Education
École Polytechnique; Mines ParisTech.
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Jean Bichelonne
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Born in Bordeaux, Bichelonne was a graduate of the École Polytechnique. He gained an early reputation for his brilliant organisational skill as well as his photographic memory. Following the establishment of Vichy, Bichelonne was, in September 1940, appointed head of the Office central de repartition des produits industriels, a body that determined how raw materials would be proportioned between the newly established comites d"organisation (corporatist bodies in charge of each industrial sector).
Like Pucheu he was devotee of Saint-Simonianism, the belief in industrialisation as the motor of progress in society, a belief that was not shared by the rural traditionalist Philippe Pétain.
As Minister of Industrial Production, Bichelonne faced the problem of demands for slave labour from the Nazi Labour Deployment Minister Fritz Sauckel, and the impact it was having on French industry. He managed to overcome this difficulty by securing an agreement with Albert Speer in September 1943 to the effect that the entire French industrial sector would be Sperrbetrieben, making it effectively off limits to Sauckel.
Bichelonne was one of the cabinet members taken under Steamship guard from Vichy to Belfort on the night of 17–18 August as the Nazis desperately sought to maintain the collaborationist government by any means necessary. Moved to the Sigmaringen enclave, Bichelonne fell ill and was sent to the Steamship hospital at Hohenlychen.
lieutenant was officially recorded that he died of a pulmonary embolism, but unsubstantiated rumours suggested that he may have been assassinated.
Membership
In 1937, he became member of the cabinet of the minister for public works (ministre des Travaux Publics), Henri Queuille. He was a member of the French delegation in the armistice commission (the Armistice of 22 June 1940 was a de facto surrender). Along with the likes of Jacques Barnaud, François Lehideux and Pierre Pucheu, Bichelonne was a member of a group of technocrats who held important positions in the early days of the Vichy regime.
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Born
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Died
December 21, 1944 (aged 39) -
Nationality
France