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André Léon Blum was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century.
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culture · French politician (1872–1950) · politician · diplomat · literary critic · journalist · jurist · head of government · writer · opinion journalist · also Léon Blum, André Léon Blum, Leon Blum, Blum
Born 9 April 1872 · Died 30 March 1950 · Q18434
82 published statements · 0 followers
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“The passengers abroad the Exodus are not terrorists. They are simply martyrs. They would die with arms in their hands, as heroes, like their fathers and brothers, mothers and sisters, in the Warsaw Ghetto...Pardon the unlucky heroes of the Exodus. The ship”
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“atrocious choice between submission and war”
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“Why not send General Franco an ultimatum? If, within twenty-four hours, you do not renounce the assistance of foreign troops France will resume its liberty of action and the right to intervene”
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“The Munich meeting is an armful of tinder thrown on a sacred flame at the very moment the flame was flickering and threatening to go out”
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“Seeing him [Roosevelt] act, the French democracy has a feeling that an example was traced for it, and it is this example we are following”
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“We cannot live this way. We are bound by an alliance with a state and a people, yet we have so little confidence in them that we hesitate to deliver them arms, designs, plans-for the fear that they will betray us and deliver them to the enemy. We must know whether the Poles are our allies or not”
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“America alone of the great powers was genuinely interested in the same policies he was trying to put through. The British government was working with him wholeheartedly and sincerely in certain fields but because it was a Conservative government it disapproved highly of his domestic policy and the sympathy he received in London was therefore half-hearted”
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“The logical inclination of our internal policy would lead us to adopt coercive measures against the export of capital and currency speculation. But that would be to create a contradiction between our policy which seeks a community of action with the great Anglo-Saxon nations and the signing of a monetary agreement aimed at restoring activity and liberty to international trade”
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“Germany is on the verge of an economic and financial catastrophe because of rearmament”
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“between Wilson and Lenin, between democracy and Bolshevik fanaticism”
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Sortiraparis.com: Heritage Days 2026: free tours and concerts at the Léon Blum House
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Leon Blum Perished in “jewish Extermination Camp” Near Lublin, Moscow Writer Reports
Forbes: Leon Blum’s Progressive Brand Of Democracy May Rebound In 2023
Died 1950-03-30.
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“Opis: fragment eseju o Stendhalu.”
“Dodaję z dumą, że to zharmonizowanie patriotyzmu i humanizmu jest bardziej naturalne i proste u Francuza niż u każdego innego obywatela kuli ziemskiej, bo temperament francuski (…) rozumie zawsze i dotychczas odczuwa szlachetną potrzebę myślenia i działania dla spraw powszechnego znaczenia.”
Was needed was to "create Europe while thinking of the world"
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“Opis: w lutym 1948, w artykule redakcyjnym w „Le Populaire”, kilka dni po komunistycznym zamachu stanu przeprowadzonym w Pradze.”
Blum supported the establishment of Israel, writing in an editorial in Le Populaire on 15 May 1948 that he hoped Israel would be "a fatherland of dignity, equality and freedom for all Jews who had not had like myself the
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Supported the voyage of the ship SS Exodus taking Jewish Holocaust survivors from France to Palestine that was stopped by the British, an action that Blum sharply condemned in an editorial in Le Populaire
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Blum strongly supported the Treaty of Dunkirk, a military alliance with Great Britain, which Blum felt gave France what it sought in vain for most of the interwar period, a firm commitment from Britain to defend France
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Career landmark: President of the Council (1946–1947).
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Career landmark: president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1946–1947).
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Career landmark: Minister of Foreign Affairs (1946–1947).
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When Abetz was pressing for him to be shot
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“One serves democratic France by helping General de Gaulle to assume at once the position of a leader”
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“Opis: w liście przemyconym do Londynu z petainowskiego więzienia w sierpniu 1942, wobec pojawiających się spekulacji.”
“Opis: w liście do Charles’a de Gaulle’a przemyconym z petainowskiego więzienia w 1941.”
“Do you recall with what scorn they used to speak to us of that army? Only the Polish Army counted for something. As to a comparison with the French Army, no one would hazarded such an impious thought!”
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For the same offenses that he was now on trial for in 1942 as he stated that the presumption of innocence had been disregarded in his case
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“between the cruelest anguish and the most ardent hopes”
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Blum became a staunch opponent of Vichy France and was tried (but never judged) by its government on charges of treason
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“Opis: w lipcu 1940, w reakcji na przegłosowanie przez francuski parlament przekazania pełni władzy marionetkowemu rządowi Vichy z Philippe’em Pétainem na czele.”
Than the German Empire had done in 1914, and Belgium's neutral status allowed the Wehrmacht a head start in the invasion
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Had seen him as never before as Laval was "bloated with incredible pride
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Denounced the "corrupting bath of Vichy", and flatly stated that Pétain was guilty of "treason"
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Or 1940), which the Chamberlain government gave as the major reason for opposing peacetime conscription
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“Never was the violence more flagrant on one hand, and never was the will for peace more certain and more tenacious on the other”
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“a truly extraordinary event, almost incredible, one is dumbfounded by the blow”
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A demand resisted by Pétain and his premier, Admiral Darlan, who could not bring themselves to admit to France's supposed "war guilt"
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“There is not a woman and a man to refuse MM. Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier their rightful tribute of gratitude. War is avoided. The scourge recedes. Life can become natural again. One can resume one”
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“Opis: w listopadzie 1938, w okresie kryzysu monachijskiego.”
