Jean-Baptiste Lebas

Mayor of Roubaix

In 1908 Lebas was elected to the municipal council of Roubaix. Then he came to be the mayor of the city in 1912.

German troops invaded the city of Roubaix at the beginning of World War I. Lebas refused to grant the German forces the list of inhabitants in the prime of life whom occupiers wanted for compulsory labour. Therefore, he was arrested on 7 March 1915 and imprisoned in the fortress of Rastatt. After he was released, he has been awarded the Legion of Honour in October 1916 for his courage.

Between the two world wars, Lebas developed and implemented a social policy for his city aimed at constructing decent and salubrious housing and providing access to education.

Deputy and minister of the Popular Front government

Lebas was elected deputy for the first time in 1919 alongside Jules Guesde.

Resistance

For some undeclared reason, Lebas did not take part to the vote on the constitutional change that established an authoritarian regime under the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain. in France before being deported to Germany. He died at the Sonnenburg concentration camp in 1944.

After liberation, a large monument was erected by the municipal council to honour one of its most famous mayors in 1949. On 31 August 1951, his body was repatriated to France alongside that of his son and those of six other Roubaisians who died in concentration camps.