33 Facts About Leon Blum

Andre Leon Blum was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.

Leon Blum was a disciple of French Socialist leader Jean Jaures and after Jaures' assassination in 1914, became his successor.

Leon Blum declared neutrality in the Spanish Civil War to avoid the civil conflict spilling over into France itself.

Leon Blum was born in 1872 in Paris to a moderately prosperous, middle class, assimilated Jewish family in the mercantile business.

Leon Blum's father Abraham, a merchant, was born in Alsace.

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Leon Blum entered the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1890 and excelled there, but he dropped out after a year having found the school overly restrictive, entering instead the Faculty of Law.

Leon Blum attended the University of Paris and became both a lawyer and literary critic.

Leon Blum first became personally involved in the Affair when he aided the defense case of Emile Zola in 1898 as a jurist, before which he had not demonstrated interest in public affairs.

Leon Blum began contributing to the socialist daily, L'Humanite, and joined the French Section of the Workers' International .

In July 1914, just as the First World War broke out, Jaures was assassinated, and Leon Blum became more active in the Socialist party leadership.

Leon Blum led the SFIO through the 1920s and 1930s, and was editor of the party's newspaper, Le Populaire.

Leon Blum was elected as Deputy for Narbonne in 1929, and was re-elected in 1932 and 1936.

The strikes were spontaneous and unorganised, but nevertheless the business community panicked and met secretly with Leon Blum, who negotiated a series of reforms, and then gave labour unions the credit for the Matignon Accords.

Leon Blum persuaded the workers to accept pay raises and go back to work.

Leon Blum launched a major program to speed up arms production.

Leon Blum adopted a policy of neutrality rather than assisting his ideological fellows, the Spanish Left-leaning Republicans.

Leon Blum acted from fear of splitting his domestic alliance with the centrist Radicals, or even precipitating an ideological civil war inside France.

Leon Blum's cabinet was deeply divided and he decided on a policy of non-intervention, and collaborated with Britain and 25 other countries to formalize an agreement against sending any munitions or volunteer soldiers to Spain.

On 13 February 1936, shortly before becoming Prime Minister, Leon Blum was dragged from a car and almost beaten to death by the Camelots du Roi, a group of antisemites and royalists.

Leon Blum became the first socialist and the first Jew to serve as Prime Minister of France.

Leon Blum attempted to pass legislation extending the rights of the Arab population of Algeria, but this was blocked by "colons", colonist representatives in the Chamber and Senate.

Leon Blum was briefly Prime Minister again in March and April 1938, long enough to ship heavy artillery and other much needed military equipment to the Spanish Republicans.

Leon Blum was unable to establish a stable ministry; on 10 April 1938, his socialist government fell and he was removed from office.

Leon Blum was imprisoned in Fort du Portalet in the Pyrenees.

Leon Blum was among "The Vichy 80", a minority of parliamentarians that refused to grant full powers to Marshal Petain.

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Leon Blum was arrested by the authorities in September and held until 1942, when he was put on trial in the Riom Trial on charges of treason, for having "weakened France's defenses" by ordering her arsenal shipped to Spain, leaving France's infantry unsupported by heavy artillery on the eastern front against Nazi Germany.

Leon Blum used the courtroom to make a "brilliant indictment" of the French military and pro-German politicians like Pierre Laval.

Leon Blum was transferred to German custody and imprisoned in Germany until 1945.

Leon Blum was deported to Auschwitz, where, according to the Vrba-Wetzler report, he was tortured and killed in September 1942.

Leon Blum advocated an alliance between the center-left and the center-right parties in order to support the Fourth Republic against the Gaullists and the Communists.

Leon Blum served as Vice-Premier for one month in the summer of 1948 in the very short-lived government led by Andre Marie.

Leon Blum served as an ambassador on a government loan mission to the United States, and as head of the French mission to UNESCO.

Leon Blum continued to write for Le Populaire until his death at Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris, on 30 March 1950.