Education
Born into a wealthy family in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département, Ferdinand de Brinon studied political science and law at university but chose to work as a journalist in Paris.
Born into a wealthy family in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département, Ferdinand de Brinon studied political science and law at university but chose to work as a journalist in Paris.
He claimed to have had five private talks with Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1937. After the First World War, he advocated a rapprochement with Germany. Ferdinand de Brinon married Jeanne Louise Rachel Franck, a.k.a.
By her Brinon had two stepsons.
The Brinons became leading socialites in 1930s Paris, and close friends of the political right-wing elite. A leading advocate for collaboration following France"s defeat by Germany in the Second World War, in July 1940 Brinon was invited by Pierre Laval, Vice-Premier of the new Vichy regime, to act as its representative to the German High Command in occupied Paris.
In September of that year he also established the Groupe Collaboration to help establish closer cultural ties between Germany and France. In 1942, Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, gave him the title of Secretary of State.
There, Brinon became in September 1944 president of the French Governmental Commission, Vichy"s government-in-exile.
He was eventually arrested by the advancing Allied troops. Fernand de Brinon was tried by the French Court of Justice for war crimes, found guilty and sentenced to death on 6 March 1947. He was executed by firing squad on 15 April at the military fort in the Paris suburb of Montrouge.
In 2002, French historian Gilbert Joseph published Fernand de Brinon: L"Aristocrate de la collaboration.
As the third ranking member of the Vichy regime and because of his enthusiastic support for the fascist cause, Brinon"s importance to the Nazis was such that he was able to obtain a special pass for his Jewish-born wife that exempted her from deportation to a German concentration camp.