# Jacques Decour > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jacques_Decour > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jacques_Decour.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Decour > Source revision: 1348233170 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{more citations needed|date=January 2010}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Jacques Decour | image = Jacques Decour vers 1928 (2).jpg | caption = Jacques Decour c. 1928 | birth_name = Daniel Decourdemanche | birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|02|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Paris, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|1942|06|30|1910|02|21|df=y}} | death_place = [Fort Mont-Valérien](/source/Fort_Mont-Val%C3%A9rien), Paris, France | other_names = | occupation = Germanist, writer | known_for = }} '''Jacques Decour''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒak dəkuʁ}}; born '''Daniel Decourdemanche'''; 21 February 1910 – 30 May 1942), was a French writer, [Germanist](/source/German_studies), essayist, translator and [resistant fighter](/source/Resistance_movement), executed by the [Nazis](/source/Nazi_Germany). ==Biography== Jacques Decour studied at the [Lycée Carnot](/source/Lyc%C3%A9e_Carnot) in Paris and the [Lycée Pasteur](/source/Lyc%C3%A9e_Pasteur_(Neuilly-sur-Seine)) in [Neuilly-sur-Seine](/source/Neuilly-sur-Seine). He began his studies in law, but, after a few years changed his orientation and studied [German literature](/source/German_literature) and was the youngest student to pass the competitive examination of ''agrégation'' in German in 1932. In 1931, he was named assistant of French at the Domgymnasium in [Magdeburg](/source/Magdeburg) in [Prussia](/source/Prussia) . There, he wrote his first book, ''Philisterburg'', which described the risks of nationalism and the ''"inadmissible myth of race"''. Daniel Decourdemanche was then appointed as a teacher of German in [Reims](/source/Reims) where he joined the [French Young Communist movement](/source/Mouvement_Jeunes_Communistes_de_France). He was then moved to [Tours](/source/Tours) where he joined the [Communist Party](/source/French_Communist_Party). In 1937, he was appointed as professor of German in Paris at the lycée Rollin (the school which, after [Liberation](/source/Military_history_of_France_during_World_War_II), would become the [lycée Jacques-Decour](/source/lyc%C3%A9e_Jacques-Decour) in his honour). He joined the [resistance](/source/French_Resistance) and founded the magazines ''L'Université libre'' in 1940 and ''La Pensée libre'' in 1941 which became important publications in occupied France. In 1941, Decour became responsible for the ''Comité national des écrivains'' which published a new magazine the ''[Lettres françaises](/source/Les_Lettres_Fran%C3%A7aises)'' but never got to see it, due to his arrest by the French police on 17 February 1942. Imprisoned in La Santé by the Germans, he was executed on 30 May 1942, one week after [Georges Politzer](/source/Georges_Politzer) and [Jacques Solomon](/source/Jacques_Solomon). In the cell where he was waiting for his execution in Fort Mont-Valérien, he wrote a letter saying goodbye to those he loved: his parents and his daughter Brigitte. Resigned to his forthcoming death, he expressed his confidence in youth, and hoped that his sacrifice would not be in vain. [[File:Sépulture de Jacques DECOUR (Daniel Decourdemanche) - Cimetière Montmartre.JPG|thumb|Jacques Decour's tomb at [Montmartre Cemetery](/source/Montmartre_Cemetery) in Paris]] "Je me considère un peu comme une feuille qui tombe de l’arbre pour faire du terreau. La qualité du terreau dépendra de celle des feuilles. Je veux parler de la jeunesse française, en qui je mets tout mon espoir."''La vie à en mourir, Lettres de fusillés, 1941-1944'', Taillandier, 2003. "I think of myself as a leaf that falls from the tree to make soil. The quality of the soil will depend on that of the leaves. I mean French youth, in whom I put all my hope."''Jacques Decour, l'oublié des lettres françaises'', Farrago, 2006, {{ISBN|2-84490-099-2}} (in French) ==Publications== {{refbegin}} *''Philisterburg'' ([NRF](/source/Nouvelle_Revue_Fran%C3%A7aise), 1932). *''Le Sage et le Caporal'' ([Gallimard](/source/Gallimard) Collection blanche, 1930). *''La Révolte'', [NRF](/source/Nouvelle_Revue_Fran%C3%A7aise), March 