Growing up, I always knew that one of my great-grandparents was very famous. We had several busts and placards of *Grandpere Henri* in the house, and my mom told me several stories about the famous civil engineer who was (apparently) approached to run for president of France. When I learned how to use Wikipedia, I also learned how General Giraud had been a colleague of De Gaulle, and had helped liberate France from the Nazis.

There’s only one problem. I don’t talk to that branch of the family much, so this took me a while to figure out. But I recently pieced together that my famous ancestor was not [Henri Giraud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Giraud), the war hero, but [Henri Giraud](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Giraud_(secr%C3%A9taire_d%27%C3%89tat), the head of Paris’ public works department– and also Secretaire d’Etat for the Petain government.

So, you can imagine this was a pretty big surprise, and I can’t help feeling a certain morbid curiosity about Grand-pere’s role in the war. I know a civil engineer wouldn’t necessarily have participated in loading up the train cars, but I still can’t help wondering how actively he participated in the occupation.

I feel like there are so many unanswered questions, and my french is way too shitty to find the answers. I’d be very grateful if anyone can help find things out about my famous grandfather.

So, here’s what I’m trying to find out:

1. What sort of work would Henri Giraud have been responsible for, as Secretaire d’Etat under Petain? Would this have benefited the Axis war effort?
2. As a member of the government, would he necessarily have been favorable to the Axis cause?
3. Would he have been “in the room” for discussions about Jewish deportations, or other war crimes?
4. Did he ever express any public sympathy with the Germans or their racial program?

Alors, merci pour votre aide.

16 comments

  2. 1. A secretaire d’état is a member of the government, they’re ministers in charge of a small and well defined sector of the state or the economy. As he was in charge of “equipment” he would have headed logistic and procurement for a lot of activities, making arbitration about who gets what, what price was acceptable for supplies, starting programs in order to build infrastructure… at that time it’s difficult to imagine that would not have entailed to discuss with the German. And since Vichy was collaborating it would have benefited the German.

    2. He could have thought that it was necessary to collaborate in order for France to survive. But being so high in the Vichy state hierarchy he would have to work with true believers and people who acted as such and its hard to imagine he would not have some level of sympathy for the German.

    3. Its certainly possible. And his role would have placed him in a position to make some pretty hard decision that had consequences for a lot of people live.

    4. No idea.

  4. Salut ! (use Deepl traduction, i speak only French)

    Je viens de lire la fiche Wikipédia de ton arrière-grand-père. Tu peux être rassuré je doute qu’il ait été question de collaboration active avec l’ennemi. Il faut surtout retenir qu’il semble avoir participé activement à la modernisation de Paris et notamment à la l’agrandissement du métro à Paris.

    >1 – What sort of work would Henri Giraud have been responsible for, as Secretaire d’Etat under Petain? Would this have benefited the Axis war effort?

    Il semble avoir été positionné au Délégation Service de l’Equipement Général (1930-1946) pour son travail sur la ville de Paris entre 1924 et 1940. Il a été un des grands acteurs de la modernisation de Paris. Son rôle aurait probablement été de continuer à moderniser Paris sans aucun lien avec les Juifs.

    >2 – As a member of the government, would he necessarily have been favorable to the Axis cause?

    Pas forcément, sans sa correspondance personnelle il est difficile de savoir ce qu’il pensait, mais je répète il est probable que ce soit grâce à son travail qu’il a eu son poste

    >3 – Would he have been “in the room” for discussions about Jewish deportations, or other war crimes?

    Très très peu de chance, sa position n’avait absolument aucun rapport

    >4 – Did he ever express any public sympathy with the Germans or their racial program?

    Il faut regarder sur Retronews, mais le nom est en effet pollué par l’autre Henry Giraud.

    ​

    Article publié par le [Le Matin, 12 novembre 1942 (photo)](https://www.retronews.fr/journal/le-matin/12-novembre-1942/66/174137/2?from=%2Fsearch%23allTerms%3DGiraud%2520Henri%26sort%3Dscore%26publishedStart%3D1942-11-12%26publishedEnd%3D1942-11-12%26publishedBounds%3Dfrom%26indexedBounds%3Dfrom%26page%3D1%26searchIn%3Dall%26total%3D16&index=5)

    « Urbaniste de talent et grand serviteur de la capitale,

    Monsieur Henri Giraud commissaire aux travaux de la région parisienne est mort

    On annonce la mort de Monsieur Henri Giraud, secrétaire général de la délégation générale de l’équipement national, commissaire aux travaux de la région parisienne, ancien directeur général des travaux de Paris, qui a succombé en plein labeur alors qu’il présidait une conférence. Voici 18 mois à peine que Monsieur Giraud était appelé à mettre son activité au service de l’équipement du pays. Il donne aussitôt toute sa mesure, déployant ses grandes qualités d’organisateur et de technicien, mettant tout son cœur, toute sa foi et toutes ses forces dans l’accomplissement d’une tâche qu’il savait devoir contribuer au relèvement de la France.

    Le nom d’Henri Giraud restera particulièrement attaché à la ville de Paris, à laquelle ce grand ingénieur consacra trente-cinq années d’une carrière toute d’honneur et de probité.

    >Aussi, la ville a-t-elle tenu à honorer sa mémoire en donnant à ses obsèques, qui seront célébrées demain, vendredi à 10 heures, en l’église Saint-Germain-des-Prés, le caractère de reconnaissance publique qu’elle réserve à ses grands serviteurs.

