Chapter 12

Blackmailed by a false Resistor

It has been a taboo subject for a long time: you must not touch the Resistance! To attack one of its members was to question the courage and honour of all involved. Worse still, it is difficult to break the myth of a France that completely resisted the Occupation when we know today that the majority of the French people, rather than be entirely pro-Vichy or against, preferred instead to wait. This does not, of course, demerit those who did have the lucidity - or the audacity - to chose the right camp and be anti-Nazism.

As the country began to be liberated, it was important to line up as quickly as possible on the winning side. One could easily imagine the future that would belong to those who could prove they had been in the resistance. There were those who joined up in the last hour and even right at the final moments; men who rushed to don the armband of the FFI⁶⁷ on their jacket sleeve. Yet there was something far worse than this: the real false resistor. Men who in order to escape the law and their past, entered into the Resistance unopposed, manufacturing false service records, buying witnesses or even inventing imaginary networks. Collaborators one day and resistors the next, they consequently managed to slip through the net. For years they were untouchable, as the real men who were committed to defending France’s honour had ensured that, like Caesar’s wife, the Resistance could never be suspected. It was all at the risk of protecting the traitors who had fraudulently infiltrated the ranks.

When the affair broke in the 1960s, Maurice Lorrain⁶⁸ was a Prefect with an array of decorations. Just like Papon, at the Liberation he had managed to slip through the net. Before the war he had been a modest Deputy-prefect in the police. Not a particularly remarkable man, an officer like any other it was assumed that he would have an ordinary career and would in all probability rise through the ranks wisely enough. However, Lorrain was an extrovert who loved the good life, and was not afraid to elbow people out of his way. He was ambitious and had a high opinion of himself.

When war broke out, he was working as the general secretary of a prefecture on an interim basis, but had been tenured by the end of 1940. He was in no way hostile towards Vichy and joined all those officials who were happy to obey Pétain without question. In the prefecture, the ‘Jean Moulins’ of the world would only cause trouble. Very quickly, however, Lorrain dared to go even further and established regular contacts with agents in the local Gestapo. This Deputy-prefect became an agent himself, and was registered as such by the German authorities.

Naturally, Lorrain participated in the Nazi policy of repression against the Resistance. Yet cynically, and probably at the instigation of his German counterparts, he also approached a resistance network. This may have been as a way of covering both bases, although in those early years of the war, anything other than a complete German victory seemed unlikely. Still, the wind can always change direction...

From now on, Lorrain was a double agent. However, he seemed to favour his German employer more, as by infiltrating the resistance network, he was able to send back valuable information about the organisation’s plans. But soon he would no longer be able to choose who to favour: fate would decide for him.

Lorrain was a victim of politics: there had always been a fierce rivalry between the Abwehr (the intelligence service headed by Admiral Canaris) and the Gestapo (the regime’s secret police). The Abwehr had also sent an agent to infiltrate the same resistance network that Lorrain had joined and during the summer of 1943, the Abwehr agents had organised a roundup of resistors operating in the area where Lorrain worked as the prefecture secretary general. Consequently, he was arrested along with the ‘true’ resistors in the network. He might well have been a Gestapo agent, but those working for the Abwehr did not want to know and were more concerned with protecting their own mole.

Lorrain was arrested, tried, and received a relatively light sentence, which involved his deportation to Germany. Powerless to prevent his departure, the Gestapo did make some effort to help their agent: they included a special mention on his record stating that he was to be ‘treated with care, due to services rendered’. However, even with preferential treatment, deportation to places such as Dachau or Buchenwald remained a terrible ordeal.

Paradoxically, by deporting Lorrain, the German’s actually did him a big favour: when the Liberation came, the former Deputy-prefect was now a genuine resistance member. Who would think to accuse a man of treason who had just spent nearly three years in a concentration camp?

On his return to France, Lorrain was welcomed back with honours and decorations, and was immediately reinstated in the police. He was, however, denounced by a woman who had been the former secretary and mistress of his handler in the Gestapo. Summoned before a judge, Lorrain had had time to prepare his defence: he admitted to having contacts with the Gestapo, but only on the orders of his leaders in the resistance network. He had been ordered to spy on the Germans, but if he had been ordered to spy, it was, in reality, on the orders of the Gestapo! The judge wasn’t convinced and requested that the prosecution look more deeply into the case, not before it disappeared somewhere in the judicial minefield - Lorrain clearly had powerful friends.

Jean Rochet⁶⁹

This incompetence was already scandalous enough and became even more so when, a few months after the Attorney General’s report was published, the Justice Minister agreed that this civil servant should be given a high-ranking position and receive the Légion d’Honneur. Since his return from Germany, it is true that he had tried to avoid the fate he deserved. He adhered to one of the major government policies of the time by claiming he had proof of another party member’s treason showing that they had collaborated with the Gestapo. As a result, our man finally received his accreditation as a resistance member.

