75 ans de la libération de Paris

French ‘Gestapo’ unit in the Rue de la Pompe

180, rue de la Pompe, Paris 16^e arr.

The German services are supported by a range of different French volunteer groups, ready for anything

Secret laboratory

5, avenue Debidour, Paris 19^e arr.

This building houses the explosives laboratory of communist resistance fighter France Bloch-Sérazin.

Plaque in memory of the action taken by France Bloch-Sérazin, arrested and beheaded in Germany on 12 February 1943

Public speech by a militant communist, 31 May 1942

Rue de Buci, Paris 6^e arr.

Interior Ministry

11, rue des Saussaies, Paris 8^e arr.

In 1942, the German security police - the Sicherheitspolitzei und Sicherheitsdenst (Sipo-SD) - move into the Rue des Saussaies, with a ‘Resistance’ section dedicated to suppressing any resistance action against the occupation authorities.

Sorbonne University

Rue de la Sorbonne, Paris 5^e arr.

The first issues of the underground newspaper Défense de la France are printed in the cellars of the university.

Accommodation for soldiers and airmen before they are repatriated to the UK.

10, rue Oudinot, Paris 7^e arr.

Fort Mont Valérien

Suresnes

During the Occupation, more than 1,000 people were executed in Fort Mont Valérien.

Executions at Fort Mont-Valérien

Caisse d’assurances sociales

211, rue Lafayette, Paris 10^e arr.

An employee of the Caisse d’assurances sociales (social insurance fund) types copies of the ‘Manifesto of the Twelve’ (manifeste des douze) of the Libération-Nord resistance movement.

Air Ministry

26, boulevard Victor, Paris 15^e arr.

The building is occupied by the German army and the former rifle range is used for executions.

The execution posts in the former rifle range

Musée de l’Homme

Place du Trocadéro, Paris 16^e arr.

One of the first resistance groups in Paris is formed by the museum’s researchers and librarians.

German Military Court for ‘Greater Paris’

11, rue Boissy-d’Anglas, Paris 8^e arr.

These are the military courts where those accused of acts of resistance against the occupying authorities are tried.

First meeting of the Paris Liberation Committee (comité parisien de la Libération or CPL)

4, rue Girardon, Paris 18^e arr.

The first secret meeting of the CPL is held on 23 October 1943.

French ‘Gestapo’ unit in the Rue Lauriston

93, rue Lauriston, Paris 16^e arr.

The German services are supported by a range of different French volunteer groups, ready for anything

Police Headquarters

1, rue de Lutèce, Paris 4^e arr.

The French police do as they are commanded by the Vichy government and collaborate with the German authorities.

Funeral of the murdered Commissioner Tissot (Police Commissioner Amédée Bussière is seen on the right). Courtyard of Police Headquarters, Paris, June 1943

Fort de Romainville

Les Lilas

Hostages are interned here, and the fort is used as a pre-deportation holding centre for men and women.

Bunker 17 at the Fort de Romainville

French ‘Gestapo’ unit on the Avenue Henri-Martin

101, avenue Henri-Martin, Paris 16^e arr.

The German services are supported by a range of different French volunteer groups, ready for anything

Cherche-Midi Prison

54, boulevard Raspail, Paris 6^e arr.

The prisons of France are either partly or totally reserved for prisoners of the German authorities.

Still from the film by Charles Dudouyt, August 1944

First meeting of the Resistance Council (Conseil de la Résistance), 27 May 1943

48, rue du Four, Paris 6^e arr.

Passy metro station

Métro Passy, Paris 16^e arr.

The Parish of Saint-Roch

296, rue Saint-Honoré, Paris 1^er arr.

Father Jean Courcel, Priest of Saint-Roch, provides a link in the Burgundy network.

Maison de la Chimie

Rue Saint-Dominique, Paris 7^e arr.

The Maison de la Chimie is where resistance fighters were put on trial in April 1942.

The Avenue Henri-Martin unit

As well as being the procurement office for the Germans, the Avenue Henri-Martin unit also hunts down and tortures resistance fighters. It works closely with Parisian collaborators.

Resistance Movement: l’Organisation civile et militaire (OCM)

From December 1940

These intellectuals and ministry of public works officials come together in December 1940. They are in contact with the Vichy government administration to share intelligence, which they pass on to London at the end of 1941. They also succeed in printing underground publications. Maxime Blocq-Mascart represents the movement on the National Council of the Resistance (Conseil national de la Résistance or CNR).

