Henry Coston

Who was Henry Coston?

Henry Coston was a French far-right, anti-Semitic journalist, collaborationist and conspiracy theorist.

After joining the Action française, Coston was influenced by journalist Édouard Drumont and took over his newspaper La Libre Parole in the 1930s. He had previously learned his trade editing La France Ouvrière with Henry Charbonneau. At the same time he created an "Anti-Jewish Youth" organisation "which campaigned for the exclusion of Jews from French life." In the run-up to World War II, he was also in close touch with Ulrich Fleischhauer, German publisher of an internationally-distributed anti-Jewish propaganda newsletter, the Welt-Dienst / World-Service / Service Mondial.

During World War II, Coston belonged to Jacques Doriot's fascist PPF. He also was vice-president of the "Association of anti-Jewish Journalists" and he organised the publication of one of the most anti-Semitic document of the Vichy regime, a tract entitled "I hate you". At the same period, he also wrote anti-Masonic pamphlets with his colleague Jacques Ploncard d'Assac.

In 1944, he tried to escape in Austria, but he was captured and sentenced to hard labour for life. He was pardoned in 1952 for illness and served only five years. He began writing again, mainly against free-masonry while he kept on denouncing the influence of Jews in French life.