1942: Valentin Feldman, “Imbeciles, it is for you that I die!”
Add comment July 27th, 2020 Headsman
Marxist philosopher and French Resistance figure Valentin Feldman was shot on this date in 1942, but he went out with an epic own of his firing squad: “Imbéciles, c’est pour vous que je meurs!” (“Imbeciles, it is for you that I die!”).
A Jewish emigre from the Soviet Union, Feldman (English Wikipedia entry | the more detailed French) matriculated at Paris’s prestigious Lycee Henri-IV alongside such luminaries as Simone Weil and Maurice Schumann. He mobilized during the “Phoney War” run-up ahead of Germany’s blitz on France, publishing a short Journal de guerre about his experiences.
He was excluded from his teaching work by anti-Semitic laws, leaving him plenty of time for anti-occupation subversion until he was caught sabotaging a factory.
Feldman’s last words were so unsurpassably revolutionary and modern and French that Jean-Luc Godard built a 1988 short film, Le Dernier Mot, around them.
On this day..
- 2019: Ali Hakim al-Arab and Ahmad al-Mullali, Bahrain opposition - 2019
- 1681: Donald Cargill, Covenanter rebel - 2018
- 1820: Stephen Sullivan, for murdering the Colleen Bawn - 2017
- 1734: Pierce Tobin and Walter Kelly, "a Spectacle both to Men and Angels!" - 2016
- 1676: Matoonas, a Nipmuc shot on Boston Common - 2015
- 1973: Mimi Wong Weng Siu, jealous hostess - 2014
- 1781: Francois Henri de la Motte, French spy - 2013
- 1916: Captain Charles Fryatt, illegal combatant - 2012
- 1990: Gideon Orkar, for a Nigerian coup - 2011
- Special: One Thousand and One Nights for One Thousand and One Deaths - 2010
- 1582: Philippe Strozzi, corsair - 2010
- 1915: 167 Haitian political prisoners - 2009
- 1794: The last cart of the Terror, not including the Marquis de Sade - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,Famous Last Words,France,Germany,History,Intellectuals,Jews,Martyrs,Occupation and Colonialism,Revolutionaries,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1940s, 1942, cinema, french resistance, jean-luc godard, valentin feldman, world war ii
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