Jacques Doriot (Bresle, 1898) came from a family of modest means and joined the socialists at age 18, later rallying to the Third International and rising in the French Communist Party and standing as a candidate for secretary general. Imprisoned in 1923 for his pamphleteering, he gained release upon being elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Banned from the party in 1934 for advocating a popular front against fascism, he founded his Parti Popular Français in 1936, attracting members from both communist and fascist elements. As the Popular Front formed, he made a startling conversion to fascism, and after the defeat of 1940, he pronounced in favor of collaboration and support for the Pétain regime. A forceful advocate of the crusade against communism in the Russo-German War, he joined the first contingent of the Légion Volontaire Française (LVF), although he was forced out later for his disruptive political activism. He later returned to it in 1943 and won an Iron Cross award. He joined the Laval government in December 1943 and fled with it to Sigmaringen exile, dying in 1944 when his car was strafed by an allied aircraft.
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