and the Vichy zone. But Breton nationalists very soon realized that Germany was in practice trying to keep its friends in the Vichy government content and therefore refusing to give any priority at all to the Breton nationalist demands.Nazi scholar Rudolf Schlichting toured the region and sent the following comment to his superiors: "from a racial point of view there would be no objection to a Germanization of the Breton population. It is evident that we have no interest in promoting the Breton national consciousness, once the separation [with France] is accomplished. Not a penny should be spent on the promotion of the Breton language. The French language will however be replaced by German. In one generation Brittany will be a predominately (sic) German country. This goal is definitely attainable through the schools, the authorities, the army and the press."
Breton National Party
Important members of the Breton National Party including Morvan LebesqueMorvan Lebesque
Morvan Lebesque , was the Breton language name of Maurice Lebesque, a Breton nationalist activist and French journalist....
and Alan Heusaff
Alan Heusaff
Alan Heusaff, also Alan Heussaff was a Breton nationalist, linguist, dictionary compiler, prolific journalist and lifetime campaigner for solidarity between the Celtic peoples...
began collaborating with the Germans to one degree or another. The example of Ireland, or even the ideal of an independent Brittany - continued to be their reference points. Recent studies have shown the close links that Breton separatist leaders such Célestin Lainé
Célestin Lainé
Célestin Lainé was a Breton nationalist and collaborator during the Second World War who led the SS affiliated Bezen Perrot militia. His Breton language name is Neven Hénaff. He was a chemical engineer by training. After the war he lived in Ireland.- Breton terrorism :He was born in 1908 in Nantes...
and Alan Louarn had with German military intelligence (the Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
), going back well before the war, to the 1920s. After the defeat of 1940 the Germans used these separatist agents in military operations or in repression against the Resistance. A short-lived breakaway faction of the Breton National Party, created in 1941, was the Mouvement Ouvrier Social-National Breton (Breton National-Socialist Workers Movement) led by Théophile Jeusset
Théophile Jeusset
Théophile Jeusset, was a Breton nationalist writer and fascist political activist. He is also known by his Breton language pseudonym Jean-Yves Keraudren....
.
Brezona
At the end of 1940, Job Loyant — along with Kalondan, André Lajat, and Yves Favreul-Ronarc'h, a former leader of the Breton National Party in Loire-AtlantiqueLoire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...
— developed the doctrine of the Brezona movement: supremacy of the Breton race, formation of a national community, and government by the elite. This movement was to have but a brief existence. To prevent a possible takeover of the BNP by this splinter group, Yann Goulet
Yann Goulet
Yann Goulet was a sculptor, Breton nationalist and war-time collaborationist with Nazi Germany who headed the Breton Bagadou Stourm militia. He later took Irish citizenship and became professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy.-Early career:Goulet was born in Saint-Nazaire...
appeared at Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
to pronounce the excommunication of the Brezona "deviationists." With his revolver in plain sight on the hip of the black uniform he wore as chief of the Youth Organizations, he left no doubt as to his intentions. The Nantes PNB meeting, at which the Brezona movement had hoped to take control, took place without incident.
Bezen Perrot
A number of Breton nationalists made a dramatic choice, choosing to join a German militia: the Bezen Perrot organization, led by Célestin LainéCélestin Lainé
Célestin Lainé was a Breton nationalist and collaborator during the Second World War who led the SS affiliated Bezen Perrot militia. His Breton language name is Neven Hénaff. He was a chemical engineer by training. After the war he lived in Ireland.- Breton terrorism :He was born in 1908 in Nantes...
and Alan Heusaff
Alan Heusaff
Alan Heusaff, also Alan Heussaff was a Breton nationalist, linguist, dictionary compiler, prolific journalist and lifetime campaigner for solidarity between the Celtic peoples...
. As many as 70 to 80 people joined its ranks at one point or another, with typically 30 to 66 at any one time depending on recruiting and defection. At the end of the war a handful of Breton militants decided to ask for German support in the face of the assassination of several leading figures of the Breton cultural movement, such as Abbé Perrot
Jean-Marie Perrot
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot , was a French priest, Breton independentist and collaborator assassinated by the communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.- Early life :Perrot was raised in a provincial Breton-speaking family...
. Having originally been named Bezen Kadoudal, the 1943 assassination of the priest prompted Lainé to give his name to the organization in December of that year.