Now reinstated into the police, Maurice Lorrain had a very successful career. He went from one country town to another, but in his role he could expect a more important position than just the head of the local police department: high-ranking positions in the central government’s departments, for example.

In 1958, the year that General de Gaulle returned to power, the ambitious Lorrain decided to play the Gaullist card, and so went to see the minister. To help precipitate events, he took the relatively bold initiative of meeting with Chancellor Adenauer in Bonn. He introduced himself as one of General de Gaulle’s aides and urged the chancellor to come to Paris as soon as possible to meet with the general and seal this dramatic rapprochement between the two countries. It was clear that Lorrain wanted to be seen as the architect of this new deal and therefore wanted to reap the full benefits.

During his interview with Adenauer, Lorrain was keen to offer his services to the chancellor. He might have suggested that he had contacts in the East and proposed to the chancellor and his intelligence chief (the famous General Gehlen), that he could even be a double agent! He was clearly ready to make use of any information that he might gather along the way.

It was an extravagant proposal that can be explained by his situation: Lorrain had been walking a tightrope for years as a result of his past actions. Not only could he be denounced at any time, he was trapped by those who knew the truth about him. It must have been tempting to try and get through it by making a pact with another western power.

Adenaeur did not come to Paris immediately, meaning Lorrain could not collect the fruits of his impudent ‘quest’ and had to wait five years before receiving a prestigious German honour, at the personal request of Adenaeur.

Contrary to his expectations, he did not become a minister, but continued to apply for other positions. For a time, he was even led to understand that he was to be appointed as the new head of the DST! Those at the top of the French intelligence agency were often police prefects, and given Lorrain’s career, it was reasonable for him to believe that he might get the role. The only obstacle was his past, but only his bosses in the service knew about it. It was a cruel twist of history that the same service he now wanted to lead was the same one that had ended his career as a spy.

At the end of the war, every allied intelligence agency had rushed to the Nazi archives. The Soviets were often the quickest and they had found the files showing that Lorrain had been registered as a Gestapo agent. This was perfect blackmail material: there was no possibility that Lorrain could refuse to work for them. It is likely that his new employers were behind the fact that Lorrain had managed to escape justice for so long. The KGB certainly was not without its own links to the Resistance, even among the Gaullists.

Lorrain was an impatient man and loved to meet important people, politicians in particular. This made him a valuable informant: the Soviets had always been fond of gathering information on politicians. As a prefect, their agent naturally had no access to state secrets, yet by the end of his career he held a key post in the ministry and was responsible for defence matters. It was here that the KGB would finally be rewarded for the long years of manipulation. Lorrain was eventually unmasked because of his German links, which, despite or because of his role as a Soviet spy, he still maintained.

General Gehlen had been a faithful servant of the Third Reich until being bailed out by the Americans, who had decided to exploit the talents of this anti-Communist specialist. There were many former Nazis in Gehlen’s entourage, and there is no doubt that his intelligence network came to the aid of many people who found themselves in trouble with the law due to their past associations. Urged by his friends in Gehlen’s organisation, Lorrain was never reluctant to help with such matters, and intervened several times in favour of former Nazis - a fact that was recognised much later during his trial.

As the prefect of a region that included a prison where many former Nazis and collaborators were incarcerated, Lorrain managed to obtain parole or transfer to a psychiatric hospital for many of them. This is how he later explained his actions, during his trial: ‘By releasing prisoners, and I also released convicted criminals, I put back into society men who would be nothing today, were it not for me.’ Ironically, it is these actions that lost it for him!

Jean-Marc Théolleyre⁷⁰

However, included in the number of convicts who received preferential treatment by the accused, either directly or indirectly, it is interesting to find people such as Knochen, the senior SS commander in Paris. It is no less surprising to find a letter addressed to him [Lorrain] from Germany, dated 24 May 1956, from a woman who was also interested in the rehabilitation of former Nazis in France. She wrote, ‘the SS men to whom I have spoken of your actions, have asked me to express to you their admiration’. ‘What does that mean?’ asked the judge. The accused replied that ‘it simply proves I acted selflessly, freely and without fear of anyone’.

Lorrain’s actions in favour of former Nazis, behaviour that he undertook at Gehlen’s request, eventually attracted attention to himself. What is more, he was now obliged to accept that the Soviets were not the only ones who knew about his traitorous past: Gehlen must also have known about his pedigree. Lorrain was therefore the victim of a form of double blackmail.

In Paris, people were shocked to discover that a former resistance member, who had been repeatedly honoured and decorated, had maintained such good relations with former Nazis and collaborators. What were these acquaintances hiding? A discreet investigation was required and the DST, the agency that Lorrain had ambitions of leading, was charged with the undertaking.

They began by secretly monitoring him: phone taps, tails, the usual game. It was not long before there was confirmation that Lorrain regularly met with others with a questionable past. Secondly, and this was a surprise, the ‘prefect’ was not adverse to getting his hands dirty and even indulged in some occasional arms trafficking!

