René Hardy

René Hardy (31 October 1911 – 12 April 1987) was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Hardy was born in Mortrée, Orne. In spite of having rendered dedicated and valuable service as a member of the resistance group, Combat (French Resistance), he was still suspected of being instrumental in the arrest of Jean Moulin, General Charles Delestraint and other members of the resistance. Despite later being acquitted in 2 separate trials, those suspicions never went away.

Treason In January 1943 Hardy was seduced by the 20-year-old Lydie Bastien, described by one journalist as a great "French beauty" whose true loyalty was to her German lover, Gestapo officer Harry Stengritt. Hardy was arrested on 7 June 1943 when he walked into a trap laid by Bastien. Bastien, a devotee of the occult and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, had taken Stengritt as her lover and was paid for her work for the Gestapo in the form of gems that Stengritt had confiscated from French Jews before deporting them to Auschwitz.

After the war After the war, he was tried twice for collaboration for a number of reasons but was found not guilty, despite committing perjury at the first trial. Shortly before his death, he was accused again by Barbie himself, but died before any new charges could be brought.

After his trials, Hardy became a novelist and wrote the book Bitter Victory (French title Amère victoire) which was adapted for the cinema in a Franco-US co-production starring Richard Burton and directed by Nicholas Ray. Shortly before his death, a destitute, broken-down Hardy, dressed in pajamas and apparently living in somebody's attic, was interviewed by film-maker Marcel Ophüls for Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie. Hardy denied having betrayed Moulin.