It had already been envisaged by German strategists that in the event of Allied invasion the Breton nationalists would form a rearguard, and that further nationalist troops could be parachuted into Brittany. In late 1943 sabotage dumps had been hidden for use by the militia.
Strolladoù Stourm
The Strolladoù Stourm (also known as Bagadoù stourm), led by Yann Goulet and Alan Louarn, was the armed wing of the Breton National Party. A handful of their members took part in a confrontation with the population of LandivisiauLandivisiau
Landivisiau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-International relations:It is twinned with Bideford in the southwest of the United Kingdom.-Population:...
, on August 7, 1943. Yann Goulet, their leader, forbade participation in Bezen Perrot
Bezen Perrot
The Bezen Perrot was a Breton collaborationist force during the Nazi occupation of France that grew from the earlier Lu Brezhon militia. Led by Célestin Lainé and Alan Heusaff, as many as 70 to 80 people joined the ranks of the Bezen Perrot, or "Perrot Unit", at one point or another...
.
Landerneau Kommando
By April 1943, the Gestapo had created specific units to combat the French ResistanceFrench Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
. Formed at the end of April 1944 in Landerneau
Landerneau
Landerneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.It lies at the mouth of the Elorn River which divides the Breton provinces of Cornouaille and Léon, east of Brest...
, the Landerneau Kommando
Kommando
Kommando is a generic German word meaning unit or command. During World War II it was also the basic unit of organisation of slave labourers in German concentration camps....
took part in these units. It was composed of 18 German soldiers and ten French agents (some of whom were Breton separatists as well as former Resistance members). They fought against the maquis
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...
(rural French Resistance units) of Trégarantec
Trégarantec
Trégarantec is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-References:** -External links:*...
, Rosnoen
Rosnoën
Rosnoën is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:Inhabitants of Rosnoën are called in French Rosnoënais.-References:** -External links:* *...
, and Ploumordien. Several Resistance members were tortured, and the Kommando also summarily executed some prisoners.
Actions by the Resistance
Several Breton nationalists were assassinated by the Resistance in 1943. The best known was Abbé PerrotJean-Marie Perrot
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot , was a French priest, Breton independentist and collaborator assassinated by the communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.- Early life :Perrot was raised in a provincial Breton-speaking family...
, killed on 12 December 1943 by Jean Thépaut, a member of the Communist Resistance. Earlier, on the 3 September, Yann Bricler had been shot in his office by three FTP members, and similarly Yves Kerhoas was killed by the Resistance when leaving a fete in the village of Plouvenez. Jeanne Coroller was kidnapped and stabbed to death on July 13, 1944.
When American troops arrived in 1944, communist maquis members began their repressive actions. Jeanne Coroller-Danio
Jeanne Coroller-Danio
Jeanne Coroller-Danio was a Breton nationalist and writer. She is also known as Jeanne Coroller and Jeanne Chassin du Guerny . Her best known pen-name was Danio, but she published her work under various pseudonyms: J.C...
, the Breton historian who worked under the name Danio, was beaten to death along with her brother-in-law, Commander Le Minthier ; the Tastevint brothers were castrated, and the Maubré sisters and their brother were savagely murdered in Morbihan
Morbihan
Morbihan is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan , the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline.-History:...
.
The BNP, dissolved along with the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
in 1939, no longer legally existed. Its activists were hunted down and not distinguished from the Breton militants who wore the symbol of the dukes of Brittany ("ermine-trimmed berets"). Many were deported to detention camps; notably at the Camp Marguerite in Rennes where 150 nationalists were detained for alleged collaborationism. The Breton nationalists sought to defend the fact that their widespread image as an overtly fascist, even Nazi, movement had nothing to do with the actual political backgrounds of their activists, as varied as the Action française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
(royalist), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist), the separatist Breton National Party
Breton National Party
The Breton National Party was a nationalist party in Brittany that existed from 1931 to 1944. The party was disbanded after the liberation of France in World War II, because of ties to the Nazi party....
(PAB), or the French Communist Party. Moreover, Yann Goulet received financial and public backing from several communist militants at the time of the Liberation. Other militants accused of collaboration demonstrated to the courts that they had protected Jewish families during the occupation (Alan Eon–Yann Goulet
Yann Goulet
Yann Goulet was a sculptor, Breton nationalist and war-time collaborationist with Nazi Germany who headed the Breton Bagadou Stourm militia. He later took Irish citizenship and became professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy.-Early career:Goulet was born in Saint-Nazaire...
).
