Olier Mordrel - in The Occupation

In The Occupation

By the end of June and early July Breton independentists could take it for granted that Brittany could be independent when a military governor was appointed to rule over the five départements of ancient Brittany. After a self-designated Congress in Pontivy founded the Breton National Committee, Mordrel took charge of the PNB in late October, and subsequently led a campaign against Vichy France that was tacitly encouraged by the Germans. His relation with Célestin Lainé became tense after Lainé's paramilitary Lu Brezhon started competing with the National Committee in October. Mordrel's actions against Vichy did not have the intended effect, and the PNB's appeal was minimal; at the same time, Germany had started placing its trust with Vichy leader Philippe Pétain, and in the end supported Mordrel's ousting from the Committee in December. He seems to have been disappointed with the PNB's position himself. In November, he stated: "Our force is within ourselves. Neither Vichy nor Berlin will render the Breton people the necessary status for self-determination, regrouping, and giving itself a path. Our fate is being decided in our fibres... Let us not expect anything that is not from ourselves". He resigned his positions with the PNB and its journal, being replaced by Raymond Delaporte.

Mordrel was assigned residence in Germany: first in Stuttgart, then, from January 1941, in Berlin. However, he was barred from Brittany and from separatist activism. Leo Weisgerber offered him the position of Celtic languages professor at the University of Bonn, and orchestrated his return to Paris in May. He was allowed to settle in Mayenne, where he was frequently visited and consulted by his Breton friends - including Jean Merrien, Rafig Tullou, Jean Trécan, and René-Yves Creston; throughout 1943, he kept contacts with his fellow writer and Occupation regime figure Louis-Ferdinand Céline. In September Mordrel was allowed ro return to Rennes, where, while both the PNB leadership and Vichy agents called on the Germans to expel him, he was kept as an alternative by the Nazi authorities. After 1942, he was again even allowed to edit Stur .