Léon Gaultier

Léon Gaultier
Léon Gaultier in Waffen-SS uniform, during World War II.
Born	(1915-02-01)1 February 1915 Bourges, France
Died	18 July 1997(1997-07-18) (aged 82)
Allegiance	France  Nazi Germany
Service / branch	Waffen-SS
Years of service	1943–45
Rank	SS-Untersturmführer
Battles / wars	World War II
Other work	National Front

Léon Gaultier (French pronunciation: [leɔ̃ ɡoltje]; 1 February 1915 – 18 July 1997) was a French collaborator and a founding member of the National Front.

Biography

Léon was born on 1 February 1915 in Bourges.[1] He studied classics and became a professor of history.[2]

During World War II, he worked along with Paul Marion, General Secretary for Information in the government of Philippe Pétain. Gaultier was a columnist for Radio-Vichy and one of the founders of the Milice.

Gaultier fought for Germany in the Waffen-SS with the rank of Untersturmführer.[3] He commanded a French unit on the Eastern Front in the fall of 1944 and was seriously wounded in Galicia. He was sentenced to forced labor in 1946 and released on 2 June 1948, he eventually worked for the advertising agency Havas.

During the presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour in 1965, Gaultier was responsible for propaganda and worked alongside former Cagoulard turned resistance fighter Serge Jeanneret.[4]

He later co-founded with Jean-Marie Le Pen the publishing house SERP ("Société d'études et de relations publiques"),[5] which specialized in editing historical recordings like political speeches and military songs.

In 1972, he was among the founders of the National Council of the National Front.[5] Gaultier wrote in Rivarol and was gradually moved away from the circle of Jean-Marie Le Pen in early 1980s. Thereafter, he concentrated on writing his memoir.

Works

• Gaultier, Léon (1980), J. Picollec (ed.), Catalina de Erauso (in French), Paris, ISBN 978-2-8647-7011-4, OCLC 7255341.
• Gaultier, León (1982), J. Picollec (ed.), "Jean Coëtanlem : le cœur au poing, le lys aux lèvres", Biblio Celtique (in French), Paris, p. 267, ISBN 978-2-8647-7045-9, OCLC 9854275.
• Gaultier, Léon (1991), Perrin (ed.), Siegfried et le Berrichon : parcours d'un "collabo" (in French), Paris, p. 378, ISBN 978-2-2620-0888-8, OCLC 24429779

Notes

1. "Léon Gaultier (1915–1997)". BnF.
2. Giolitto, Pierre (2007), Perrin (ed.), Volontaires français sous l'uniforme allemand (in French), Paris: Tempus, p. 128 & 421, ISBN 978-2-2620-2641-7, OCLC 470835664
3. "Le FN, côté collabos". Libération.fr (in French). 17 June 1996. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
4. Shields, James (7 May 2007). The Extreme Right in France: From Pétain to Le Pen. Routledge. p. 127. ISBN 9781134861118.
5. "Le Pen et ses fantômes". Le Point. No. 1546. 3 May 2002. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012..