Robert Brasillach (31 March 1909 – 6 February 1945): Killed for his Words

"Brasillach was convicted of "intelligence with the enemy" and, despite a petition for clemency signed by Albert Camus, Francois Mauriac, Jean Anouilh, Jean-Louis Barrault and Arthur Honegger, Brasillach went before the firing squad on Feb. 6, 1945 - the only writer of distinction to be killed for what he wrote."

"Brasillach's trial, as recreated by Kap-lan, is suffused with the drama and heft of Dreyfus' or Joan of Arc's. The writer was measured and brilliant in his own defense, explaining that he was a patriot, loyal to the constitutional Vichy government."

"Brasillach, whatever his crimes or lapses, never stood a chance. The judge had served Vichy and may have thought he could exonerate himself by condemning Brasillach; the jurors were veterans of the Resistance he had denounced so furiously. They deliberated for 25 minutes. As Brasillach's death sentence was read, his supporters exploded into outrage, but the defendant shouted, "It's an honor!" De Gaulle considered the plea for clemency, but upheld the sentence. He later wrote, "in literature as in everything, talent confers responsibility." If Brasillach had been less adept at his noxious art, he might have been spared.""

Richard Corliss for TIME

Robert Brasillach on conservatism:

We do not have much in common, in spite of appearances, Mr Conservative. We are defending a few truths in the way we think they ought to be defended, that is violently, passionately, dis-respectfully, with our lives. At times, this has been of some value to us, Mr Conservative. It may be to you, one day. At moments when you think you can do without those compromising bodyguards, you prefer to talk of other things and look at them from a long way away. They are running their own risks, aren’t they? That is their affair, not yours. It was you that said it, Mr Conservative. Their own risks. Not yours. We are not mercenaries. We are not the shock-troops of the bien-pensants. We are not the SA of conservatism.’ (To a conservative, Je suis partout, 23 February 1940).