Location
University of Chichester
This event will consider the memory of Jean Moulin, one of the central figures of resistance in France. Moulin served as General de Gaulle’s emissary in France, working to knit together the competing factions of resistance into a unified movement. He played a central role in creating the Conseil National de la Résistance, one of the foundation stones of the liberation of France. Tragically, Moulin was captured shortly after in Lyon in 1943, and fell into the hands of the infamous SS torturer Klaus Barbie.
The University of Chichester is delighted to welcome three outstanding external speakers to discuss Jean Moulin and his memory. Speakers will discuss Jean Moulin, the ways in which he is commemorated today, and the trial of his torturer Klaus Barbie which brought that memory into question. This event has been made possible by the support of the Society for the Study of French History through a Visiting Scholar Grant and has been planned in conjunction with Dr Andrew WM Smith and Professor Hugo Frey at Chichester, and Dr Joan Tumblety of the University of Southampton.
Chichester is twinned with the city of Chartres, where Moulin was Prefect in 1940, and where his first act of heroism saw him defy the impositions of the Nazi Occupier. Likewise, it was from nearby RAF Tangmere that Moulin flew to France just two months before the creation of the CNR. The University is delighted to work with Tangmere Military Aviation Museum and the Secret WW2 Learning Network to commemorate this important local heritage, as it did with the commemoration of Jean Moulin’s flight to Melay, and his crash landing at Tangmere. Tangmere Military Aviation Museum is running an Exhibition on Tangmere and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) from Saturday 21 July until Sunday 2 September.
Professor Golsan is one of the outstanding inter-disciplinary scholars of his generation working on the borderlines of French history, French literary studies and the broader field of the study of intellectuals and politics in Western Europe today. Professor Kedward is a pioneering scholar in the study of resistance in France, fundamentally shaping the ways in which we have engaged with cultures of resistance for more than a generation. Professor Diamond is an outstanding historian of France’s social and cultural history, who has written notably on the Exodus following the fall of France, the experience of women during the war and on the photography of the Occupation. Dr Andrew WM Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History and Politics at the University of Chichester and historian of the French and Francophone world.