Doriot, Jacques

Doriot, Jacques (zhäk dôryō`), 1888–1945?, French collaborator during the German occupation of France in World War II. For many years he served as the mayor of Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb. He was also a Communist leader in the chamber of deputies. In 1934 he was expelled from the Communist party for advocating an alliance with other leftist parties. Enormously popular, he was reelected to the chamber of deputies despite his split with the Communists. He soon became a virulent opponent of the Communists and organized (1936) a party on the extreme right, the French Popular party. By that time a strong supporter of Adolf Hitler, Doriot came into his own after the German defeat (1940) of France in World War II. Treated coolly by the Vichy government, but backed by the German occupation authorities, he organized a youth movement, recruited for a French legion to fight Russia, and sought to control the French laborers who had been sent to work in Germany. He fled (1944) to Germany after the overthrow of the Vichy government. Early in 1945 he was reported to have been killed in an air raid.