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The global power of freemasonry - Gnostic Liberation Front

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in the Grand Orient archives, which were confiscated and placed in<br />

the Special Archives in Moscow in 1945.<br />

In connection with the German occupation during the Second<br />

World War the freemasons in France were hit by serious setbacks. <strong>The</strong><br />

Vichy government, where Marshal Henri Philippe Petain played a<br />

central part, was against <strong>freemasonry</strong> and closed down the Grand<br />

Orient in 1940. On 13 August 1940, Marshal Petain forced through<br />

legislation demanding the disbanding <strong>of</strong> all secret societies. Civil<br />

servants belonging to the freemasons were forced to resign either<br />

from their posts or from their lodges. Petain had the principal free-<br />

masons arrested (a total <strong>of</strong> 5000) and sent to concentration camps.<br />

<strong>The</strong> conspirators, however, carried on their activities in the camps.<br />

Petain took the opportunity to confiscate the archives <strong>of</strong> the<br />

freemasons, which were handed over to the Germans. <strong>The</strong> freemasons<br />

took their revenge on him in 1945, when he was sentenced first to<br />

death and then to life in prison. Ninety-six masonic members <strong>of</strong><br />

parliament had voted in favour <strong>of</strong> giving Petain the authority to rule<br />

Vichy-France (Ghislaine Ottenheimer, Renaud Lecadre, "Les frcres<br />

invisibles" / "<strong>The</strong> Invisible Brothers", Paris, 2001, p. 63).<br />

In 1945, at the castle <strong>of</strong> Altan in Nieder-Schlesien, the Red Army<br />

came across 25 large railway cars containing highly sensitive archive<br />

material, including documents from various masonic lodges in Ger-<br />

many, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, Poland and Czecho-<br />

slovakia (Platonov, op. cit. Vol. 1, p. 3).<br />

<strong>The</strong> documents gave a comprehensive picture <strong>of</strong> the secret <strong>power</strong><br />

wielded by international <strong>freemasonry</strong>. All the material was brought<br />

to Moscow, where it formed the basis <strong>of</strong> the Special Archives <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Soviet Union (Osoby Arkhiv, 0A). <strong>The</strong> pre-war president <strong>of</strong> Czecho-<br />

slovakia Edvard Benes (1884-1948) was also shown to be a high-<br />

ranking freemason. Another important Grand Orient member was<br />

Emile Vandervelde (1866-1938), the socialist foreign minister <strong>of</strong> Bel-<br />

gium, who represented his country at the League <strong>of</strong> Nations in 1925-<br />

1927. He was chairman <strong>of</strong> the International Socialist Office (1900-<br />

1920) and the Socialist Workers International (1929-1935).<br />

332

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