Jacques Bingen

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Jacques Bingen (born March 16, 1908 in Paris , † May 12, 1944 in Clermont-Ferrand , France ) was an engineer and an important figure in the Resistance . He joined Free France in 1940 and was sent to the Resistance by General de Gaulle from August 16, 1943 until his arrest by the Gestapo on May 12, 1944. He killed himself so he wouldn't have to testify. He is a Compagnon de la Liberation .

Life

Jacques Bingen grew up as a brother-in-law of André Citroën in a Jewish family of Italian origin who had immigrated from Germany (Bonn) on his father's side . He attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly before he was admitted to the Paris Mining School in 1924 and left as an engineer in 1926. He also had a diploma from the École libre des sciences politiques . He directed the French pavilion at the Barcelona World Exhibition in 1929. 1930 to 1931 he completed his military service as a reserve officer in the artillery . In the 1930s he was one of his brother-in-law's closest collaborators. At the same time he was secretary of the Central Committee of Shipowners .

In 1939 he was used as a reserve officer with the rank of lieutenant of the reserve as a liaison officer to the 51st Scottish Division. On June 12, 1940, he was injured in the thigh near Saint-Valéry-en-Caux by shrapnel. He escaped swimming and on a fishing boat. With that he got to a mine clearance boat that transported him to Cherbourg to a hospital where he spent a day. He spent the following three days in the hospital in Valognes , from where he was transferred to the southwest in a hospital train . On June 20, he was able to leave La Rochelle on board a ship to Casablanca . Disguised as a Polish pilot, he reached Gibraltar on July 2nd , from where he fled to Great Britain on board a Polish training ship , where he arrived in Liverpool on July 18th .

On July 23, Bingen met General Charles de Gaulle and placed himself in the service of Free France, which was under construction . Because of his knowledge in the field of the navy, he headed the merchant fleet of Free France from August 12, 1940 , whose small tonnage was more a symbolic attribute of sovereignty , in which de Gaulle was inevitably sensitive. He sought to supplement the accord des Checkers (August 7, 1940) with regard to the merchant fleet and its crew, which suffered heavy losses in the convoys . He acted as a liaison with the British Admiralty . As an independent spirit, even in the presence of de Gaulle, he did not hesitate to criticize his authoritarian thoughts and his rude manners.

In August 1942, he joined the non-military section (NM) of Louis Vallon of the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (BCRA) under the direction of André Dewavrin out of a thirst for adventure . He was in constant contact with Jean Moulin and the various resistance groups and networks. London was a meeting point for Bingen and Moulin. At the beginning of 1943, when Moulin's difficult work of unifying the various groups and currents of the Resistance was at its height, Bingen took the rank of captain at the head of the NM section.

After Moulin's arrest on June 21, 1943, he volunteered to help his old friend, Claude Bouchinet-Serreules, at the head of the general agency for London in Paris. On the night of August 15-16, 1943, he jumped with a parachute near Tours over occupied France to attend its meeting as a delegate of the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationale (CFLN) of the southern zone.

In a letter he left with his mother before he left, he shared his reasons for participating in the dangerous mission:

“I have developed a deep love for France, more immediate, more tangible than anything I experienced before, when life was sweet and everything was easy. And my departure - this is an unexpected opportunity - can serve France more than many soldiers. By the way, I hope I will get a large part of these services back before my end. "

“Ultimately, there is also the desire for revenge for Jewish friends who have been tortured or murdered by barbarism that has not been seen for centuries. It is also the wish of another Jew (there are as many as you know) to do his whole part and more in the liberation of France. "

Bingen faced a difficult situation. After Moulin's death, the Resistance unit survived, but many of the groups wanted greater autonomy vis-à-vis London and its directives. The influx of refugees before the forced labor of the STO to the Maquis confronted the Resistance with countless problems of supplies , financing, arming and care. Contrary to popular hope, the Allied landing did not take place in 1943 and the Resistance faced a new winter of underground struggle.

Bingen played a decisive role in uniting the military forces of the Resistance, which took place on February 1, 1944

and numerous isolated armed groups formed the Forces françaises de l'intérieur (FFI).

In order to finance the entire growth of the Resistance, Bingen organized the Comité Financier COFI. He organized and supported the various commissions of the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR, "National Council of Resistance"),

  • the Comité des Actions Immédiates, which coordinated the acts of sabotage
  • the Noyautage des Administrations Publiques (NAP) committee, charged with the administrative preparation of the uprising using forged documents ,
  • the Comité d'Action contre la Déportation fighting against forced labor (Eng. "Action Committee against Deportation"),
  • the Comité des Œuvres Sociales de la Résistance (COSOR, Eng. "Committee of the Social Works of the Resistance") led by RP Pierre Chaillet , which helped the families of imprisoned members of the Resistance
  • the Commission de la Production Industriel
  • the Commission de Ravitaillement, which is responsible for the procurement of supplies .

On March 15, 1944, Bingen and Georges Bidault contributed to the adoption of the CNR program, which became the foundation of the reform of the social pact and democracy in France.

From December 1943, Bingen became the official national envoy of London for all of France. From March 1944 he was mainly active in the southern zone. Despite increasing risks, he refused to return to London.

The betrayal of the Belgian double agent of the Abwehr, Alfred Dormal, enabled the Gestapo to arrest Jacques Bingen on May 12, 1944 at the Clermont-Ferrand train station. He escaped, but an employee of the Banque de France did not understand what was going on and showed his pursuers the way. Picked up again, Bingen voluntarily swallowed his cyanide capsule so as not to reveal any secrets of the Resistance. His body was never found again.

Not recognized by the public despite the importance of his historical role, Bingen was recognized by his comrades, but also by the specialists of the Resistance, as one of the flawless and courageous personalities in the secret struggle up to the sacrifice of his life.

In his will, published a few weeks after his disappearance, he wrote: "Ultimately, I hope that my family will know at what point in the last eight months I was certainly happy."

Awards

literature

  • Daniel Cordier : Jean Moulin, La République des catacombes. Gallimard, 1999.
  • Laurent Douzou: La Résistance, une histoire périlleuse. Points-Seuil, 2005.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bingen, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French resident member
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1944
Place of death Clermont-Ferrand