Traditionally, French anti-masonic sentiments were based on the two themes of politics and religion. Freemasonry’s enemies were right-wing anti-Republicans and the Catholic Church. In no other Occupied country were the Germans given so much assistance in their anti-masonic policies.
    After the German victory in the French campaign, the Armistice was signed on the 22 June 1940 and France was divided into Occupied and Unoccupied zones: the French Government, under Marshal Pétain, had its seat in the spa town of Vichy in the Unoccupied zone.
    The first anti-masonic measures were taken by the Germans in their search for documentary evidence to prove that the outbreak of war was the result of Franco-British collusion; they sealed lodges and confiscated documents. Vichy persecution, however, was a direct policy of the Government; they carried on the initial German attacks and intensified them. For the Vichy extremists, it was the time to exact revenge on the Freemasons for real or imagined opposition in the past. On the 13 August 1940, the main anti-masonic legislation was passed, interestingly, even before any anti-Jewish measures; perhaps an indication of governmental priorities! Of note is the fact that the word "Freemasonry" is never mentioned in the legislation – rather the law forbade "secret associations". Kept deliberately vague, it allowed Vichy to proscribe any movement thought harmful, but since the Grand Orient de France had, from 3 January 1913, deposited all its statutes with the French authorities together with a list of its thirty-three chief administrators, updated each year, was Freemasonry legally “a secret organisation”? A fine point disregarded by Vichy!
    A letter to Pétain, signed by two high officials in the Vichy Government, set out the reasoning behind the legislation,
    "No Government can allow, and in the present circumstances more than ever, the existence of groups pursuing clandestine or secret activities".
    Pétain, no friend of the Freemasons, approved,
    "A Jew is not responsible for his origins, a Freemason has always the choice".1
    The details of the law were very comprehensive: all premises and meeting-places were to be sequestrated and the contents auctioned. Penalties, fines and imprisonment were to be the lot of anyone attempting to continue a proscribed association. No one could remain in public employment: the Civil Service, Local Government or Teaching unless he had stated in writing and on his honour, that he had never belonged to an illegal organisation or, if he had ever belonged to one, that he had left it. Furthermore, he needed to state that he would never re-join such a group if it was ever reconstituted. Anyone omitting to make such a declaration, or making a false one, was to be dismissed from his position and the penalties doubled. Much of the content of this law was based upon Portuguese anti-masonic laws of 1935 and Spanish anti-masonic laws of March 1940.

