Jeanne Blum

Jeanne Adèle “Janot” Blum (11 February 1899 – 3 July 1982) was the third wife of Léon Blum, the French socialist politician and three times Prime Minister of France.

Jeanne Blum
Born	Jeanne Levylier 11 February 1899 Paris, France
Died	3 July 1982 (aged 83) Jouy-en-Josas, France
Nationality	French
Spouse(s)	Henri Torrès Henri Reichenbach Léon Blum
Children	2

Biography

Born Jeanne Adèle Levylier in Paris in 1899, her parents were from an active Jewish family, and she was daughter-in-law of politician Charles Humbert.[1] In 1919, she married a lawyer Henri Torrès, with whom she had two children, Jean Torres, and Georges Torres.

After a divorce, in 1933 she married industrialist Henri Reichenbach, one of the founders of the “Prisunic” retail store chain, but their marriage ended with his suicide in 1940.

She was a distant cousin of Léon Blum, and she was approached by him for a job in his office. She became his mistress, and after Blum's imprisonment in the war, the Vichy government authorised her to join him in Buchenwald in 1943 where, having favoured conditions of detention, they were allowed to be married. They had no children together.

She had purchased a small farm “Le Clos des Metz” in Jouy-en-Josas near Paris in 1938, and they settled there after the liberation of Paris. The house still has its office and library preserved just as Leon Blum had them. In 1974 she created in the town the special school named after her, the "École de puériculture Jeanne-Blum".

She died at home in 1982, from an overdose of medication, thirty-two years after the death of her husband.[2]

References

1. "Biography of senator Charles Humbert, by Michel Maigret" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-20. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
2. Dominique Missika, Je vous promets de revenir : 1940-1945, le dernier combat de Léon Blum, éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 2009