François Duprat
Encyclopedia
François Duprat was a writer
and Holocaust denier
. He was known also for being a founding member of the Front National
party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978.
, Corsica
, and was educated in Bayonne
, Toulouse
, at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand
in Paris
. He graduated in History at the Sorbonne
, earning a diploma of higher studies in history in 1963.
A Trotskyist in his teenage years, François Duprat moved to the far right and became a member of the Jeune Nation
wing of the French nationalist students' federation (Fédération des étudiants nationalistes FEN). Strongly opposed to Algerian independence during the Algerian War (1954–62), Duprat later supported Arab states as an anti-Zionist. After the March 1962 Evian agreements granting independence to Algeria, he traveled to Katanga
, supporting the secession led by Moise Tshombe
. He became Tshome's Director of Propaganda
on Radio-Katanga.
Thereafter, he returned to France, where he became a member of Occident
, which carried out street brawls against the Maoists and other left-wing students. However, he was excluded in 1967, accused of being a police informant. Duprat then took part in the neo-Nazi Ordre Nouveau
movement (New Order), and became the editor
of L'Action européenne (European Action) and of the Revue d’histoire du fascisme (History Review of Fascism), which introduced in France Holocaust denial
thesis supported by far right circles in the English-world.
In 1972, François Duprat co-founded the National Front (FN) headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen
, and was part of its political bureau until his death in 1978. He represented the hard-liners of the party, and directed the Groupes nationalistes révolutionnaires (National Revolutionary Groups), alongside Alain Renault.
as a political weapon, stating in May 1976:
Duprat wrote a book on far right movements in France
from 1940 to 1944, during the Collaborationist regime of Vichy. He also created a number of magazines and political reviews, including the Cahiers d'histoire du fascisme (History Notebooks on Fascism) and the Cahiers Européens-Notre Europe (European Notebooks - Our Europe), which also diffused negationist books or far right literature exalting the Third Reich.
notes that perpetrators and their motives have never been established; the police investigation into his assassination was inconclusive.
A Jewish "Remembrance Commando" and a "Jewish Revolutionary Group" immediately claimed responsibility for the murder, but was thought to be bogus. The perpetrators of the bombing were never found, while Jean-Pierre Bloch, director of the LICRA anti-racist NGO, condemned the killing.
In Génération Occident: de l'extrême droite à la droite, Frédéric Charpier alleged that the assassination would have been commanded by a rival far right organisation. He recalled that Duprat had been excluded in 1967 from Occident on allegations that he was a police informant. According to Roger Faligot
and Pascal Krop, Duprat was killed for his links with Palestinians and Syrians.
Shortly before the assassination, Patrice Chairoff had published names and addresses of publishers which were tied to Duprat, included one of which was his private residence.
His funeral at the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet
was attended by the leading lights of the nationalist right, which included the National Front, the PFN, monarchists
and right-wing solidarists
.
.," member of the British National Front
and author of the negationist pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?
". The Cahiers européens - Notre Europe diffused this pamphlet starting in February 1976. The anonymous author of this text had been identified by Pierre-André Taguieff
as likely being André Delaporte.
Each year Jean-Marie Le Pen
pays his respects to the at Duprat's gravesite at the cimetière de Montmartre. At the 30th anniversary of his death, LePen paid tribute to his being a "martyr to the cause in free thinking", "fighter", and "politician right to the tips of his fingers".
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. He was known also for being a founding member of the Front National
Front National (France)
The National Front is a political party in France. The party was founded in 1972, seeking to unify a variety of French far-right currents of the time. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the party's first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011...
party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978.
Biography
François Duprat was born on 26 October 1941, in AjaccioAjaccio
Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, and was educated in Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
, Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand
Lycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He graduated in History at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, earning a diploma of higher studies in history in 1963.
A Trotskyist in his teenage years, François Duprat moved to the far right and became a member of the Jeune Nation
Jeune Nation
Jeune Nation was a French nationalist movement founded by Albert Heuclin, and with members including Jean Marot, Jacques Wagner and the brothers Sidos, François Sidos , Jacques Sidos and Pierre Sidos .-History:The emblem of Jeune Nation was the Celtic cross, "symbol of universal life" and an...
wing of the French nationalist students' federation (Fédération des étudiants nationalistes FEN). Strongly opposed to Algerian independence during the Algerian War (1954–62), Duprat later supported Arab states as an anti-Zionist. After the March 1962 Evian agreements granting independence to Algeria, he traveled to Katanga
State of Katanga
Katanga was a breakaway state proclaimed on 11 July 1960 separating itself from the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo. In revolt against the new government of Patrice Lumumba in July, Katanga declared independence under Moise Tshombe, leader of the local CONAKAT party...
, supporting the secession led by Moise Tshombe
Moise Tshombe
Moïse Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese politician.- Biography :He was the son of a successful Congolese businessman and was born in Musumba, Congo. He received his education from an American missionary school and later trained as an accountant...
. He became Tshome's Director of Propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
on Radio-Katanga.
Thereafter, he returned to France, where he became a member of Occident
Occident (movement)
Occident was a French far-right militant political group, often described as fascist-leaning. A number of members of Occident later were prominent members of right-wing parties, and even obtained ministerial positions. The movement never had more than 550 members.- History :Founded by Pierre Sidos...