Exposure of Freemasons

Between the publication of the original law and an amendment of 11 August 1941, numerous anti-masonic decrees were promulgated. All were published in the official governmental gazette – the Journal Officiel. However, on 11 August, a law was issued requiring that officers of Lodges and high dignatories (defined as those who had obtained the grade of Master or who occupied higher grades in the masonic hierarchy) should have their names published.
    The first list was printed the next day in the Journal Officiel and from that date until August 1944, over 30,000 names were published. But these lists were very unreliable: some names appeared several times and others were those of Freemasons long dead. However, between 14,000 and 18,000 names were of active Freemasons. Over one thousand civil servants lost their positions and almost 150 false declarations were referred to the courts. Of the 807 names of those making false declarations, published between August 1941 and March 1943, all were dismissed from their positions. There were only two exceptions: one had been confused with his father, the other was the subject of a correction in the Journal Officiel.
    To counter the claim that the lists contained out-of-date information, a rider was published on 24 August 1941, to the effect that the lists were established from large rolls dating between 1920 and 1940. Bernard Faÿ, one of the compilers of the official lists, explained away the presence of deceased Freemasons by saying that their very presence proved that the lists were genuine and were exactly as copied from the documents found. Of course, it also proved that in many cases the authorities were not in possession of up-to-date lists of lodge members. The destruction of these, where possible, had certainly proved a hindrance to the persecutors.
    The French public greeted these lists with mixed reactions. Some saw with dismay their names in print and hastened to deny their adherence to the Craft or tried to prove that they had long since resigned. Others were surprised that names they had expected to be there, were not, and that the names of many public figures known to be Freemasons were omitted. In reality, in the smaller towns and villages, nothing new was revealed. It simply proved that most Freemasons were ordinary members of the community, performing worthwhile tasks in the local services – the schools, railways or hospitals - they were men of modest means, respected and supported by their fellow citizens. Samples of the published lists reveal that the professions are in the majority. It was, however, the educationalists, especially teachers, who predominate; they comprise almost twenty percent of the total.
    Many of the Freemasons who were civil servants and Government employees, were forced to resign, often against the wishes of the local populace who respected their teachers and other pillars of the community. Furthermore, this dismissal of experienced public servants often led to a breakdown in local administration. To counter this, a new law appeared on 10 November 1941 allowing for exemptions to be made in the dismissal of Government employees, providing that their application went before a special commission, that they had not been a Freemason for several years, and that they had rendered special services to the French State. This law does not seem to have benefited many Freemasons; only 122 successful appeals were published. At least, Pierre Laval, by then back in power, was trying his utmost to protect Freemasons in vital positions and to alleviate the harsh anti-masonic laws.
    To enforce the laws, the Vichy Government created a “secret societies” service: a police force to monitor suspected Freemasons. Indeed, an interesting instruction to the regional delegates of this service was issued 21 March 1942:
    "Information on Communists, Gaullists, or black marketers is only to be passed on if they have definite links with Freemasonry".
    This state of affairs – Freemasons being persecuted and put under surveillance, persisted throughout the Occupation until finally, on 15 December 1943, with the tide of war turning in favour of the Allies, the Free French Government in exile published a decree annulling the anti-masonic law of 13 August 1940 and all other legislation connected with it. To the great relief of Brethren still suffering persecution in Occupied France, their movement was again to be legal when their country was freed. Their movement had survived and was ready to take its place in the re-building of post-war France.

The Resistance

The main consequence of the anti-masonic legislation, in addition to the prohibition of masonic activity, was that many Freemasons, pillars of society and holding responsible positions, lost their means of livelihood. Many, of course, had families to support and so these laws caused great resentment and anti-Vichy sentiments. Such resentment could easily be channelled into both passive and active resistance. The same moral standards and high ideals of a Freemason are exactly those needed in anyone who might resist tyranny, oppression and dictatorship. Many Freemasons were thus early members of the French Resistance.
    Freemasonry had to cease all public activity and its members had to keep a low profile throughout the Occupation. A few continued to meet as friends in cafés, and in each others’ houses, maintaining their charitable work for the benefit of Brethren in distress and their families. As the Occupation continued, more Brethren joined the Resistance; more were persecuted for their beliefs. Many were deported and over 500 were executed or died as a result of deportation or the activities of the German or Vichy police for their Resistance activities. The more fortunate returned from the concentration camps but they were often broken in health and mind.
    As a timely reminder and warning to Freemasons, fortunate in never having their country occupied, perhaps the Roll of Honour of two French Lodges, chosen at random, will emphasise this good fortune.

Lodge No. 410, Orient de Paris
Léopold Welting: Hunted by the Gestapo, committed suicide.
Darius Goldenberg: Arrested May 1944, deported, disappeared.
Jacques Glass: Deported to Auschwitz 1941, disappeared.
Charles Goldenberg: Deported to Auschwitz 1941, disappeared.
Jaques Lapon: Arrested 1941, deported, disappeared.
Marc Munk: Arrested 1941, deported, disappeared.

Lodge No. 432, La Fraternité Ecossaise, Orient de Nice
Eugène Courbet: Arrested 4 December 1943, assassinated at Nice by the Gestapo, January 1944.
Robert Thivin: Arrested 4 December 1943, tortured and killed by the Gestapo, 10 February 1944.
Wladimir Joukoff: Arrested in the Haute-Savoie, assassinated March 1944 by the SS.

Dr. Keith Doney is a linguist and historian. His PhD, Freemasonry in France during the Nazi occupation and its rehabilitation after the war, was probably the first awarded in England for research into Freemasonry. He is Past Master of Bridge Trust Lodge, Birmingham.

© Keith Doney, 2001.

1 Moulin de Labarthète, H. du, Le Temps Des Illusions, Geneve, 1946, p.89.