Paul Paillole

Paul Paillole (born November 18, 1905 in Rennes , Bretagne , France , † October 15, 2002 in the Bishat Hospital in Paris ) was a French intelligence officer who became known mainly for his role in the arrest of German intelligence agents after the French defeat in 1940 and since then has been the subject of controversial discussions.

Family background

Paillole's father died in 1918 as a soldier during the First World War . This personal loss appears to have sparked Paillole's strong patriotism , which both his admirers and critics recognize. After his father's death, his mother took over the job of a teacher in Marseille . Here he attended the Lycée Saint Charles. A passionate sportsman, he later claimed to have played at the famous Olympique Marseille football club , although he left no trace on that club's official records.

Military career

Driven by both his patriotism and his love of physical activity, Paillole joined the French army in 1925 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1929 . In 1935 he was transferred to the intelligence service . At first he was reluctant to be transferred because he saw this use as one-sided desk work and began his new job with little knowledge. But he quickly gained a reputation for excellent professional competence. When the war broke out, Paillole was a prominent member of the active counterintelligence department, the Quinzième Bureau .

In World War II

After the Armistice of Compiègne in June 1940, the Vichy regime decided to reorganize reconnaissance and counter-espionage. Paillole took over the management of a secret counterintelligence , which operated from Marseille under the camouflage of the Travaux Ruraux (TR; German agricultural work) department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Recent research by British historian Simon Kitson showed that, unlike the version presented by the secret service veterans, this network of agents did not operate in opposition to the Vichy regime. Officials of the Vichy regime had been informed since November 1940 about the location of the headquarters of this network of agents with its archive weighing several tons in the Villa Eole in Marseille and the arrest of German secret service agents who actively supported official structures of the regime, such as the police , prisons , courts and armistice commissions. Although the regime collaborated extensively with the German occupation forces in northern France , those responsible for Vichy were keen to emphasize their autonomy and centralize the collaboration. The work of Paillole's ministry served to defend this "sovereignty" and was intended to prevent individual, unauthorized collaboration between ordinary French nationals.

There is no doubt that Pailloles MA 3, as the department was called internally, took its counterintelligence role seriously. Kitson estimates that around 2,000 people were arrested by the French collaborating state on charges of spying on Hitler's Germany for Vichy's diplomatic partner . From the Allied perspective , the position of this intelligence service between 1940 and 1942 was rather ambiguous. In the post-war period, the veterans of this secret service presented themselves as firmly on the side of the Allies and committed to the Resistance from the outset .

Younger historians have unearthed a more complicated picture in which Paillole was actively involved in the arrest of Resistant and Allied agents. He provided Vichy with information about Jean Moulin , the former prefect of the Eure-et-Loir department , who after the installation of the Vichy regime tried to organize and unite the Resistance in secret . Paillole's documentation enabled the Vichy police to destroy the Azur Resistance network in Marseille in October 1941.

Kitson also presented documents showing that in 1942 Paillole took the view to his confidants that while Germany was enemy number one, Britain remained enemy number two. When Marshal Henri Philippe Petain in August 1942 officially dissolved the TR, the extensive archive were in time with the radios and Enigma machines of the Enlightenment to Algiers moved to allow the onset after the start of the Allied landings in North Africa Case Anton , the engagement of the armed forces in the French southern zone. After the official dissolution of the TR, Paillole was appointed to the head of a new, secret counterintelligence institution, the Service de Sécurité Militaire (SSM), which was founded by Prime Minister Pierre Laval and Admiral François Darlan in August 1942. During the same two years, 1940–1942, Paillole passed on a limited amount of information to the Allies and offered help to resists known to him personally, such as Henri Frenay .

