Élie Bloncourt

[1][6] Family circumstances, including the death of his mother, kept him from seeking higher education in France, but in 1915 he was mobilized by the French military.

During a heavy German attack on 30 May, Bloncourt was hit by a machine gun bullet which destroyed both his eyeballs and left him permanently blinded.

He sought jobs as teacher in secondary schools, but only managed to get temporary positions leaving him to rely on his invalidity pension.

[1] Bloncourt was in the 1930s preoccupied with the danger of fascism and advocated a unified anti-fascist front of Socialist and Communists.

[1] When World War II started, Bloncourt immediately took a strong stand against any cooperation with the Germans and did not attend the Parliament's gathering in Vichy on 10 July 1940.

He became responsible for organizing the Libération-Nord in Aisne where he participated in the Brutus Network which spied on and registered the movements of the occupying forces.

[1] After his parliamentary career ended, Bloncourt settled in Paris and worked as teacher at the Lycée Charlemagne and at the Centre national d'enseignement par correspondence.

In 1960 he started the Comité d’aide aux victimes de la répression to support those who opposed the French war in Algeria.

On 22 June 1968, he was one of 29 signers of a letter in Le Monde which condemned as undemocratic certain measures by the De Gaulle government.

[7] Yves Clainville's son, Tony Bloncourt, was part of the French Communist resistance movement during World War II and executed by the Germans in 1942.