What is more, the proof had now been provided that Lorrain was actually in contact with foreign agents, in particular British and American. Even if this has never been formally proved, Lorrain must have done so at the urging of his Soviet employers so as to create some form of protection: by being in close contact with individuals who were known to be part of western intelligence agencies, who would have suspected that in reality he was actually working for the KGB?

However, despite this early investigation, Lorrain was still not completely unmasked. Most importantly, his Soviet ties had not yet been formally identified, although it had been discovered that he had met with diplomats who were known to be KGB agents.

But the evidence was still lacking. The investigation was closely monitored, especially in the top ranks, and it was still hard to believe that a prefect had been accused of such actions - and a former deportee to boot!

While waiting for permission to proceed further, the DST investigators were still interested in Lorrain’s past history, guessing that there must be a flaw there somewhere. They made a very troubling discovery upon finding that his administrative records themselves were seriously flawed, particularly when it came to the war years and the time before his deportation. They had found what they were looking for: perhaps Lorrain was not the heroic resistance fighter that he claimed to have been.

Further investigations made more progress. At the Justice Ministry, the notes from the investigation made into him after the war were unearthed, and by gradually matching these with other pieces of information the truth finally emerged: Lorrain had been a Gestapo agent! The DST had permission to arrest him as soon as they had proof of his collaboration and it reminded some DST officers of a previous case.

Georges Pâques,⁷¹ a top-level French official who worked at NATO, was also accused of spying for the Soviets and was arrested in August 1963. At the time, any diplomat who was thought could possibly be a KGB agent was put under surveillance. Two days after Pâque’s arrest, one of these Soviet agents went to Lorrain’s home during the night, without taking the precaution of changing cars several times. He later emerged carrying a package. Nothing further happened at the time, as it was thought that Lorrain could not possibly be one of those who could be suspected of espionage.

However, in 1968, in light of what had been discovered about Lorrain’s past, the tale took on another dimension. The decision to arrest Lorrain was taken, but the Interior Minister demanded that extra precautions be taken and that a doctor be present at the DST headquarters. After all, Lorrain had been deported and was a pensioner as well as a war veteran.

After being driven to rue des Saussaies, Lorrain initially acted outraged before resorting to threats. He pointed out his high-level contacts and suggested that he could equally expose dozens of people in Paris, which is already a confession in itself. Very soon after these outbursts, Lorrain sat down - right at the moment when it was revealed what was known about his past. He did not deny being a KGB agent and reiterated that as the Soviets were in possession of his Gestapo file, he had no option but to work for them.

He of course tried to minimise the importance of his collaboration. In sum, he said, he would have been happy to supply bits of biographical information on certain politicians, but nothing of any real importance. He was obviously lying. Yet the DST was never able to find out the truth due to the strange intervention of a clergyman: a man who was not only a form of moral authority in the world of the Resistance, but who had also been with Lorrain during his deportation.

With the endorsement of the highest state authorities, the cleric was able to meet with Lorrain while he was in custody. From this moment onwards, Lorrain had nothing further to say. But what was his real secret?

It is likely that Lorrain had access to records of men who, like him, had had their weaknesses during the war and with his Soviet friends, and with Gehlen’s help, he had accumulated enough ammunition. This would account for the threats he issued upon his arrest: there would be dozens of people in Paris who would tremble if he fell! The priest who had intervened had convinced Lorrain to be quiet: probably to save the honour of the Resistance and to save him from the mud of further investigations. He no doubt assured him that it would be better to be free and that the case would be resolved to his advantage, sooner or later.

Lorrain was tried quickly and sent prison for espionage, although he was shortly afterwards released on medical grounds. He was later pardoned after the election of Georges Pompidou, handed back his medals and promptly retired. In his memoirs, Jean Rochet, the head of the counterintelligence agency at the time, referred to the priest’s visit to Lorrain whilst he was in DST custody. He was particularly surprised when the Interior Minister, who had congratulated him the day before, afterwards rang and gave him a real thrashing! Almost as if he were being accused of arresting a guilty man!

Jean Rochet⁷²

I was entitled to an avalanche of harsh criticism: in his eyes, the investigation was incomplete. The questioning had not been pushed to the limit and now everything had to be taken over by those who had led the initial hearings. I was shocked to find myself before such a turnaround. What had happened in those few hours to warrant such a change in attitude? Was it the chancellery, who were less than proud at having buried Lorrain’s occupation file and were now desperate to avoid a public shaming? Had they managed to persuade him? Was it the Foreign Office who wanted to avoid any diplomatic complications? Or was it reasonable to think that it had been outside pressures placed on the minister, not necessarily personal ones, but more related to the organisation to which he belonged? There is a well know rule in politics, ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’, which has, on various occasions, been successful in blocking the true course of justice.