* 22 April 1867 Rugles   † 18 May 1952 Saint Raphaël

After studying literature, Henry Victor Bérenger takes up a career in publishing. One of his publications is the newspaper L’Action. From 1912 to 1945, as a member of the middle-class left-wing Parti Radical, he is elected representative of the French overseas department of Guadeloupe to the French Senate.

In the mid-1920s Bérenger is named ambassador to the US. In this role he participates in establishing what will become the Young Plan for German reparations after World War I. After his return to France, Bérenger devotes himself more fervently to foreign policy, serving as chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs until 1939.

Bérenger abstains from the French National Assembly’s vote on whether to grant sweeping powers to Philippe Pétain following the Armistice of June 22, 1940. He withdraws to the Côte d’Azur and makes few political appearances for the rest of his life. In 1944, the Parti Radical expels him for failing to stand up to the German occupation.

Dates of birth and death unknown

Georges-Joseph Coulon’s career begins as deputy financial auditor in French West Africa; from 1912 to 1921 he serves as the central agent of the colonial banks. In 1911 he and his brother Henri found the Agence Économique et Financière, a financial newspaper in which their brother Edouard also plays a part. Coulon works here through the end of the 1930s in roles that include managing director and publisher.

As a Parisian cosmopolitan, he has excellent contacts in both politics and banking. Although criticized for speculation and dubious business practices, he is considered an influential and internationally well-connected diplomat and an expert in finance and the colonies.

As a delegate to the Évian Conference and the follow-up negotiations, he is treading on familiar ground. In 1940 he and his wife, Lucie, leave occupied France. He continues working on behalf of refugees and becomes a member of the Coordinating Foundation of the War Refugee Board in New York, where Coulon resides until at least 1949.

* 7 July 1890 Asnières   † 3 December 1973 Paris

Pierre Gaston Prosper Bressy is the son of a pharmacist. After successfully completing his studies in law and political science, in 1914 he takes off to serve as a soldier in World War I. As of September 1919, he participates in the Versailles Peace Conference on the staff of the General Secretariat. That same year he begins his career in the Foreign Service and in 1938 becomes Head of the Press and Information Service of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bressy attends the Évian Conference as Minister Representative and Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His career continues after the German occupation and the proclamation of the État Français in Vichy. Between 1940 and 1944, one of his roles is deputy director of political and commercial affairs.

In February 1945, he is forced into an early retirement; five years later, he is completely rehabilitated. In the early 1950s, he represents France in several functions as a delegate to the United Nations.

* 15 February 1905 Berlin   † 30 August 1981 Paris

Auguste Louis François Seydoux Fornier de Clausonne is born into a wealthy Protestant family in Berlin, where his father is the French ambassador. Following in his father’s footsteps, Seydoux studies law and politics in Paris and enters the diplomatic corps in 1928. In 1933 he is named secretary in the French Embassy in Berlin; in 1936 he transfers to the Foreign Ministry in Paris, where he heads the Germany department.

After a brief stint in Budapest under the Franco-German ceasefire agreement, Seydoux resigns in 1942 and joins the French Resistance as a foreign affairs expert.

After World War II, he continues his diplomatic career, becoming head of the Europe department in the Foreign Ministry in 1949. In 1955 he moves to Vienna as ambassador to Austria, followed by his appointment as ambassador to West Germany in Bonn, in 1958. Aside from his three years as NATO ambassador, Seydoux remains in Bonn for the remainder of his diplomatic career; afterwards, he works as a consultant and writer.

* 29 March 1902 Paris   † 17 June 1992

Antoine Louis Jean Brincard is the youngest son of the well-known banker Baron Georges Brincard, who heads Crédit Lyonnais, one of France’s oldest and largest banks, from 1922 to 1945. Brincard grows up in a fashionable Parisian residential hotel and successfully concludes his studies in literature and law in 1927.

With help from his cousin Roland de Margerie, who serves as France’s ambassador to Germany among other roles, he enters the diplomatic corps in 1929. After serving on diplomatic missions in Berlin and the League of Nations, he is appointed embassy attaché to the Holy See on June 5, 1940.

But he holds this position only briefly. In August, Paul Baudouin, Foreign Minister of the Vichy government, orders that Brincard be released from duty after he is investigated for attempting to transfer funds abroad. Brincard only returns to the Foreign Ministry in 1947, serving in various administrative functions.

* 26 December 1893 Bordeaux   † unknown

Yves Etienne Fourcade is the son of a notary’s assistant. He follows in his father’s footsteps and completes a degree in law. As a civil servant, he assumes the post of deputy director of the French immigration authority in August 1938.

His career is not interrupted by Germany’s occupation of France and the establishment of the État Français in the unoccupied southern zone. He becomes director of the Foreign Police and thus is responsible for, among other tasks, coordinating and executing the deportations beginning in summer 1942. His collaboration facilitates the deportation of 10,000 Jews via the Drancy transit camp to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where they are murdered.

After the liberation of France, Fourcade is merely forced into an early retirement despite his collaboration. Twelve years later, he manages to have his pension restored for the years of his suspension from civil service.

* 14 April 1893 Cras   † 8 September 1966 Rion-des-Landes

The son of a road worker, Pierre Joseph Faustin Combes is raised in humble surroundings and works his way up to becoming a teacher. After serving in World War I, he studies law and begins a career in the French civil service.

At first he is appointed sub-prefect of the Montdidier district; in 1936 he is named deputy director of Sûreté Nationale, the national security service. In 1939 he is appointed prefect of the Département Haute-Vienne in Central France, taking over its administration.

Combes leaves the civil service at the end of 1940 and joins the Libération Nord resistance group in the occupied north, where he operates under the alias Pierre Dulot (a reference to his native region, Lot). After the liberation of France, he is awarded a Cross of Merit. In August 1944, Combes returns to the civil service and works in various prefectures in France.