Henri Bernard (magistrate)

Bernard made a career in the colonies before joining Free France during the Second World War.

Henri Bernard was born on 8 October 1899 in Arles, and obtained his law degree at the University of Aix-en-Provence.

For supporting the Free French forces in Brazzaville on 28 August 1940, he was sentenced to death in absentia in July 1941 by the military tribunal of Gannat in Vichy France.

In Free France, he was appointed colonel and was posted to Beirut as the government’s representative (Commissaire du gouvernment).

[2] He issued a dissenting opinion at the Tribunal, criticizing the trial proceedings as partial, and with a selective prosecution that excluded Emperor Hirohito, whom he considered the "principal perpetrator" of the war.