After the collapse of France in 1940, Fernand de Brinon emerged as one of the most prominent supporters of collaboration with Nazi Germany. A journalist, political figure, and later Secretary of State in Vichy France, he became a key link between the Vichy regime and the German authorities in occupied Paris.

Long before the defeat of France, de Brinon admired Adolf Hitler and believed that cooperation with Germany was the only path forward for Europe. During the Second World War, he defended collaboration, propaganda, forced labour, and policies directed against the French Resistance and French Jews. Working closely with Philippe Pétain, Pierre Laval, Otto Abetz, and other senior collaborationists, he became one of the most visible public faces of the Vichy regime.

Fernand de Brinon’s path led from respected journalist and political insider to Vichy France’s Secretary of State and one of the most notorious French collaborators of the Second World War, whose loyalty to Nazi Germany continued until the final collapse of the Third Reich.