Word: darnand
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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...Darnand was a sergeant in World War I, a lieutenant in World War II, was highly decorated in both. He formed his own Fascist outfit, the Chevaliers du Glaive, in the '30s became prominent among the Cagoulards ("Hooded Men") a secret terrorist group which organized bombings and assassinations, stored arms depots all over France. Darnand was prosecuted for complicity in the murder of a business associate, for being too close to the Duce's intelligence service, for bad checks issued in his name by his mistress...
Pierre Laval sensed that brutal, stocky Joseph Darnand was seeking notoriety and power, thought he could use such a man. Laval sent Darnand to Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, who received him magnificently. Since then, Darnand has nurtured his shock troopers, recently showed off their skill in thuggery to a group of Nazi experts visiting Vichy...
Killer at Work. When invasion comes, Darnand's job will be to keep order in the rear of the German defenders. In advance of invasion, his job is to quiet those Frenchmen who yearn too strongly for it. His personally appointed courts now have the power of life & death over any Frenchman they can catch. His thugs do not require even this veneer of legality...
...Grenoble, city of glovemakers and students, Darnand's men killed 18 intellectuals in one week. On a country road, they assassinated 81-year-old humanitarian Professor Victor Basch and his wife. Respected Maurice Sarraut, owner of the famous democratic newspaper La Dépêche, was shot dead on a Toulouse street. Two French senators were murdered...
...Darnand has even tried to extend his long arm to neutral Sweden. He asked Vichy's Chargé d'Affairs in Stockholm to report the names of all French prisoners of war who have escaped from Germany to Sweden and express anti-Vichy views. Penalty: sentences of death in absentia...