Jacques Bergier
By Emily Westfall
Biography
Early Life
Jacques Bergier was born Yakov Bergier in 1912 to a Jewish family in Odessa. His family fled the Russian Civil War to France in 1920.[1][2]
Scientific Pioneer
Bergier studied physics, chemistry and engineering in Paris in the early 1930s.[3] He created a laboratory with fellow student Alfred Eskenazi in France to study chemical and nuclear reactions spreading the release of nuclear energy from lighter elements.[2] [4] His scientific team spearheaded research into the element polonium and “registered the first patent for electronic cooling of nuclear batteries”.[3]
Military
Bergier served in the military as a member of the French Underground during WWII[2]. During his service, he created a radio network and device used in sabotage as well as creating a group of scientists who located V-2 rocket construction sites in the Lyons area, Peenemunde, which was later destroyed by the Royal Air Force in 1943.[2][3] He was then captured by the German Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. While at the camp, Bergier refused to cooperate and was severely tortured. After being liberated in 1945 he received various French military awards including the Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre(Military Cross), and Rosette de la Resistance(Rosette of Resistance).[2][4]
Marco Polo in WWII
In an effort to fight the Vichy regime, he founded the Marco Polo network and worked with Nazi occupiers for his radio network and “gadgets for sabotage and guerilla operations”. These inventions included the first letter bomb, which could easily be put in tight spaces due to its thin design, and a blowpipe for projectile poison needles. He was also a part time consultant for French Intelligence while he began writing his books, some appropriately on the topic of espionage.[3]
Writing
Jacques Bergier was a writer for a French Communist newspaper even though his abandonment of the USSR, even though he fled when he was a child, led the Communists to question his ideology.[1] After the war, he also co-founded the Planete which had French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, and German editions. He also wrote a wide array of novels on espionage, science and science fiction/the paranormal.[3][2] His most famous book was Le Matin des magiciens or Morning of the Magicians written with Louis Pauwels, a journalist and alchemist, in 1960 which was awarded the title of bestseller.[5] It was about treatment of magic and black magic in history as well as claims that Hitler was an black magic occultist. Its message led to a revival of the practice of magic in Europe.[2] He also wrote 40 other works with various different co-authors. The majority are in French but there are some that are in English or have been translated to English, as well as Spanish, and Italian.[2]
Death
He died at the age of 66 on November 24, 1978 in Paris of a cerebral hemorrhage. He left behind his wife Jacqueline Bernadeau.[3]
Contributions to Pseudoarchaeology
Affect on the Pseudoarchaeological Narrative
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Colavito, Jason 2017 The Strange Case of "Morning of the Magicians" in Soviet Russia. Jason Colavito. Jason Colavito, February 21.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Contemporary Authors Online 2003 Jacques Bergier. Literature Resource Center. Gale
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 The New York Times(NYT) 1978 Jacques Bergier, at 66; French Science Writer And a Resistance Chief: Data Gathered on the V-2 November 25:28. New York City, New York.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jacques Bergier 2001 Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.1 January.
- ↑ Gault, R. T. 2000 The Quixotic Dialectical Metaphysical Manifesto - Morning of the Magicians. Order of the Twilight Star. August.