    Monsieur Giraud était grand officier de la Légion d’honneur »

    Très bel hommage !

    ​

    Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, est un grande élevé même pour les détenteurs de cette distinction. Sur ce lien tu trouvera le [dossier d’Henri Giraud](https://www.leonore.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/ui/notice/164193)

    ​

    Informations importantes de [Acte de naissance et des mentions marginales](http://archives.paris.fr/arkotheque/visionneuse/visionneuse.php?arko=YTo2OntzOjQ6ImRhdGUiO3M6MTA6IjIwMjItMDEtMDIiO3M6MTA6InR5cGVfZm9uZHMiO3M6MTE6ImFya29fc2VyaWVsIjtzOjQ6InJlZjEiO2k6NDtzOjQ6InJlZjIiO2k6MjIwMzQ2O3M6MTY6InZpc2lvbm5ldXNlX2h0bWwiO2I6MTtzOjIxOiJ2aXNpb25uZXVzZV9odG1sX21vZGUiO3M6NDoicHJvZCI7fQ==#uielem_move=-1696%2C-154&uielem_rotate=F&uielem_islocked=0&uielem_zoom=197) (page 28)

    “Giraud Henri Ernest, né à Paris 11e arrondissement, père Giraud Honoré Cyprien (lithographe agé de 35ans), mère Imbert Geneviève Madeleine Ernestine (couturière agée de 27 ans et épouse légitime de Giraud)”

    “Giraud Henri marié Eugénie Mathilde Douay à Paris le 18 mars 1904 dans le 12e arrondissement”

    ​

    [Fiche matricule](http://archives.paris.fr/arkotheque/visionneuse/visionneuse.php?arko=YTo2OntzOjQ6ImRhdGUiO3M6MTA6IjIwMjItMDEtMDIiO3M6MTA6InR5cGVfZm9uZHMiO3M6MTE6ImFya29fc2VyaWVsIjtzOjQ6InJlZjEiO2k6MTc7czo0OiJyZWYyIjtpOjEyOTMxNDE7czoxNjoidmlzaW9ubmV1c2VfaHRtbCI7YjoxO3M6MjE6InZpc2lvbm5ldXNlX2h0bWxfbW9kZSI7czo0OiJwcm9kIjt9#uielem_move=268%2C-179&uielem_rotate=F&uielem_islocked=0&uielem_zoom=102) du soldat Henri Giraud, il a été mobilisé en 1914 et a fait toute la guerre. De ce que je comprends il était dans le Génie, ce qui n’est pas vraiment surprenant. En réalité le fiche bien qu’assez fournie ne sous apprend pas tellement de choses intéressante. Il était probablement pas directement au front, même si je peux me tromper.

    ​

    Bon je m’arrête là ! Bonne lecture ! Toujours sympa un petit entrainement comme ça.

  5. Well I read his wikipedia pae and there is nothing that could indicate that even though he was a quite high ranked fonctionary, he didn’t especially comaborated, he just kept the position he had before the war, and about the jews, he was just a civil servant and wasn t affiliated with anything like the milicia or the gestapo so I highly doubt he took part in the shoah.

  6. Je voudrais rajouter que le général Henri Giraud n’était pas du tout un héros, c’était un militaire tout ce qu’il y a de plus vichyste, le bras droit de Darlan qui a pris sa succession en Afrique du Nord (après que Darlan a été assassiné par la résistance) et qui a continué à appliquer les lois de Vichy *après* le débarquement des troupes américaines, y compris le statut des juifs.
    Il a fallu une année entière au général de Gaulle pour marginaliser complètement Giraud au sein du gouvernement de la France libre (et rétablir ainsi la nationalité française des juifs d’Afrique du Nord, ouvrir les camps de prisonniers, etc).

  7. Public servants had to agree with the collaboration not the holocaust

    Some of them were undercover agents for the resistance. There’s hope.

  11. An interesting information that can be read in his Wikipedia article is that he died days before Germany fully occupied France. Until then there had been a part of France that was not occupied, and a lot of French people thought they owed that to Petain and the Vichy government. So for quite a number of French people, the full occupation of France was the moment they woke up and stopped giving credit to the Vichy government.

    What I mean is that in general working for the Vichy government does not per se make a bad guy of somebody, and it is even more the case for the period where you ancestor did it as it was a period where I think a majority of the French would have done the same.

  12. The wikipedia page shouldn’t be trusted, it’s not an encyclopedic work, it’s hagiographic at best. I’d be at least a bit worried about the list of commendations and accepting to work for Pétain in 41, it suggests at the very least that he was fine with it. Later it wouldn’t mean much, they were desperate and it was a mess but 40-41 is a different story. He wasn’t starving or anything, he left a good job for a better one but couldn’t ignore the circumstances.

    I don’t believe he had time to do any significant work since he died a few months after joining Petain’s government but politically he was at least accepting of the hardline technocratic religious right’s agenda. You had to be both a technocrat (which he definitely was given his curriculum) and a religious or far right conservative to be part of that adventure before 42. Darlan and Pétain were determined to have no “traitors” among them.

  16. He was friend with Lyautey and Cardinal Suard, so he was probably a far right-wing catholic, they were everywhere in Vichy at least until November 1942. They were replaced after that with true fascists.

    So probably not a collaborator as you can imagine, but probably very happy about the “divine surprise” for people who were waiting for the fall of the republic for 70 years. For them, Pétain was an expedient before putting back a sort of monarch and a portugese-like regime where church will gain back power.

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