Blum, Leon (1872-1950)

Influential French Socialist leader who was France’s Prime Minister in 1936-1937 and again briefly in the winter of 1946.  A lawyer by training, Blum practiced law until 1919 and simultaneously pursued literary activities, publishing several books. In 1904, he had joined the French Socialist Party and subsequently published articles in the newspaper L’Humanité. In 1919, he became the chairman of the Executive Committee of the French Socialist Party and a member of the House of Deputies of the French parliament, or National Assembly, where he headed its Socialist faction for many years. He also published a Socialist daily, Le Populaire de Paris.

In the 1920s, Blum was a prominent member of the French opposition. In 1936, as the Nazis became an increasing threat to France, he was the chief motivating force behind the formation of the Popular Front, a coalition of Socialists, Communists and Radicals that was victorious in the elections that year. Blum served as Prime Minister from June 1936 to June 1937.  In 1938, he opposed the appeasement of the Nazis. Following the Nazi occupation of France in September 1940, he was arrested by the collaborationist Vichy government. In April 1943, he was sent to a Nazi concentration camp, but was liberated by U.S. forces in May 1945. Blum served as France’s Prime Minister for a second time from December 1946 to January 1947 and was Assistant Prime Minister in 1948.