Resistance: The underground Communist Party

From summer 1940

Dissolved on 26 September 1939 following the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, the French Communist Party opposes the Vichy government in the summer of 1940. Militants decide to keep up the antifascist struggle and resist the Germans as soon as France is invaded; the party becomes very actively engaged in the Resistance in summer 1941. The underground newspaper L'Humanité publishes the public speeches of activists and details of direct action (sabotage and attacks on German soldiers and property). The repression imposed by the Vichy government and Occupying forces is relentless.

Défense de la France

From 1941

Défense de la France -1943

In 1941, Sorbonne students Philippe Viannay, Hélène Mordkovitch and Robert Salmon, launch an underground newspaper entitled Défense de la France. First editions are printed in the cellars of the university. The newspaper adopts a maréchaliste stance in support of Pétain, before backing Charles de Gaulle when Geneviève de Gaulle, the general's niece, joins the movement. The newspaper grows to a circulation of several hundred thousand copies by the eve of the Liberation.

The Rue de la Pompe unit

This unit tracks down and tortures resistance fighters. It is responsible for the savage murders of 35 resistance fighters at the Bois de Boulogne waterfall just a few days before the liberation of Paris.

Special Brigades

March 1940

In March 1940, a small special brigade is set up within the general intelligence service at Police Headquarters to track down communist propaganda. Revived in the autumn of 1940 when the French State is fighting back against the ‘anti-national’ actions of the communists, it is considerably strengthened after the USSR enters the war and the Communist Party takes up arms in August 1941. For maximum efficiency, two special brigades are created and given large teams of up to 100 men each. BS1, under the command of Commissioner David, is responsible for anti-communist reprisals. BS2, under the command of Commissioner Hénoque, is responsible for anti-terrorist action. Highly professional, the inspectors of the special brigades carry out surveillance and field investigations using indicators and informers. Famous for their brutality against resistance fighters, they are responsible for more than 3,000 arrests, some of which result in executions. BS2 alone hands over half of all the resistance fighters it arrests to the German authorities.

Resistance: Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP)

From 1942

Formed in 1942, the Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) succeed the armed wing of the French Communist Party known as the Special Organisation (Organisation spéciale). Despite the fierce repression that decimates their ranks and their meagre supplies of equipment, the FTP manages to pull off sometimes spectacular actions. They join the French Internal Forces (FFI) in 1944. One of their leaders is then appointed commander of the Paris region FFI under the pseudonym Colonel Rol.

Resistance Movement: Ceux de la Libération (CDLL)

Founded by Maurice Ripoche, this movement unites extreme right-wingers, engineers and former soldiers. They focus on intelligence with links to the corresponding services of the Vichy Government and the English Intelligence Service. The movement is represented in the National Council of the Resistance (Conseil national de la Résistance or CNR).

Resistance Movement: Ceux de la Résistance (CDLR)

From 1942

Focused on military action, this movement is formed in 1942 by Jacques Lecompte-Boinet and Henry Ingrand. It has many links with other groups and establishes contact with London in 1943. One of its commando groups successfully burns a filing cabinet of the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) forced labour organisation in February 1944. The movement is actively involved in the liberation of Paris, and especially the taking of the ministry of public works.

Resistance Networks: The Comet line

From 1941

Put together in 1941 by a young Belgian woman called Andrée De Jongh with support from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Comet escape line is used to take care of Allied soldiers and airmen and help them to return to the UK. When she is arrested, her father takes over the task of organising the network’s Paris-based resistance fighters. The line facilitates around 800 such escapes.

Resistance Networks: the Burgundy network

From 1943

Memorial plaque at Saint-Roch commemorating the action of Father Courcel and Georges Broussine

The Burgundy Escape Network is initiated and set up by the Free French Central Bureau of Information and Action (Bureau central de renseignements et d’action or BCRA). At the beginning of 1943, Georges Broussine has responsibility for setting up an organisation capable of secretly locating, accommodating and repatriating Allied soldiers and airmen to the UK via Spain. The network is later betrayed, and Father Courcel, the Priest of Saint-Roch Parish, the Moët de Saint-Mandé family and other members of the network are arrested and deported.