, which carried out street brawls against the Maoists and other left-wing students. However, he was excluded in 1967, accused of being a police informant. Duprat then took part in the neo-Nazi Ordre Nouveau
Ordre Nouveau
Ordre Nouveau may refer to:*Ordre Nouveau *Ordre Nouveau *Ordre Nouveau...
movement (New Order), and became the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of L'Action européenne (European Action) and of the Revue d’histoire du fascisme (History Review of Fascism), which introduced in France Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
thesis supported by far right circles in the English-world.
In 1972, François Duprat co-founded the National Front (FN) headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
, and was part of its political bureau until his death in 1978. He represented the hard-liners of the party, and directed the Groupes nationalistes révolutionnaires (National Revolutionary Groups), alongside Alain Renault.
Revisionism writings
François Duprat conceived of historyHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
as a political weapon, stating in May 1976:
"We must not let to our opponents, Marxists and régimistes, the monopole of the historical representation of men, facts and ideas. Because History is a wonderful war instrument, and it would be useless to deny that one of the important reasons of our political hardships resides in the historical exploitation and the systemic deformation of the nationalist experiences of the past... It is in order to answer these needs... that a team of intellectuals, professors and nationalists have created the Revue d'histoire du fascisme."
Duprat wrote a book on far right movements in France
History of far right movements in France
The far-right tradition in France finds its origins in the Third Republic with the Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair.- The Third Republic from 1871 to 1914 :...
from 1940 to 1944, during the Collaborationist regime of Vichy. He also created a number of magazines and political reviews, including the Cahiers d'histoire du fascisme (History Notebooks on Fascism) and the Cahiers Européens-Notre Europe (European Notebooks - Our Europe), which also diffused negationist books or far right literature exalting the Third Reich.
Violent death
Duprat was killed on 18 March 1978, in a car-bomb explosion. His wife Jeanine was also injured in the attack, losing the use of her legs. He was finishing a book titled Argent et politique (Money and Politics) concerning the funding of right-wing and far-right political parties. There are many theories about the assassination, but historian Michel WinockMichel Winock
Michel Winock is a French historian, specializing in the French Republic, intellectual movements, anti-Semitism, nationalism and the far right movements of France. He is a professeur des universités in contemporary history at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and member of L'Histoire...
notes that perpetrators and their motives have never been established; the police investigation into his assassination was inconclusive.
A Jewish "Remembrance Commando" and a "Jewish Revolutionary Group" immediately claimed responsibility for the murder, but was thought to be bogus. The perpetrators of the bombing were never found, while Jean-Pierre Bloch, director of the LICRA anti-racist NGO, condemned the killing.
In Génération Occident: de l'extrême droite à la droite, Frédéric Charpier alleged that the assassination would have been commanded by a rival far right organisation. He recalled that Duprat had been excluded in 1967 from Occident on allegations that he was a police informant. According to Roger Faligot
Roger Faligot
Roger Faligot is a French journalist, who started working in Ireland in 1973 before working as freelance investigative journalist for British, Parisian or foreign newspapers and magazines . Considered as one of the best French specialist of Ireland, he was special correspondent of the weekly The...
and Pascal Krop, Duprat was killed for his links with Palestinians and Syrians.
Shortly before the assassination, Patrice Chairoff had published names and addresses of publishers which were tied to Duprat, included one of which was his private residence.
His funeral at the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet is a Roman Catholic church in the centre of Paris, France located in the 5th arrondissement. In 1977 it was occupied by traditionalist Society of St...
was attended by the leading lights of the nationalist right, which included the National Front, the PFN, monarchists
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
and right-wing solidarists
Solidarism
Solidarism can refer to:*The term "Solidarism" is applied to the sociopolitical thought advanced by Émile Durkheim which is loosely applied to a leading social philosophy operative during and within the French Third Republic prior to the First World War....
.
Legacy
Le National, a far right political review, honoured him in April 1978 as one of the French leader of "the 'revisionist' historical school" who had introduced in France "one of the most explosive booklet" of Richard HarwoodRichard Verrall
Richard Verrall is a former Deputy Chairman of the British National Front , he edited the magazine Spearhead from 1976 to 1980.-National Front career:...
.," member of the British National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
and author of the negationist pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die?
Did Six Million Really Die? is a Holocaust denial booklet written by British National Front member Richard Verrall, under the name Richard E. Harwood, and published by Ernst Zündel in 1974...
". The Cahiers européens - Notre Europe diffused this pamphlet starting in February 1976. The anonymous author of this text had been identified by Pierre-André Taguieff
Pierre-André Taguieff
Pierre-André Taguieff is a philosopher and director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris laboratory, the CEVIPOF...
as likely being André Delaporte.
Each year Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
pays his respects to the at Duprat's gravesite at the cimetière de Montmartre. At the 30th anniversary of his death, LePen paid tribute to his being a "martyr to the cause in free thinking", "fighter", and "politician right to the tips of his fingers".
Further reading
- Chebel d'Appollonia, A., L'Extrême Droite en France: De Maurras à Le Pen. Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 2nd edition, 1996. ISBN 2-87027-573-0
- Duprat, François. L'Internationale étudiante révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Student International), N.E.L., 1968.
- Igounet, Valérie, Histoire du négationnisme en France. Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 2000. ISBN 2-02-035492-6 (in particular the chapter L'extrême droite diffuse les thèses négationnistes / François Duprat, un passeur idéologique, p. 161 to 180).
- Lebourg, Nicolas. François Duprat: Idéologies, Combats, Souvenirs, Perpignan 2000.