The nationalist Movement after the Liberation of France
After France was liberated, it was as collaborators, not as separatists, that the PNB members were punished, and even then it was by no means all those members that were affected. Only 15 to 16 per cent of PNB members appeared in court, and few non-member sympathisers were prosecuted. Most leading members escaped in Ireland or Germany and were not judged. There was no mass repression as claimed in post-war separatist propaganda. However the post-war nationalist movements will tend to minimise the collaboration with nazi Germany and will create the myth of the separatists repression by the French government.Still today, some people are worried by the "collective amnesia" of the current Breton autonomist movement about World War II or by their attempts to rehabilitate the nationalist collaborationnists.
On the other hand, the standpoint of the Breton nationalists consider that the representation of the Breton nationalism during World War II in the medias is a pretext to discredit the current aspirations of the autonomist movement, such as the recognition of linguistic rights.
Involvement in the Resistance
Several leading Breton activists - regionalists, federalists and separatists - joined the Resistance against the occupation. They had various motivations:Sao Breiz
As early as 1940 some joined Sao Breiz, the Breton wing of the France Libre (Free French). This included several members of the Union Régionaliste Bretonne (Breton Regionalist Union) and the association Ar brezoneg er skol, founded before the war by Yann Fouéré. M.de Cadenet, a member of the latter group, and some of his associates wrote a draft statute, presented to General Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
which would have given Brittany a number of political freedoms after the return of peace. According to Yann Fouéré, this plan was close in spirit to the one that the Breton Consultative Committee wanted to submit in 1943 to Marshal Petain. Neither of these two plans resulted in anything.
Joining underground organisations
Activists like Francis Gourvil, Youenn Souffes-Després and Jean Le Maho had before the war been members of minority separatist or federalist movements such as the Parti Autonomiste Breton (PAB) or the Ligue fédéraliste de Bretagne. These organisations were always clearly anti-fascist and critical of the extreme right. This led their members directly into the underground Resistance. Others joined the Resistance as individuals and after the war restarted their involvement in Breton nationalism. The action of a few members of Bezen PerrotBezen Perrot
The Bezen Perrot was a Breton collaborationist force during the Nazi occupation of France that grew from the earlier Lu Brezhon militia. Led by Célestin Lainé and Alan Heusaff, as many as 70 to 80 people joined the ranks of the Bezen Perrot, or "Perrot Unit", at one point or another...
has often concealed a very different reality, for example the members of Bagadou Stourm who founded the Forces Bretonnes de l'Intérieur (Breton Forces of the Interior, a Breton wing of de Gaulle's French Forces of the Interior), and were deported to Buchenwald.
Liberty Group
For other groups, such as the Liberty Group of Saint-NazaireSaint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire , is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière"...
(composed of young former members of Bagadoù stourm), pro-British feeling was the determining factor in pushing them to ally themselves with the Resistance. The Liberty Group, under the name of Bataillon de la Poche ("Pocket Battalion"), helped to liberate Saint-Nazaire from a pocket of German holdouts in May 1945.
Breton nationalists linked to the London-based leadership of the Resistance
- The painter René-Yves CrestonRené-Yves CrestonRené-Yves Creston , born René Pierre Joseph Creston, was a Breton artist, designer and ethnographer who founded the Breton nationalist art movement Seiz Breur...
, despite his involvement with l'Heure BretonneL'Heure BretonneL'Heure Bretonne was a Breton nationalist weekly newspaper which was published from June 1940 to June 1944. It was the organ of the Breton National Party and was strongly associated with collaborationist politics during World War II....
(a Breton nationalist and antisemitic newspaper), was affiliated with the Resistance network of the Musée de l'HommeMusée de l'HommeThe Musée de l'Homme was created in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. It is the descendant of the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, founded in 1878...
. He was engaged in reconnaissance work for the British. It seems that in October 1940, he received via Yann FouéréYann FouéréYann Fouéré was a Breton nationalist and an European federalist. He was born as Jean-Adolphe Fouéré in Aignan, Gers....
a memo destined for London concerning Breton autonomy (to be continued by the Comité Consultatif de Bretagne), with a short preface specifying the origins of the "Breton question."
- In 1940, the overtly pro-Nazi Olier MordrelOlier MordrelOlier Mordrel is the Breton language version of Olivier Mordrelle, a Breton nationalist and wartime collaborator with the Third Reich who founded the separatist Breton National Party. Before the war he worked as an architect. His architectural work was influenced by Art Deco and the International...
covertly sent Hervé Le Helloco on a mission to England (via the channels of the Resistance) in order to convince the leadership of the Resistance of the "Allied leanings" of the Breton movement. This effort went no further because of Helloco's track record, and the reaction of the Nazi-allied PNB.