Resistance: le Conseil national de la Résistance (CNR)

From May 1943

The apartment on the Rue du Four where the Council for the Resistance meets on 27 May 1943

Meeting for the first time under the chairmanship of Jean Moulin on 27 May 1943, the Conseil de la Résistance (later renamed the Conseil National de la Résistance) is composed of eight representatives of resistance movements (Roger Coquoin and later André Mutter from Ceux de la Libération, Jacques Lecompte-Boinet from Ceux de la Résistance, Charles Laurent and later André Ribière from Libération-Nord, Jacques-Henri Simon and later Maxime Blocq-Mascart from Organisation civile et militaire, Pierre Villon from Front national, Claude Bourdet and later Marcel Degliame from Combat, Eugène Claudius-Petit, Jean-Pierre Lévy and later Antoine Avininin from Franc-tireur and Pascal Copeau from Libération-Sud), six political party representatives (André Mercier and later Auguste Gillot from the Communist Party, André Le Troquer and later Daniel Mayer from the SFIO, Marcel Rucart and later Paul Bastid from the radicals, Georges Bidault from the Christian Democrats, Joseph Laniel from the Democratic Alliance and Jacques Debû-Bridel for the Republican Federation), and two union representatives (Louis Saillant from the CGT and Gaston Tessier from the CFTC).

Resistance Movement: the ‘Musée de l’Homme’ group

1940-1941

In the summer of 1940, small Occupation resistance groups form around Yvonne Oddon and Boris Vildé, both of whom work at the Musée de l'Homme. They publish the newspaper Resistance, and find ways to help prisoners escape working in contact with ethnologist Germaine Tillion. The group is betrayed in 1941.

Resistance Networks: Special Operations Executive (SOE)

The Special Operations Executive is the British secret service organisation responsible for covert action in the occupied countries. Section F (for France) is headed by Maurice Buckmaster. He sends agents into Europe. In France, Forest Yeo-Thomas works with Colonel Passy of the Bureau central de renseignements et d'action (BCRA) and Pierre Brossolette.

Sipo-SD (Gestapo)

A Sipo-SD (aka Gestapo) team arrives in Paris during the summer of 1940 to hunt down the enemies of Nazism. At the specific request of Adolf Hitler, Carl Oberg, the Supreme Commander of the SS and police in occupied France, gives the Sipo-SD the authority to lead the repression and deportation of French Jews from summer 1942 onwards. Pierre Laval - back at the head of the Vichy government - and René Bousquet, Secretary General of the Police, now facilitate collaboration by the French police in tracking down and repressing resistance fighters and organising the round-up of Jews in the northern and southern zones.

Resistance Movement: the Front national de lutte pour la libération et l'indépendance de la France

From 1941

In May 1941, the Communist Party initiates the creation of the Front national de lutte pour la libération et l'indépendance de la France movement with the intention of bringing together resistance fighters of diverse philosophies grouped by professional category. Pierre Villon has responsibility for coordinating the northern zone.

Resistance: le Comité parisien de la Libération (CPL)

From April 1944

The autumn of 1943 sees the beginnings of discussions that lead to the April 1944 formation of the Parisian Liberation Committee (CPL). It is chaired by communist and trade unionist resistance fighter André Tollet, and run by an executive whose members are Albert Rigal, Georges Marrane, Léo Hamon, André Carrel, Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux and Roger Deniau. The CPL has nineteen members. It makes preparations for the Paris uprising and leads the patriotic militias.

Resistance Movement: Libération-Nord

From February 1942

In the autumn of 1940, trade unionists and socialist activists meet to condemn the Vichy government and Nazism. They publish an underground newspaper. From February 1942, with support from Free France, the organisation expands and diversifies its action by gathering and passing on intelligence. Led and organised by Christian Pineau, Pierre Brossolette, Georges Zarapoff and Robert Fouré, Libération-Nord is one of the most deeply rooted resistance movements in the Paris region.

The Rue Lauriston unit

This unit - of which Pierre Bonny and Henri Lafont are members - is directly supervised by the Germans. It has responsibility for dismantling resistance movements, and does so with a great deal of brutality and perversity.

