Paul Paillole

Former French secret service chief Paul Paillole was born in the Breton town of Rennes on 18 November 1905. He died on 15 October 2002 in the Bichat hospital in Paris. He is remembered essentially for his role organizing the arrest of German intelligence agents in France after the defeat of 1940 but his activity during this period has been the subject of controversy.

Paillole’s father died in action in 1918 during the First World War. This personal loss seems to have instilled in Paillole a strong sense of patriotism which both his admirers and his critics acknowledge. Following the death of his father his mother took up a post as a school teacher in Marseille. Here the young Paillole attended the Lycée Saint Charles. A keen sportsman he later claimed that he played soccer for the prestigious Olympique de Marseille football club although this does not appear to have left any traces in the official records of the club.

Guided by both his sense of patriotism and his love of physical activity Paillole joined the French army in 1925 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1929. In 1935, Paillole was transferred to the Secret Services. He was initially reluctant to accept this posting as he considered the job too desk-bound and started with very limited knowledge of the workings of the Secret Services. But rapidly he excelled at the job earning a reputation for professional competence. At the outbreak of the war Paillole was a prominent member of the active counter-espionage branch, the 5th Bureau (not to be confused with the 2nd Bureau which was the more administrative branch of secret service activity).

After France was rapidly defeated in 1940, the newly established Vichy regime decided to reorganize its espionage and counter-espionage services. Paillole took control of a clandestine counter-espionage network which operated from Marseille under the codename ‘Travaux Ruraux’ (TR- ‘Rural Works’). Recent research by the British historian Simon Kitson has shown that contrary to the version presented by secret service veterans this network was not operating in opposition to the Vichy government. Vichy officials were informed from November 1940 of the location of the headquarters of this network and the arrest of German agents as a result of TR activity was actively supported by the structures of the official state: police, prisons, courts, armistice commissions. Although Vichy itself was collaborating extensively with the German forces occupying Northern France, Vichy leaders were keen to preserve their autonomy and to centralize collaboration. The work of Paillole’s services served to defend sovereignty and to prevent unauthorised individual acts of collaboration on the part of ordinary French citizens.

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