Jacques Correze; Quit Firm Amid Nazi Scandal

Jacques Correze, who on Wednesday quit as head of French cosmetics giant L’Oreal’s U.S. marketing arm amid a recurring scandal over his collaboration with Nazis, died of cancer only hours later, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

Correze, 79, entered a Paris hospital Wednesday morning and died from cancer of the pancreas during the night, said the spokeswoman for Cosmair Inc.

“He was very sick and had been suffering a great deal. At his age, his death comes as no surprise,” she told Reuters news agency.

Correze was accused by Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld of helping the Gestapo evict Jews from their homes and businesses in Paris in 1941. He issued a statement Wednesday saying he felt obliged to resign from Cosmair because the controversy was harming the company. He also apologized for his wartime activities, saying “I can’t change what has past.”

Correze also cited his health as one reason he was quitting.

He had served five years of a 10-year prison term for collaborating.

Klarsfeld, who played a key role in bringing Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie to trial, said lastweek he had sent the U.S. Office of Special Investigations documents proving Correze helpedthe Nazis evict Jews in occupied Paris.

Klarsfeld asked the U.S. bureau to bar Correze from U.S. territory in the same way it had banned Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in 1987 because of his wartime activities.

Correze admitted belonging to the underground group La Cagoule (The Hood), which is accused of murdering anti-fascists and of being a member of the Mouvement Social Revolutionnaire, a pro-Nazi group that worked with the Gestapo during the occupation, and of volunteering to fight on the Russian front with the German army.

Correze was hired as a salesman after the war by Francois Dalle, L’Oreal’s former chief executive. He oversaw the setting up of Cosmair, an agency responsible for distributing L’Oreal products in the United States which is majority-owned by Swiss food conglomerate Nestle.

The U.S. bureau was still studying the evidence when Correze died, rendering the controversy obsolete and removing a major embarrassment for L’Oreal.