Kristian Hamon | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Historian Academic |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | Breton History |
Kristian Hamon is a Breton and French historian whose work focuses on collaboration in Brittany during World War II. [1]
After a brief membership of Jeune Bretagne, which he denounced as right-wing, [2] he joined the Breton Communist Party in 1973. At the end of the 1970s, he joined Canard de Nantes à Brest, worked for Libération in 1981, and then Lyon-Libération. At the end of the 1980s, he joined the daily newspaper the Var-Matin (Toulon). He also worked for a spell in publishing (Dargaud, Le Lombard).
He later returned to his studies, studying his master's (at L'Ouest-Éclair ) on the German Occupation of France, receiving permission to study the department archives of Ille-et-Vilaine and focusing on the activities of the Parti national breton during the Second World War. His writing has been described as giving "an uncompromising picture of the political collaboration of the National Breton Party during the war" which "have received a rather cold reception in some parts of the Breton movement". [3] Due to this uncompromising portrayal, the Breton nationalist party Adsav has attempted to disrupt a number of events attended by Hamon. [4]
In February 2020 Hamon criticised the renaming of a road named after Youenn Drezen by the mayor of Pont-l'Abbé. The reason given for the renaming was Drezen's supposed Nazi collaboration during the second world war, particularly his alleged role as an informer against the French resistance, however Hamon stated that he knew of no evidence for this. [5] Hamon's research instead identified Joseph Le Ruyet as the person who, in Hamon's view, had informed against the resistance fighters that Drezen is alleged to have informed against. [6] In November 2021, a book by Hamon about Free French parachutists fighting in Brittany in 1944 during WW2 called Chez nous, il n’y a que des morts! ("with us there are only the dead!") was published by Skol Vreizh. [7]
The flag of Brittany, a region in the northwest of France, is called the Gwenn-ha-du, which means white and black, in Breton. The flag was designed in 1923 by Morvan Marchal. It is also unofficially used in the department of Loire-Atlantique, although this now belongs to the Pays de la Loire and not to the region of Brittany, as the territory of Loire-Atlantique is historically part of the province of Brittany. Nantes, its prefecture, was once one of the two capital cities of Brittany.
Alan Heusaff, also Alan Heussaff was a Breton nationalist, linguist, dictionary compiler, prolific journalist and lifetime campaigner for solidarity between the Celtic peoples. A co-founder of the Celtic League in 1961, he was its first general secretary until 1984.
Célestin Lainé was a Breton nationalist and collaborator during the Second World War who led the SS affiliated Bezen Perrot militia. His Breton language name is Neven Hénaff. He was a chemical engineer by training. After the war he moved to Ireland.
Breton nationalism is the nationalism of the historical province of Brittany,France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations.
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot, was a priest and Breton nationalist who was assassinated by the Communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.
Loïc Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec was a Breton medical doctor, writer, and Grand Druid of Brittany.
Gilles Servat is a French singer, born in Tarbes in southern France in 1945, into a family whose roots lay in the Nantes region of Brittany. He is an ardent promoter ardent of the Breton culture, and sings in both French and Breton, as well as the other celtic languages, and was a member of Dan ar Braz's Héritage des Celtes. He is also a poet and novelist.
Long before World War II, the various Breton nationalist organizations were often anti-French and anti-colonialist, opposed to the Central Government's policy of linguistic imperialism, and critical to varying degrees of post-French Revolution-style Republicanism. Some Breton nationalists were openly pro-fascist. The extent to which this led Breton nationalists into collaboration with the Axis Powers and their motivations, remains a matter of often bitter historical controversy and debate.
The Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place on 28 July 1488, between the forces of King Charles VIII of France, and those of Francis II, Duke of Brittany, and his allies. The defeat of the latter signalled the end to the "guerre folle", a feudal conflict in which French aristocrats revolted against royal power during the regency of Anne de Beaujeu. It also effectively precipitated the end of the independence of Brittany from France.
The Bezen Perrot, officially the Breton SS Armed Formation was a small collaborationist unit established by Breton nationalists in German-occupied France during World War II. It was made up of personnel from Lu Brezhon, a Breton nationalist militia, under the leadership of Célestin Lainé.
René-Yves Creston, born René Pierre Joseph Creston, was a Breton artist, designer and ethnographer who founded the Breton nationalist art movement Seiz Breur. During World War II he was active in the French Resistance.
Théophile Jeusset was a Breton nationalist writer and fascist political activist. He is also known by his Breton language pseudonym Jean-Yves Keraudren.
Erwan Berthou was a French and Breton language poet, writer and neo-Druidic bard. His name is also spelled Erwan Bertou and Yves Berthou.
Youenn Drezen is the Breton language name of Yves Le Drézen, a Breton nationalist writer and activist. He is also known as Corentin Cariou and Tin Gariou.
The Revolt of the papier timbré was an anti-fiscal revolt in the west of Ancien Régime France, during the reign of Louis XIV from April to September 1675. It was fiercest in Lower Brittany, where it took on an anti-lordly tone and became known as the revolt of the Bonnets rouges or revolt of the Torrebens. It was unleashed by an increase in taxes, including the papier timbré, needed to authenticate official documents.
Meavenn (1911–1992) was the pen name of Francine Rozec, also known as Fant Rozec, a Breton language poet, novelist and playwright linked to Breton nationalism.
Joseph-Marie Jaffré, better known as Job Jaffré, was a French journalist and Breton nationalist. He also published under pseudonyms, most notably as Jos Pempoull.
Al Liamm is a bimonthly magazine of culture and literature in the Breton language.
The bomb attack of 7 August 1932 in Rennes was aimed at a work by the sculptor Jean Boucher, symbolizing the union of Brittany and France, and placed in a niche in Rennes city hall. Since its inauguration in 1911, the statue, representing Anne of Brittany, had been considered degrading by the Breton movement, due to its kneeling position before the King of France.