Simon Sabiani
Born14 May 1888
Casamaccioli, Haute-Corse, France
Died29 September 1956 (1956-09-30) (aged 68)
Barcelona, Spain
NationalityFrench
OccupationPolitician
Signature
Simon Sabiani, Paul Carbone, François Spirito

Simon Pierre Sabiani (14 May 1888 – 29 September 1956) was a French businessman and politician. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1928 to 1936.

Early life

Simon Pierre Sabiani was born in 1888 in Casamaccioli, Corsica, France.[1][2] He had four brothers and one sister. He moved to Marseille.[2]

Sabiani served in World War I within the XVth corps of the 112th regiment of line infantry. He was nicknamed the "Pierre Bayard Corse" (Corsican war hero) and awarded the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre for his service.[2]

Career

Sabiani joined the SFIO in 1919, and for a while the PCF. In 1923, he founded the "Parti d’action socialiste", (Socialist action party). In 1925, he was elected to the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône.[3] Among his friends and "electoral agents" were the French mafiosi Paul Carbone, François Spirito, as well as Antoine Guerini, who had helped him get into the mayor´s office of Marseille in 1929.[4]

From 1928 to 1936, he served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing Bouches-du-Rhône, succeeded by François Billoux.[2] From 1929 to 1935 he served as an advisor to the Deputy Mayor of Marseille.[3][5]

In 1936, he joined the Parti Populaire Français (PPF) led by Jacques Doriot, where he became a member of the political bureau, heading the local PPF section. On 4 July 1936 he addressed a right-wing faction during a demonstration in Aix-en-Provence which turned violent.[6][7]

During World War II, he was the general secretary of the Marseille Bureau of the Légion des Volontaires Français, a collaborator of the Vichy regime. On 5 August 1942 he was arrested alongside Paul Carbone in Marseille over the possible murder of two women and the shooting of five more people during the Bastille Day march a month earlier.[8] Meanwhile, he acted as an informant to the Gestapo throughout the war.[9]

Shortly after the war, members of the French resistance put him on a list of collaborators they wanted to kill.[10] However, he went missing.[9] He exiled himself to Sigmaringen, in Southern Germany, then Italy, Argentina, and finally to Spain under the name of Pedro Multedo.[1] However, he returned to Corsica clandestinely to visit his mother when she turned almost one hundred years old.

Death

Sabiani died in 1956 in Barcelona, Spain.[1][2] He was buried in the family chapel of Casamacciuli.

Works

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b c "Simon Sabiani (1888-1956)". Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Simon, Pierre Sabiani". National Assembly. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Marie-Helene Porri, De Mémé à Jean-Noël Guérini, Mon Petit Editeur, 2012, p. 15
  4. ^ Die Mafia in Frankreich. 7 February 2015, Prisma, retrieved 26 June 2017
  5. ^ Mary Dewhurst Lewis The Boundaries of the Republic: Migrant Rights and the Limits of Universalism in France, 1918-1940, Stanford University Press, 2007, p. 96 [1]
  6. ^ "Six Hurt When French Factions Demonstrate". The Decatur Daily Review. Decatur, Illinois. July 5, 1936. p. 4. Retrieved November 27, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Six Frenchmen Hurt in Political Fights". The Pantagraph. Bloomington, Illinois. July 5, 1936. p. 13. Retrieved November 27, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Two Pro-Nazis Arrested In France". Santa Cruz Sentinel. August 5, 1942. p. 8. Retrieved November 27, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b Parris, John A. (June 18, 1944). "Laval Marked for Execution By French Underground Force". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. p. 3. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  10. ^ Newman, Larry (August 28, 1944). "Traitors Are Being Seized At Marseille". New Castle News. New Castle, Pennsylvania. p. 12. Retrieved November 28, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
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