René Leynaud

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René Leynaud (born August 24, 1910 in Lyon , † June 13, 1944 in Villeneuve , Département Ain ) was a French journalist and poet who distinguished himself during the Second World War for his service in the resistance group Combat in Lyon.

biography

Growing up in the Vaise district of Lyon, he attended the Ampère high school and then studied law at the University of Lyon . In addition to his studies, he began a career as a journalist for the newspaper Le Progrès in 1933 . In 1939 he was drafted into the Armée de terre , fought in Lorraine , Belgium and took part in the Battle of Dunkirk . At the beginning of 1942 he made contact with the Resistance and, under the code name Clair, was responsible for the distribution of news within the Combat resistance group and the local head of the national committee of journalists in the underground. He continued his journalistic work for the newspaper Le Progrès until November 1942. At this point it was decided to stop the daily newspaper. During the war, he made friends with the writer Albert Camus , who was also a member of the Combat resistance group. Camus often stayed with Leynaud in his room on Vieille Monnaie on the Croix-Rousse hill.

“In 1943, when I came to Lyon, I often stayed with him on Vieille Monnaie in his little room that his friends knew well. Leynaud was courteous without boasting, then took out cigarettes from a sandstone pot and shared them with me. These hours of friendship remain in my memory. Leynaud, who slept elsewhere, stayed with me until the curfew. The heavy silence of the occupation nights settled around us. This great and gloomy city of conspiracy that Lyon was at the time gradually emptied. But we didn't talk about the plot. Besides, unless it was strictly necessary, Leynaud never spoke of it. We exchanged news from our friends. We talked about literature a few times. But at that time he wrote nothing. He had decided that he would work afterwards […] Everything was easy for Leynaud, he would take up his life where he left it because he found his life good. After all, he had to raise a son. And Leynaud, who rarely went out of himself, the name of his son was enough to make his eyes light up. "

- Albert Camus : Foreword to the ”Poésies posthumes” by René Leynaud, 1947

On March 16, 1944, René Leynaud, who was carrying secret documents, was detained at Place Bellecour by militia soldiers . He tried to escape, but was wounded in the legs. After some time in the hospital, he was taken to the Montluc fortress , which the Germans used as a prison. He stayed there until June 13, 1944. At that time, the German occupiers preparing to evacuate Lyon decided to select 19 active resistance fighters from among the prisoners, and Leynaud was one of that group. They were taken to the Gestapo headquarters on Place Bellecour and then driven to Villeneuve , a town in the Ain department . At the exit of the village, the soldiers ordered them to move towards a small forest, and in the process they were shot dead in the back.

On July 9, 1945, the city council of Lyon decided to rename rue Vieille Monnaie rue René Leynaud in honor of René Leynaud. In 1947 a collection of poems by René Leynaud appeared posthumously with a foreword by Albert Camus, who drew a picture of the life of this author and resistance fighter from Lyon.

Works

  • René Leynaud: Poésies posthumous . Foreword by Albert Camus. Gallimard, Paris 1947
    • Bilingual edition German-French, 1994 (not on sale)

literature

  • Bernard Collonges: Le Quartier des Capucins: Histoires du Bas des Pentes de la Croix-Rousse . Aléas, Lyon 2004 ISBN 2-84301-100-0
  • Bruno Permezel: Resists à Lyon, Villeurbanne et aux alentours: 2824 engagements . Edition Permezel, 2003 ISBN 2-90999-291-8

Web link

  • Bernhard Beutler : Conscience et Résistance. From symbol to cultural sustainability. Homage to René Leynaud. 1994, the 50th anniversary of the liberation. About a bilingual edition of the Poésies (German-French) for a non-commercial edition of 1000 copies; as well as a setting of 9 poems in 2016

Remarks

  1. ^ A b c Bernard Collonges, Le Quartier des Capucins, pp. 82-83
  2. ↑ a b René Leynaud, journalist du Progrès exécuté pour “délit de resistance”. In: Le Progrès. January 4, 2010
  3. ↑ Goethe-Institut Lyon
personal data
SURNAME Leynaud, René
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French journalist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1944
Place of death near Villeneuve, Département Ain