Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc, one of the most famous Foreign Legion figures in the modern history, has died

Aged 91, Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc, the main Foreign Legion figure participating in the Generals’ Putsch against French president Charles de Gaulle in Algeria in 1961, has died on August 26, 2013.

Born on February 11, 1922, a member of the French Resistence during the WWII, a Buchenwald concentration camp prisoner, a First Indochina War, Suez Crisis and Algerian war participant as a French Foreign Legion officer in the 2e BEP and 1er REP.

In Algeria in 1961, on April 21, Major Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc decided to join the Generals’ putsch in Algiers (the capital of Algeria). The putsch failed after four days and Hélie D. de Saint Marc was captured. Five weeks later, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was freed at Christmas 1966 and fully rehabilitated in 1978.

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc R.I.P.
Rest in Peace

 

Major Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc
Major Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc in June 1961 and in 2011, being decorated by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy
 

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc speaking in 2007

See the last homage paid for Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc.

 
An official website of Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc

A nice article in The Telegraph about Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc