Jean-Baptiste Lebas

Jean-Baptiste Lebas was born on October 24, 1878, in Roubaix.
Under Secretary for the Nord S.F.I.O. federation, he was elected as a socialist municipal councillor in 1908, general councillor in 1910, and mayor of Roubaix in 1912.
Elected Deputy in 1919, he had new school buildings built in 1920 and the open-air school in 1921. To fight against illnesses that swept through working-class families, he opened anti-tuberculosis clinics, a treatment centre, and promoted vaccinations and medical visits for school children. In matters of housing, he was the first to build low-cost housing (HBM) before the Loucheur Law. From 1923 to 1929, 775 housing units were built. In matters of social insurance, in 1921, he founded the Municipal Unemployment Fund. In the area of leisure, he had the Sports Centre and a pool built (which was later transformed into a museum in 2001).
In 1936, he was in charge of the Ministry of Labour. He undertook all the social reforms for the Popular Front government. In 1937-1938, he was at the head of the Ministry for Postal Services and Communications.
In May 1940, as a security measure, the Roubaix municipal services were transferred to Guerche in Brittany. Jean-Baptiste Lebas however decided to return to Roubaix. The prefect disagreed and suspended him. He did not lay down arms after the Armistice and on August 30, he declared:
“We are confident in the outcome of the war and we believe in the victory of Great Britain which will be the victory of democracy over Hitlerian dictatorship.”
On May 21, 1941, Jean-Baptiste Lebas was arrested at his home by the Gestapo. He stayed in prisons in Loos, Saint-Gilles near Brussels, Hamburg, and Berlin. He was judged on April 21, 1942, in the Charlottenburg prison, and sentenced to three years imprisonment in the Sonnenburg camp, located in Poland, several kilometres from the German border. He died there on March 10, 1944.
A monument to his memory was inaugurated in 1949 and moved to the intersection of boulevard Gambetta and rue Pierre de Roubaix in 1990. It was made by the Roubaix sculptor, Alfred De Jaeger, and paid for by the city residents by way of a public subscription.