1934, republished in ''Comme je vous en donne l'exemple...'' and in ''Le Sage et le Capora, followed by Les Pères and seven other unpublished short stories'' (Farrago, 2002). *''Les Pères'', [NRF](/source/Nouvelle_Revue_Fran%C3%A7aise), 1936, Farrago, Tours, 2002 (''Le Sage et le Caporal followed by Les Pères and seven other unpublished short stories''). *''Comme je vous en donne l'exemple... '' (Éditions Sociales, 1945, texts by Jacques Decour published by [Aragon](/source/Aragon)). *''La Faune de la collaboration'', Articles 1932-1942 (2012) (in French) {{refend}} ==Translations== {{refbegin}} * ''Le Triomphe de la sensibilité'', [Goethe](/source/Goethe) (1942) * ''Les Mystères de la maturité'', [Hans Carossa](/source/Hans_Carossa) (1941) * ''L'Art gothique'', [Wilhelm Worringer](/source/Wilhelm_Worringer) (1941) * ''La Carrière de Doris Hart'', [Vicki Baum](/source/Vicki_Baum), 1948. * ''Les dessous de la diplomatie'', Hans Rudolf Berndorff, 1932. * ''Suivi de L’élaboration de la pensée par le discours'', [Heinrich von Kleist](/source/Heinrich_von_Kleist). * ''Le Roman d’un coup d’État'', [Alfred Neumann](/source/Alfred_Neumann_(writer)), 1935. * ''Les désordres sexuels'', [Richard Schauer](/source/Richard_Schauer), 1934. * ''La Sexualité dans l’univers'', [Curt Thesing](/source/Curt_Thesing), 1933. * ''Le fils d’Hannibal'', Ludwig Ernst Wolff, 1938. {{refend}} ==See also== {{Portal|Literature}} Articles published in various magazines: ''NRF'', February 1930-December 1936, ''Les Annales'', March 1932-August 1933, ''La Voix du peuple de Touraine'', December 1936–June 1937, ''Commune'', December 1938–June 1939, ''L'Université libre'', November 1940–December 1941, ''La Pensée libre'', February 1941–February 1942. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{refbegin}} * ''Jacques Decour'', by [Jean Paulhan](/source/Jean_Paulhan) (1943) * ''Pages choisies de Jacques Decour'', preface by [Jean Paulhan](/source/Jean_Paulhan), Comité national des écrivains, (20 February 1944) * ''L’Allemagne vue par les écrivains de la Résistance française'', Konrad Bieber, introduction by [Albert Camus](/source/Albert_Camus) (1954) * ''Anthologie des écrivains morts à la guerre'' (1939-1945), Association des écrivains combattants (1960) * ''La Résistance et ses poètes : France, 1940-1945'', [Pierre Seghers](/source/Pierre_Seghers) (1974) * ''Jacques Decour. L'oublié des Lettres françaises. 1910-1942. Biographie'', Pierre Favre, Edition Farrago-Editions Léo Scheer, (2002) * ''Nos jeunes morts sont secrets. Littérature et résistance'' (2003) * ''La Guerre des cancres : un lycée au coeur de la Résistance et de la collaboration'', Bertrand Matot (2010) * ''Les Germanistes français et l'Allemagne (1925-1949), '' Roland Krebs, Sorbonne Université Presses (2020) {{refend}} ==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.fondationresistance.com/|title=Fondation de la Résistance | Actualités|publisher=fondationresistance.com|accessdate=18 May 2016}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928021937/http://www.farrago.populus.ch/rub/16 List of publications] *[http://lyc-jacques-decour.scola.ac-paris.fr/resistance/index.htm Le lycée Jacques-Decour during the Occupation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720203356/http://lyc-jacques-decour.scola.ac-paris.fr/resistance/index.htm |date=20 July 2011 }} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Decour, Jacques}} Category:Communist members of the French Resistance Category:1910 births Category:1942 deaths Category:20th-century French non-fiction writers Category:Writers from Paris Category:Lycée Carnot alumni Category:Lycée Pasteur (Neuilly-sur-Seine) alumni Category:French people executed by Nazi Germany Category:Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Category:20th-century French male writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:French Communist Party politicians Category:20th-century French translators Category:Translators from German Category:Communists executed by Nazi Germany Category:People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad Category:People executed by Nazi Germany occupation forces --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jacques Decour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Decour) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Decour?action=history)). 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