MARK BLOCH. NAZI resistance, WW II
He was born at Strassbourg and his father was a classical historian . he studied at Berlin and Leipzig and was to submit his doctoral thesis when WW I. Broke out.
Bloch was called up immediately and fought at many of the biggest battles of the next four years, including the First Battle of the Marne and the Somme. Following the Armistice in 1918, Bloch was demobbed. He received his doctorate, and, following his appointment as lecturer in medieval history at University of Strasbourg the following year, returned to Alsace. The region—previously part of Germany—had been returned to France, and so the German university staff had been expelled. Here he formed an intellectual partnership with modern historian Lucien Febvre; together they founded the Annales School of French social history, and with it published a journal. Bloch was a modernist in his historiographical approach, and repeatedly emphasised the importance of a multidisciplinary engagement towards history, particularly blending his research with that on geographic, sociological and economics, which was his subject when he was offered a post at the University of Paris in 1936
World War II broke out in 1939 and he volunteered to join war. In the war he was responsible for the French Army's fuel supplies but was caught up in the battle and subsequent evacuation from Dunkirk. However, he returned to France immediately—his family was still thmade an unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to New York City. This failed as he could not get the requisite visas. Instead, he applied for and received one of the few permits available allowing Jews to continue working in the French university system. He had to leave Paris, though, and complained that the Nazis looted his apartment and stole his books; he was forced, too, to give his position on the editorial board of Annales. Moving south, he worked in Montpellier until November 1942, when Germany invaded and over-ran Vichy France. At this point, Bloch joined the French Resistance, acting predominantly as a courier and translator. Captured in Lyon in March 1944, he was executed by firing squad the following month.
He was born at Strassbourg and his father was a classical historian . he studied at Berlin and Leipzig and was to submit his doctoral thesis when WW I. Broke out.
Bloch was called up immediately and fought at many of the biggest battles of the next four years, including the First Battle of the Marne and the Somme. Following the Armistice in 1918, Bloch was demobbed. He received his doctorate, and, following his appointment as lecturer in medieval history at University of Strasbourg the following year, returned to Alsace. The region—previously part of Germany—had been returned to France, and so the German university staff had been expelled. Here he formed an intellectual partnership with modern historian Lucien Febvre; together they founded the Annales School of French social history, and with it published a journal. Bloch was a modernist in his historiographical approach, and repeatedly emphasised the importance of a multidisciplinary engagement towards history, particularly blending his research with that on geographic, sociological and economics, which was his subject when he was offered a post at the University of Paris in 1936
World War II broke out in 1939 and he volunteered to join war. In the war he was responsible for the French Army's fuel supplies but was caught up in the battle and subsequent evacuation from Dunkirk. However, he returned to France immediately—his family was still thmade an unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to New York City. This failed as he could not get the requisite visas. Instead, he applied for and received one of the few permits available allowing Jews to continue working in the French university system. He had to leave Paris, though, and complained that the Nazis looted his apartment and stole his books; he was forced, too, to give his position on the editorial board of Annales. Moving south, he worked in Montpellier until November 1942, when Germany invaded and over-ran Vichy France. At this point, Bloch joined the French Resistance, acting predominantly as a courier and translator. Captured in Lyon in March 1944, he was executed by firing squad the following month.
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