Jean Moulin

A Short Tour of Béziers & the Region ( page 8 of 22 )

Statue to the memory of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance during WW2
Plaque on the House where Jean Moulin was born in 1899
Photo of Jean Moulin taken by Marcel Bernard

Codename : MAX

(Marcel Bernard, friend of Jean Moulin who took the above photo, probably the most widely known photo of the resistance leader, in October 1939, he lived at no: 4 rue d'Alsace (next-door to Jean Moulin's birthplace) until his death in 1991.)

Detail of the statue of Jean Moulin

JEAN MOULIN - (20 June 1899 - 8 July 1943), another famous son of Béziers

This famous son of Béziers, Jean Moulin was the first representative of General de Gaulle in France and leader of the French Resistance during World War Two.

The statue to the memory of Jean Moulin, in the "Champ de Mars", Béziers.

Jean Moulin was born at 6 rue d'Alsace, overlooking the "Champ de Mars", in Béziers on the 20^th June 1899. He became the founder and first president of the French National Resistance Council.

Birthplace of Jean Moulin in Béziers, he was leader of the French Resistance against the Nazis during WW2

	Important dates
1899	20^th June - Jean Moulin was born in Béziers.
1918	18^th April - Called up into the army.
1918	18^th September - Sent to the front.
1921	Joined the young republicans.
1926	September - married Marguerite Cerruty, they divorced after just two years.
1932	December - appointed chief assistant to the cabinet of Pierre Cot.
1936	Became a partisan with a Spanish group who supported the USSR against Hitler's Germany.
1940	18^th June - Arrested, because he refused to sign a German document accusing French colonial troupes of atrocities, then returned to the resistance.
1941	25^th October - contacts de Gaulle in London, who charges him with two missions: 1). To control the military forces of the southern zone resistance movement. and 2). To unify all the movements under de Gaulle's authority.
1943	21^st June - Arrested at Caluire, he died under torture the 8^th July in a Northern French railway station.

Every year on the 22^nd August, Béziers celebrates the fight of Jean Moulin against the Nazis, and the liberation of the town (in 1945) with an Al Fresco meal followed by a Son et Lumière and fireworks on the banks of the river Orb, the evening finishes in the early hours of the morning with dancing to a Show Band.