“Opis: mowa parlamentarna z marca 1938, wygłoszona w kontekście międzynarodowego kryzysu wywołanego Anchlussem Austrii i potrzeby wzniesienia się ponad partyjne kłótnie i konflikty.”
Career landmark: President of the Council (1938–1938).
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“This deeply felt and impassioned will for peace cannot lead a people to accept everything; on the contrary, it strengthens the resolve to struggle, to sacrifice itself, if necessary for independence and freedom, it does not abolish the distinction what is just and unjust”
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“Opis: w czerwcu 1938 na kongresie SFIO w Royan, trzy miesiące przed kryzysem monachijskim.”
“We believe our position is stronger than a few months ago. France does not tremble in the face of war, but does not want war”
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“Opis: w 1936 decydując się – mimo swoich przekonań – na pozostawienie Hiszpanii i Niemiec ich własnemu losowi.”
Career landmark: President of the Council (1936–1937).
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Blum voted against extending compulsory military service from one year to two years, saying he wanted France "to disarm on its own as much as is necessary in order to encourage an international agreement"
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All the parties of left and centre formed the Popular Front
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All presented problems from the French viewpoint
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When the rise of German dictator Adolf Hitler and fascist riots in Paris caused Stalin and the French Communists to change their policy
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Blum came into conflict with Renaudel, who kept pressing for the Socialists to enter the cabinet in alliance with the Radicals on the grounds that some power was better than none, and who charged that Blum was an ineffec
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Expelled Marcel Déat, Pierre Renaudel, and other neosocialists from the SFIO
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Was under the terms of the armistice arrested by the French police and returned to German custody, where he was beaten to death
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Blum, along with Albert Einstein, attended the founding of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, where both Blum and Einstein spoke in favor of Zionism
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“Opis: w lipcu 1928 o Charles’u Maurras i innych przedstawicielach prawicy wyrażających podziw dla Mussoliniego.”
“Opis: w 1927, kiedy zarówno lewica, jak i prawica sprzeciwiły się przyznaniu kobietom prawa wyborczego.”
“to break with all delays, vain hopes, half hopes, half measures”
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“Only now do I understand the harm done our nation's best interests by the rebuff administered to Poincaré's policy in 1924.”
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And he admired the way that Roosevelt had gone on to become president despite his paralysis
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Worked to prevent a split between supporters and opponents of the Russian Revolution at the Congress of Tours, but the radicals seceded, taking L'Humanité with them, and formed the French Section of the Communist Inte
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“Opis: mowa wygłoszona w Tours w grudniu 1920 o bolszewikach i ich francuskich sympatykach.”
Was chosen as chair of the party's executive committee, and was also elected to the National Assembly as a representative of Paris
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Was a beloved and deeply respected figure in France where he was seen as the greatest living French war hero and Reynaud saw Pétain in his cabinet as way to reassure the public
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When a minority of the Socialists started to become opposed to the war, Blum displayed much tact in seeking party unity as he maintained that the German threat necessitated support for the war
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To opposing it by 1918 was also reflected in Russia
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When Germany was initially victorious, but defeated in the Battle of the Marne that the French and the British would rally to stop the Wehrmacht before it was too late
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Almost all Socialists had supported the union sacrée as Blum had done, but as the war continued, many Socialists felt the burden of the war had not been shared equally with the working class making all the sacrifices whi
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Most Russian socialists had either declared their support for war or least their neutrality as many socialists could not bring themselves to supporting Emperor Nicholas II; by 1917 the radical views of Lenin who called f
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Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (1909).
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Wrote he had no fears of "a Saint Bartholomew's Day of the Jews", writing that pogroms were possible "in Poland, Galicia, or Romania or maybe in Algiers, but not in France"
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As a jurist, before which he had not demonstrated interest in public affairs
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Blum married Lise Bloch at the Grand Synagogue of Paris
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But in the late summer of 1897 Lucien Herr convinced Blum that Dreyfus was innocent and as an intellectual with influence he had the duty to take a stand in favor of Dreyfus
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Became the critic for La Revue Blanche magazine, where he reviewed works by Anatole France, Pierre Louÿs, Jules Renard and André Gide
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And excelled there, but he dropped out a year later, entering instead the Faculty of Law
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Awarded Concours général (1889).
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Born 1872-04-09.
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In Paris to a moderately prosperous, middle class, assimilated Jewish family in the mercantile business
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Only ten miles from the Spanish border and Blum's cell was cut off from the sunlight
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We cannot live this way. We are bound by an alliance with a state and a people, yet we have so little confidence in them that we hesitate to deliver them arms, designs, plans-for the fear that they will betray us and deliver them to the enemy. We must know whether the Poles are our allies or not
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