MOULIN, Jean (1899-1943)

MOULIN, Jean (1899-1943)

Autograph postcard signed « Jean » to his family (his mother Blanche ans sister Laure Moulin)
Megève, 6th February [1940], 1 p. in-12° (on the verso of a postcard)
Autograph envelope included, some tears fixed with tape (see scans)
Tiny flaw on top left corner of the postcard’s photograph

Very scarce card from Jean Moulin to his family, sent from Megève, only a few weeks before the German invasion

« Chère maman, chère Laure,
Me voici depuis 48 heures à Megève, où, après une période de mauvais temps qui a duré 8 jours, j’ai eu de la chance de trouver du soleil.
La plupart des hôtels sont ouverts et il y a pas mal de monde. Il est vrai qu’il y a un centre de ski pour les aviateurs et énormément de permissionnaires.
Ces deux jours passés au bon ai m’ont fait le plus grand bien et je me sens maintenant en pleine forme physique.
Je compte rester toute la semaine et si tout va bien être à Montpellier lundi soir.
Bon baiser à toutes deux.
Jean »

Appointed a year earlier as prefect of Eure-et-Loir, Jean Moulin had in the meantime asked to be relieved of his duties since the declaration of war on 1 September 1939. As he wrote: “my place is not at the back, at the head of an essentially rural department” (Jean Moulin: mémoires d’un homme sans voix, ed. F. Zamponi, N. Bouveret and D. Allary, Éditions du Chêne, p. 72). He applied for the machine gun school, going against the decision of the Ministry of the Interior. However, he was declared unfit for a vision problem on 10 December 1939, the day after his medical examination for enlistment. Moulin demanded a second visit to Tours, where he was declared fit this time. The Ministry of the Interior nevertheless forced the future icon of the Resistance to immediately resume his post as prefect, from where he worked, in difficult conditions, to ensure the safety of the population.
We know of a letter sent to his family on January 25 in which Moulin announced that he was taking a few days off after contracting a nasty flu: “I asked for a few days off to go and rest in Haute-Savoie. Leave has just been reinstated for those who were unable to have their regular leave in 1939 […] If all goes well, I plan to leave at the end of next week for Megève […] I’ll give you my address before I leave, but I think I’ll stay at a boarding house called “Sunny Home.” »

We include :

The legendary portrait of the resistance fighter by his friend Marcel Bernard, taken during the winter of 1939, in Montpellier, below the Château du Peyrou

Silver print – later print on Agfa Portriga Rapid paper (17×11 cm)
Thin white margins
Flawless condition
“He is taking advantage of these few days in the Hérault to bring his dear childhood friend, Marcel Bernard, from Béziers. The latter, who has not forgotten his camera, makes of him, in the garden of Peyrou, this beautiful portrait where Jean, standing against an arch of the aqueduct, wears a soft felt pen and a muffler, and which is the very image of the Resistant. »
(Jean Moulin, ed. Laure Moulin, Presse de la Cité, Paris, 1969, p. 217.)