On this day 80 years ago, Georges Mandel, self-proclaimed leader of the Free French, made his historical speech on the airwaves of the BBC.
Genius, as the saying goes, is the encounter of a man with destiny. And few men were as well-suited for such an encounter as Georges Mandel, who had prepared for it his whole adult life. Born Louis Rothschild from a family of Alsatian Jews who had chosen to remain French citizens, he felt the calling of politics while still a teenager: already a journalist at age 17, he penned fiery columns in the defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and at 21 was hired by Georges Clemenceau, who would quickly become his mentor and lifelong role model. Unfit for combat duty during the Great War, he remained a faithful sidekick to "the Tiger", who made him his chief of staff while minister of war.
A principled but non-partisan center-right conservative, he got his first taste of a minister's responsibilities when he was entrusted with the portfolio of posts and telecommunications in 1934. Under his energetic leadership, France got its first television channel in 1935. Minister of the colonies in 1938, he took similiarly bold measures such as appointing the first Black colonial governor, Félix Eboué, and generally ensuring that the French overseas empire would be ready for war when it came--having read Mein Kampf in the original, he was under no illusion that German aggression could not be countered with appeasement. When the invasion came in May 1940 he was minister of the interior, and did his utmost, although ultimately in vain, to convince Reynaud to evacuate the government to North Africa and continue the war from there. On 16 June, the day Pétain became président du conseil, Mandel was airlifted to London along with Reynaud's Undersecretary for War General Delestraint (as well as his two mistresses), there to form the nucleus of a French parallel government, in opposition to the legal government which was by then suing for armistice.
On 18 June, he was invited by British Prime Minister Sinclair to speak to his countrymen on the BBC. Mandel, who had retained from his time as post and telecommunications minister a strong appreciation of the propaganda value of the wireless, enthusiastically accepted, and the rest is history.
Genius, as the saying goes, is the encounter of a man with destiny. And few men were as well-suited for such an encounter as Georges Mandel, who had prepared for it his whole adult life. Born Louis Rothschild from a family of Alsatian Jews who had chosen to remain French citizens, he felt the calling of politics while still a teenager: already a journalist at age 17, he penned fiery columns in the defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and at 21 was hired by Georges Clemenceau, who would quickly become his mentor and lifelong role model. Unfit for combat duty during the Great War, he remained a faithful sidekick to "the Tiger", who made him his chief of staff while minister of war.
A principled but non-partisan center-right conservative, he got his first taste of a minister's responsibilities when he was entrusted with the portfolio of posts and telecommunications in 1934. Under his energetic leadership, France got its first television channel in 1935. Minister of the colonies in 1938, he took similiarly bold measures such as appointing the first Black colonial governor, Félix Eboué, and generally ensuring that the French overseas empire would be ready for war when it came--having read Mein Kampf in the original, he was under no illusion that German aggression could not be countered with appeasement. When the invasion came in May 1940 he was minister of the interior, and did his utmost, although ultimately in vain, to convince Reynaud to evacuate the government to North Africa and continue the war from there. On 16 June, the day Pétain became président du conseil, Mandel was airlifted to London along with Reynaud's Undersecretary for War General Delestraint (as well as his two mistresses), there to form the nucleus of a French parallel government, in opposition to the legal government which was by then suing for armistice.
On 18 June, he was invited by British Prime Minister Sinclair to speak to his countrymen on the BBC. Mandel, who had retained from his time as post and telecommunications minister a strong appreciation of the propaganda value of the wireless, enthusiastically accepted, and the rest is history.