When the Wehrmacht occupied the previously unoccupied southern zone of France in November 1942 ( Operation Anton ), Paillole was forced to flee to the Allied-controlled French North Africa . He then took a far more resolute stance in favor of the Allies, which earned him medals of merit and recognition of his resistance by the British, Americans and Poles in the post-war period . Still, he did not completely cut off his previous ties to the Vichy regime. Instead of opting for General Charles de Gaulle from November 1942 , he opted for his rival General Henri Giraud, who was initially promoted by the Allies . Giraud's attitude to domestic political issues was determined by his admiration for the dictatorial ruling Pétain. According to a report from the British External Action Service, Paillole was allegedly involved in an intrigue in November 1943 that would enable Marshal Pétain to flee France and head the Free French Forces in exile. De Gaulle was said to have been so angry that he demanded that Paillole's defense be unconditionally subordinated to the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (BCRA) André Dewavrins .

Post war career

After the war, Paillole devoted a lot of energy to defending the reputation of his secret service, trying to prove that it had worked on the side of the Allies from the start and that it had been unequivocally committed to the Resistance.

In 1953 he founded an association of secret service veterans, the Amicale des Anciens des Services Spéciaux de la Défense Nationale (Friends of the former national defense intelligence service ), which published a regular newsletter devoted to hero files of the defense during the occupation. Paillole donated a personal collection of archival material to the Service Historique de l'armée de terre (SHAT, dt. Historical Service of the Army), from which Kitson believes that this collection has been cleaned of all indications of activities of his defense service against the Allies.

Due to the fact that other archival sources reveal very little about this phase, Paillole's presentation of the events was adopted by some historians without being asked. Historian Philip John Stead, whose portrayal of counter-espionage during the occupation owed Paillole a great deal, made a virtue of donating a portion of the proceeds of his book to Paillole's veterans organization. As the archives of that era became more accessible, a more critical eye has turned to Paillole's version. The publication of Paillole's memoirs in 1975 angered some resisters , such as Toussaint Raffini , who was imprisoned thanks to information from the TR network to the Vichy police.

Paillole retired to the Paris suburb of La Queue-lez-Yvelines , where he was mayor between 1965 and 1983 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Miller, Robert L., and Paxton, Robert O. A Patriot for Pétain? , The New York Times , v. 55 n.5 April 3, 2008, example of controversy
2. ↑ On the background of Paillole's youth, see in particular: Paul Paillole, L'homme des services secrets: Entretiens avec Alain-Gilles Minella , Paris, Éditions Julliard, 1995
3. ↑ On the background of Paillole's military career in the pre-war period, see in particular: Paul Paillole, Services Spéciaux (1935-1945) , Paris, Éditions Robert Laffont, 1975
4. ↑ * Simon Kitson, Vichy et la chasse aux espions Nazis , Paris, Autrement, 2005
   • Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting Espionage in Vichy France , Chicago & London, University of Chicago Press, 2008
5. ↑ See for example: * Michel Garder, La Guerre Secrète des Services Spéciaux Français, 1935-1945 , Paris, Plon, 1967
   • Pierre Nord, Mes Camarades Sont Morts , Geneva, de Crémille, 3 volumes, 1970
6. ↑ * Henri Noguères, Histoire de la Résistance en France , tome 2: juillet 1941-octobre 1942, Robert Laffont, appendix VII (report of commissaire principal Léonard dated 31 October 1941)
   • François Broche, Georges Caïtucoli, Jean-François Muracciole, La France au combat, de l'Appel du 18 juin à la victoire , Paris, éditions Perrin / SCÉRÉN-CNDP, 2007
   • Robert Belot, La Résistance sans de Gaulle , Paris, Fayard, 2006, pp 277-279.
7. ↑ Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting Espionage in Vichy France , Chicago & London, University of Chicago Press, 2008, p 69
8. ^ National Archives [Public Records Office, Londres], Document FO 660 149, Office of the British Representative with French Committee of National Liberation, Alger, January 19, 1944
9. ^ Fund privé colonel Paillole, Service historique de l'armée de terre, cote 1 K 545
10. ↑ See the introduction by Simon Kitson's Vichy et la chasse aux espions Nazis , Paris, Autrement, 2005
11. ^ Philip John Stead, Second Bureau , London, Evans Brothers, 1959
12. ↑ Robert Belot, La Résistance sans de Gaulle , Paris, Fayard, 2006, pp 277-279