28/05/1911
15/12/1996
Né à Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) le 28 mai 1911 dans une famille juive aux solides convictions républicaines, installée en Alsace depuis plus de deux siècles, Jean-Pierre Levy doit s’improviser chef de famille à onze ans, après le décès de son père. Ingénieur commercial à dix-huit ans, il est employé comme agent commercial puis représentant dans une entreprise de filature et de tissage, Weill et Cie. Après son service militaire en 1930, où il suit les cours de l'École d'élève officier de réserve (EOR) de Poitiers (Vienne), ses activités professionnelles le conduisent à Lyon (Rhône) et dans plusieurs villes du sud de la France. Le 24 août 1939, il est mobilisé comme lieutenant de réserve et se retrouve cantonné dans l’est de la France lors de l’offensive allemande de mai 1940. Démobilisé en août 1940, il rejoint à Lyon où s’est réfugiée sa famille et, après avoir tenté en vain de partir à Londres pour rallier la France libre, prend contact avec des Alsaciens réfugiés comme lui dans la capitale rhodanienne, Pierre Eude, secrétaire général de la chambre de commerce de Strasbourg, ou Henri Feldman.
Grâce à ses relations professionnelles nouées avant-guerre, Jean-Pierre Levy tisse des liens avec un petit groupe de personnes d’horizons politiques divers, qui partagent ses idées : Antoine Avinin, Élie Péju, Jean-Jacques Soudeille, Auguste Pinton, Noël Clavier et André Gayet. Soucieux de développer une activité de propagande anti-allemande, il crée un journal, Le Franc-Tireur, autour duquel se met en place le mouvement du même nom, dont il devient le chef national.
Le premier numéro de ce bulletin clandestin paraît en décembre 1941, tiré à 5000 exemplaires. Ce tirage atteindra 150 000 exemplaires en août 1944.
Profitant de sa position de cadre commercial, qui lui permet de circuler librement en zone sud, Jean-Pierre Levy multiplie les contacts avec les représentants de la France libre, les agents britanniques et d’autres mouvements de résistance. Il développe le mouvement et le structure en différents services : renseignement, parachutage, groupes francs, action sociale.
Interrogé une première fois par la police en septembre 1941, il est arrêté à Lyon un an plus tard, le 24 octobre 1942, et libéré grâce à ses camarades France Péjot et Micheline Altman, qui détournent les soupçons sur elles, puis, après une nouvelle alerte en décembre 1942, se voit contraint d’entrer dans la clandestinité.
Dans le processus d’unification de la Résistance conduit sous la direction de Jean Moulin, Jean-Pierre Levy joue alors un rôle utile de conciliateur face aux responsables de Combat et Libération, Henri Frenay et Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie, et devient ainsi l’un des artisans de la création en février 1943 des Mouvements unis de Résistance (MUR). Fait Compagnon de la Libération par décret du 24 mars 1943, il gagne Londres à la mi-avril en compagnie d'Emmanuel d'Astier, via une opération aérienne effectuée dans la région de Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire). Après avoir dû prolonger son séjour à la suite d'un accident survenu lors d’un entraînement en parachute à Wilmslow (comté de Cheshire), il est ramené par Lysander dans la région de Lyon, toujours avec Emmanuel d'Astier, le 25 juillet 1943.
Arrêté une troisième fois le 16 octobre 1943 à Paris, il est incarcéré à la prison de la Santé, avant d’être libéré le 12 juin 1944, durant son transfert à Fresnes, par un groupe franc des MUR emmené par Charles Gonard. Il reprend alors ses activités clandestines jusqu'à la Libération, notamment au sein du Conseil national de la Résistance où il représente Franc-Tireur.
De 1944 à 1946, Jean-Pierre Levy occupe le poste de commissaire provisoire auprès de l'Office professionnel des industries du cuir puis entame une brillante carrière de haut-fonctionnaire :
• directeur des industries textiles et des cuirs de 1947 à 1949, puis des industries et des textiles au ministère de l’Industrie de 1949 à 1970 ;
• inspecteur général de l'industrie en 1956 ;
• administrateur des Houillères du bassin d'Auvergne de 1957 à 1964 ;
• administrateur de la Régie nationale des usines Renault de 1965 à 1971 ;
• administrateur de l'Office national des Forêts de 1968 à 1972 ;
• conseiller d'État en service extraordinaire de 1970 à 1974 ;
• président du conseil d'administration du Centre national pour l'exploitation des océans (CNEXO) de 1971 à 1975 ;
• président des jurys de l'École des hautes études commerciales (HEC) et de l'Institut supérieur des affaires de 1972 à 1978.
• président du Comité consultatif et du groupe permanent chargés d'étudier les actions médicales, paramédicales et sociales liées à la scolarité des enfants et des adolescents, de 1976 à 1980.
Membre du Conseil de l'Ordre de la Libération, Jean-Pierre Levy exerce aussi de nombreuses responsabilités associatives :
• vice-président fondateur de « Revivre », groupement de solidarité pour les orphelins de la Résistance, de 1945 à 1967 ;
• administrateur à partir de 1947 puis président à partir de 1972 du Comité des œuvres sociales de la Résistance (COSOR) ;
• administrateur et membre du comité exécutif des « Villages d'enfants SOS » de France et des « Villages SOS Monde » en 1967 ;
• membre du Comité central de la Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme (LICRA) à partir de 1971,
• administrateur du Centre de documentation juive contemporaine (CDJC) et du Mémorial du martyr juif inconnu en 1979 ;
• membre du comité directeur de la Ligue française pour la défense des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (LDH) de 1976 à 1980.
Celui qui a porté pendant la clandestinité les pseudonymes de Lenoir, Robert, Martin, Gilles, Ponsard, Leblanc et Linarès, reste sa vie entière fidèle à son engagement résistant : très actif au sein de l’association des anciens membres de Franc-Tireur, il est l’un des fondateurs en 1993 de la Fondation de la Résistance, aux côtés de Jean Mattéoli et de Pierre Sudreau.
Veuf de Lise Rauzier, mère de ses deux enfants, Gilles Pierre Levy et Anne-Denise Levy-Haas, Jean-Pierre Levy a épousé après la guerre la résistante et ancienne déportée Janine Carlotti (1920-2013), sa secrétaire à Franc-Tireur.
Il est décédé à Paris le 15 décembre 1996.
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