Charles Noguès

Charles Noguès (13 August 1876 – 20 April 1971) was a French general.[1] He graduated from the École Polytechnique,[2] and he was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour in 1939.[3]

Auguste Paul Charles Albert Noguès
Noguès, wearing the five stars of a General d'Armée
Born(1876-08-13)13 August 1876
Monléon-Magnoac, Hautes-Pyrénées, France
Died20 April 1971(1971-04-20) (aged 94)
Paris, France
Alma materÉcole Polytechnique
OccupationGeneral

During World War II, he served as Resident-General in Morocco and Commander-in-Chief in French North Africa.[4][5] Noguès was appalled by news that the French government was seeking an armistice with Germany. On 17 June 1940 he telegraphed to Bordeaux, where the government was then situated: "The whole of North Africa is appalled. The troops beg to continue the struggle if the government has no objection. I am ready to take responsibility for this attitude with all the risks that it entails," i.e. asking for a hint to carry on fighting. However, he did not approve of General Charles de Gaulle's call from London in 18 June to carry on fighting, telling the British liaison officer that he thought de Gaulle's attitude "unseemly" and forbidding the North African press from publishing de Gaulle's appeal.[6]

Noguès accepted the armistice on 22 June, partly (he claimed) because Admiral Francois Darlan would not let him have the French fleet to continue hostilities against the Axis powers. He eventually agreed under pressure from Maxime Weygand's emissary General Louis Koeltz, telegraphing Weygand: "it covers me with shame".[6]

In 1940, Résident Général Charles Noguès implemented antisemitic decrees coming from Nazi-controlled Vichy government excluding Jews from public functions.[7] Sultan Mohammed V refused "Vichy’s plan to ghettoize and deport Morocco’s quarter of a million Jews to the killing factories of Europe;"[7] however, the French government under Noguès did impose some antisemitic laws against the sultan's will.[8] Leon Sultan, of the Moroccan Communist Party, for example, was disbarred.[9]

References
  1. "Charles Noguès (1876-1971)". Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  2. Schumann, Maurice (1989). Un certain 18 juin. Paris: Plon. pp. 229–242. ISBN 9782259022033. OCLC 246556245 – via Cairn.info.
  3. "Charles Noguès". Base Léonore. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  4. Buffetaut, Yves (1996). La campagne d'Afrique du Nord : Opération Torch. Paris: Histoire & collections. p. 34. OCLC 465573584.
  5. Levisse-Touzé, Christine (1998). L'Afrique du Nord dans la guerre : 1939-1945. Paris: Albin Michel. pp. 64–75. ISBN 9782226100696. OCLC 406007403.
  6. Lacouture 1991, pp. 229–230
  7. Miller, Susan Gilson (2013). A History of Modern Morocco. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 45. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139045834. ISBN 978-1-139-04583-4.
  8. Moroccan Jews pay homage to `protector' – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News. Haaretz.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
  9. "Le Petit Marocain". Gallica. 24 June 1945. Retrieved 22 March 2020.

Book
  • Lacouture, Jean. De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (1984; English ed. 1991), ISBN 978-0-841-90927-4



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