Prof. Paul Langevin, Nobel prize winner in physics who was jailed by the Germans, today was elected president of the League for the Rights of Man, succeeding Victor Basch, who was murdered in the woods near Lyon. together with his wife, in December, 1943.
Prof. Langevin, one of France’s greatest scientists, was dismissed from his post at the College de France by the Vichy Government in December of 1940 for alleged “Communistic activities,” and was subsequently interned by the Nazis. His predecessor, Prof. Basch, was a noted philosopher, author and teacher. His assassins are believed to have been members of the Vichy militia.
The League for the Rights of Man was in the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism and other reactionary activities and philosophies in the years before the occupation of France by the Germans.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