English language
- Reece, Jack E. (1977) The Bretons against France: ethnic minority nationalism in twentieth-century Brittany. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
- Biddiscombe, Perry (2001) "The Last White Terror: the Maquis Blanc and its impact in liberated France, 1944-1945", in: The Journal of Modern History, 2001
- Leach, Daniel (2008) "Bezen Perrot: the Breton nationalist unit of the SS, 1943-5"
- Leach, Daniel (2009) Fugitive Ireland: European minority nationalists and Irish political asylum, 1937-2008. Dublin: Four Courts Press
French language
- Le mouvement breton. Automatisme et fédéralisme. Carhaix, Éd. 'Armoricai, sans date (1937). by René Barbin
- La Bretagne écartelée. Essai pour servir à l'histoire de dix ans. 1938-1948 -. Nouvelles éditions latines. 1962. by Yann FouéréYann FouéréYann Fouéré was a Breton nationalist and an European federalist. He was born as Jean-Adolphe Fouéré in Aignan, Gers....
. - Complots pour une République bretonne -. La Table Ronde. 1967. by Ronan Caerleon
- La Bretagne contre Paris -. La Table Ronde. 1969 de Jean Bothorel
- La Bretagne dans la guerre. 2 volumes. France-Empire. 1969. by Hervé Le Boterf
- Racisme et Culte de la race.- La Bretagne réelle. Celtia. (Rennes). Été 1970. Supplément à La Bretagne réelle N°300. par P.-M. de Beauvy de Kergalec.
- Breiz Atao -. Alain Moreau. 1973. Olier MordrelOlier MordrelOlier Mordrel is the Breton language version of Olivier Mordrelle, a Breton nationalist and wartime collaborator with the Third Reich who founded the separatist Breton National Party. Before the war he worked as an architect. His architectural work was influenced by Art Deco and the International...
. - Le rêve fou des soldats de Breiz Atao. Nature et Bretagne. 1975. by Ronan Caerleon
- Histoire résumée du mouvement breton-. Nature et Bretagne. 1977. by Yann FouéréYann FouéréYann Fouéré was a Breton nationalist and an European federalist. He was born as Jean-Adolphe Fouéré in Aignan, Gers....
. - Nous ne savions que le breton et il fallait parler français -. Mémoire d'un paysan du Léon. Breizh hor bro. 1978. by Fanch Elegoët.
- La Bretagne, Problèmes du régionalisme en France, Cornelsen-Velhagen & Klasing, Berlin 1979.
- La Bretagne sous le gouvernement de Vichy -. Edition France-Empire. 1982. by Hervé Le Boterf.
- Histoire du mouvement breton, Syros, 1982. by Michel Nicolas.
- Archives secrètes de Bretagne, 1940-1944, RennesRennesRennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, Ouest-FranceOuest-FranceOuest-France is a provincial daily French newspaper known for its emphasis on local news and events. The paper is produced in 47 different editions covering events in different French départments within the régions of Brittany, Lower Normandy and Pays de la Loire...
, 1985. d'Henri FrévilleHenri FrévilleHenri Fréville was a French history professor, resistor, writer and politician.-Life:... - Breizh/Europa. Histoire d'une aspiration -. Edition Ijin. 1994. Annaig Le Gars.
- Les nationalistes bretons sous l'Occupation, Le Relecq-KerhuonLe Relecq-KerhuonLe Relecq-Kerhuon is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:Inhabitants of Le Relecq-Kerhuon are called in French Relecquois or Kerhorres.-Breton language:...
, An Here, 2001. by Christian Hamon. - L'hermine et la croix gammée. Le mouvement breton et la collaboration, Ed. Mango, 2001. by Georges Cadiou.
- Les usages politiques de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Bretagne : histoire, mémoire et identité régionale. Marc Bergère.
- Archives secrètes de Bretagne 1940-1944 par Henri FrévilleHenri FrévilleHenri Fréville was a French history professor, resistor, writer and politician.-Life:...
, éditions Ouest France, 2004 - De 1940 à 1941, réapparition d'une Bretagne provisoirement incomplète, un provisoire destiné à durer, bulletin et mémoires de la Société archéologique et historique d'Ille-et-Vilaine, tome CXIV. 2010. by Etienne Maignen.