Date of birth:

October 26th, 1916 (Jarnac/Charente, France)

Date of death:

January 8th, 1996 (Paris, France)

Nationality:

French

In 1939 and 1940 Francois Mitterrand served as 'sergent' and later as 'sergent chef' at the Maginot-line near Montmedy. He became prisoner of war on 14th May 1940 after being wounded by granade shrapnel and was imprisoned at Stammlager IX A (Trutzhain) and Stammlager IX C (Rudolstadt-Schaala). After five failed escapes, he finally escaped and went to Vichy-France in December 1941, where he fouund himself occupied with the helping of former prisoners of war. He founded the resistance movement "Rassemblement national des prisonniers de guerre" (RNPG) in 1943 and was known there with the name Francois Morland. When his position was in danger in November 1943, he escaped to London. After a failed negotiation with Charles de Gaulle, he returned to Paris and became in charge of the fusion of the three resistence movements of former prisoners of war (his own RNPG, Gaullistes and Communists) to become the Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre et déportés (MNPGD).
Later Francois Mitterrand became the 21st President of the French Republic and reigned from 21st May 1981 until 17th May 1995.

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• Photo: - François Mitterrand — Wikipédia
  
• - Audigier F., François Mitterrand, Nouveau monde éditions, 2005
  - Duhamel E., François Mitterrand, l'unité d'un homme, Flammarion, 1998