Robert Hersant

Robert Hersant (30 January 1920 – 21 April 1996) was a French newspaper magnate. He was a leader in the pro-Nazi youth movement during the Vichy wartime years, but after prison time built a major newspaper empire and engaged in conservative politics. At the time of his death he operated 40 publications and employed 8,000 people, but failed in his leap into television. Early life Hersant was born in Vertou, Loire-Atlantique. . He was the son of a captain in the merchant navy and showed early on an interest in school newspapers. Vichy France Initially involved with the Socialist Youth movement in 1935, Robert Hersant founded the rightist political party Jeune Front in the summer 1940. During that period, he became a friend of Jean-Marie Balestre. Jeune Front although a small group, was publishing the pro-Nazi newspaper Au Pilori. He left this movement in October 1940, to become a member of the secretariat general de la jeunesse of the Vichy Regime. In 1941–1942, he created a camp in Brévannes, named after the Marshal Philippe Pétain to indoctrinate young people in the Révolution nationale ideology. He was not affected in the first waves of the Épuration légale after liberation. He was arrested and jailed for one month in Fresnes on 15 June 1945. He was tried in 1947 and sentenced to 10 years of national indignity for collaboration with Nazi Germany. The court emphasized that Jeune Front had received support from the Nazis as early as August 1940 to justify that sentence. Publishing and politics He was released through the general amnesties in 1947, 1951 and 1953. His personal friendships with notable Socialist leaders such as Guy Mollet and François Mitterrand during the 1950s enabled him to start fresh. After launching a few unsuccessful publications, (Bazars et Galeries, l'Equipement Ménager, le Quincailler), in 1950, he started L'Auto-Journal, which met success due to the increasing popularity of automobiles.