Pronote jean zay biography

French politician and anti-Nazi resistant (1904–1944)

Jean Élie Paul Zay (6 August 1904 – 20 June 1944) was a French politician. He served as Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939.

He was imprisoned by the Vichy government from August 1940 until he was murdered in 1944.

Early life

Zay was born in Orléans, in the department of Loiret, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Paris.

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His father, Leon Zay, descended from a Jewish family from Metz, but was born and died in Orléans, where he was the director of a radical socialist regional newspaper, Le Progrès du Loiret. His mother Alice Chartrain was a Protestant and a teacher.

He grew up with his sister in the Protestant religion.

Zay was educated at the Lycée Pothier in Orléans, and became a lawyer in 1928. He was politically active from his early days, joining the Radical Party aged 21.

With his wife, Madeleine Dreux, he had two daughters, Catherine Martin-Zay, and Hélène