Forest Yeo-Thomas1901-1964

As an agent of Special Operations Executive (SOE) Section F, Yeo-Thomas makes three visits to France as a liaison officer with the Central Information and Action Bureau (Bureau central de renseignements et d’action or BCRA). In the spring of 1943, he is part of the Arquebuse-Brumaire mission of Colonel Passy and Pierre Brossolette and makes an assessment of the French resistance. That autumn, his next mission is to study and strengthen French paramilitary groups. In February 1944, he returns to France to facilitate the escape of Pierre Brossolette, but is arrested on 21 March, tortured and deported to Buchenwald. He reaches Allied lines after liberation of the camp in 1945.

Boris Vildé 1908-1942

Boris Vildé, a linguist at the Musée de l'Homme, Yvonne Oddon, a librarian at the same institution, and ethnologist Anatole Lewitsky together decide to join the resistance effort. On 15 December 1940, they publish an underground newspaper and connect with other groups, including that led by Germaine Tillion. Following their arrest in the spring of 1941, Boris Vildé and Anatole Lewitsky are shot by firing squad at Mount Valérien on 23 February 1942, and Yvette Oddon is deported.

René Hénoque 1909-1996

Thanks to family connections, René Hénoque is appointed head of BS2 on its formation in January 1942. This special brigade has responsibility for anti-terrorist repression. BS2 makes 1,599 arrests, 216 of which result in executions. It works with the German security services, handing over 655 people to their custody. After the Liberation, René Hénoque goes on the run and is sentenced to death in absentia

Pierre Bonny 1895-1944

French police officer Pierre Bonny had been known in the inter-war years as a member of the general security directorate. Dismissed in 1935 for corruption, he becomes, in 1942, one of the leaders of the ‘French Gestapo’ based in the Rue Lauriston.

Yvonne Oddon 1902-1982

Yvonne Oddon, a librarian at the Musée de l’Homme, Boris Vildé, a linguist at the same institution, and ethnologist Anatole Lewitsky together decide to join the resistance effort. On 15 December 1940, they publish an underground newspaper and connect with other groups, including that led by Germaine Tillion. Following their arrest in the spring of 1941, Yvette Oddon is deported, and Boris Vildé and Anatole Lewitsky are shot by firing squad at Mount Valérien on 23 February 1942.

Germaine Tillion 1907-2008

Ethnologist Germaine Tillion returns to France in 1940 from an assignment in Algeria. She immediately resists the Occupation and the armistice and seeks to make contact with resistance groups. She succeeds in creating a network to help escaped prisoners of war and establishes contact with her colleagues at the Musée de l'Homme. Following her arrest in August 1942, she is deported with her mother to Ravensbrück, where she conducts an anthropological study of concentration camp life. She returns to France in 1945.

Anatole Lewitsky 1901-1942

Anatole Lewitsky, an ethnologist at the Musée de l'Homme, Yvonne Oddon, a librarian at the same institution, and linguist Boris Vildé together decide to join the resistance effort. On 15 December 1940, they publish an underground newspaper and connect with other groups, including that led by Germaine Tillion. Following their arrest in the spring of 1941, Anatole Lewitsky and Boris Vildé are shot by firing squad at Mount Valérien on 23 February 1942, and Yvette Oddon is deported.

André Tollet 1913-2001

Communist and trade union activist André Tollet is interned in 1940. Having escaped, he takes over leadership of the Parisian trade union movement at the request of the Communist Party, and negotiates the trade union reunification agreements at Le Perreux (Val-de-Marne) in May 1943. He then chairs the Paris Liberation Committee (CPL) and promotes the uprising.

Frédéric de Jongh 1897-1944

Head of a Belgian primary school, Frédéric De Jongh is the father of Andrée De Jongh, the young Belgian woman who founded the Comète escape line. In April 1942, Frédéric de Jongh moves to Paris to coordinate the network's action in the capital. He takes over running the line after the arrest of his daughter. Interrogated on 7 June 1943, he is eventually shot by firing squad at Mount Valérien on 28 March 1944.

Hélène Mordkovitch 1917-2006

In 1940, three Sorbonne students - Hélène Mordkovitch, Philippe Viannay and Robert Salmon - decide to resist the Occupation. Together, they launch the newspaper Défense de la France in 1941. Philippe and Hélène marry in 1942. As their group expands, they make contact with the Mouvement de libération nationale (National Liberation Movement). In 1944, Philippe Viannay leads a maquis guerilla group of the French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l’intérieur or FFI) in Seine-et-Oise.

Robert Salmon 1918-2013

In 1940, three Sorbonne students - Robert Salmon, Philippe Viannay and Hélène Mordkovitch - decide to resist the Occupation. Together, they launch the newspaper Défense de la France in 1941. As their group expands, they make contact with the Mouvement de libération nationale (National Liberation Movement).

Henri Rol-Tanguy 1908-2002

Communist activist and metalworkers trade unionist Henri Tanguy joins the International Brigades at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and engages in clandestine action as soon as he was demobilised. In March 1941, he becomes a leader in a Paris-based cell of the Communist Party, and later assumes leadership of Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) armed resistance groups. At the end of 1943, he represents the FTP within the French Internal Forces (Forces françaises de l’intérieur or FFI); in June 1944, he becomes the head of the FFI in the Paris region. He leads the Paris uprising and is a co-signatory with Leclerc of the surrender document signed by General von Choltitz on 25 August 1944.

Fernand David 1908-1945

Leadership of the Special Brigade was entrusted to Commissioner David in September 1941. He enjoys the reputation of inciting his inspectors to use extremes of violence when interrogating resistance fighters. In January 1942, he is appointed head of BS1, the brigade newly formed to show no mercy in combating the communists. Fernand David is sentenced to death following the Liberation and executed on 5 May 1945.

René Bousquet 1909-1993

A senior civil servant at the Interior Ministry in 1930, René Bousquet is appointed Prefect of the Marne in 1940. In April 1942, head of government Pierre Laval appoints him Secretary General of the Police. Following negotiations with the Nazi police services, he signs the Bousquet-Oberg agreements in summer 1942, committing the Vichy government to contribute to German repression and implementation of the ‘final solution’. René Bousquet is also responsible for suggesting that foreign Jews detained in the free zone should be handed over. In December 1943, he is replaced by the Milice française (French militia) founder and leader Joseph Darnand. After the Liberation, he is sentenced to five years on the basis of dégradation nationale (national stripping of rank), which is immediately lifted. Charged with crimes against humanity in 1991, he is murdered in 1993.

Maxime Blocq-Mascart 1894-1965

Maxime Blocq-Mascart merges the anti-Occupation resistance group he had previously formed with Jean Arthuys' group to form the Civil and Military Organisation (Organisation Civile et Militaire or CMO), and becomes a member of its executive. Blocq-Mascart opposes the presence of the political parties of the Third Republic as part of the National Council of the Resistance (Conseil national de la Résistance or CNR) and refuses to join it. He succeeds Aimé Lepercq as head of the CMO in March 1944.

Henri Chamberlin dit Henri Lafont 1902-1944

A colleague of Pierre Bonny, Henri Lafont is a former convict who offers his services to the Germans, and is particularly keen to hunt down resistance fighters. In 1942, his group reports directly to the Gestapo. He is part of the crackdown on the black market, which is motivating because it is lucrative. Following the Liberation, both Henri Lafont and Pierre Bonny are arrested and sentenced to death. They were shot by firing squad in December 1944.

Maurice Ripoche 1895-1944

In October 1940, industrialist Maurice Ripoche contacts his friends and colleagues with a manifesto. The Ceux de la Libération (CDLL) resistance movement advocates the liberation of France and the establishment of an authoritarian state with a reactionary and xenophobic programme. The action taken by the movement focuses primarily on intelligence. Arrested on 3 March 1943, he is deported and subsequently beheaded on 24 July 1944.

Georges Broussine1918-2001

Georges Broussine arrives in London in February 1942, after many attempts to leave occupied France. The Central Information and Action Bureau (BCRA) gives him the responsibility for setting up an escape route. He returns to France in February 1943 to establish the Burgundy network. He helps more than 300 Allied soldiers to return to the United Kingdom via Spain.

Helmut Knochen 1910-2003

Nazi party member since 1932, Helmut Knochen is responsible for organising the Nazi security police (SiPo-SD) in occupied France in the summer of 1940. Leading a commando of about twenty men, he hunts down opponents, Jews, communists and Freemasons. Reporting to Carl Oberg from May 1942 onwards, he helps to introduce the ‘final solution’ into France. He is sentenced to death in 1954 and later pardoned.

Léo Hamon 1908-1993

In 1941, lawyer Léo Goldenberg - alias Léo Hamon - helps to establish the resistance movement in the South of France. He is a member of the Action Committee against Deportation (comité d’action contre la déportation or CAD) and the Core Group of Public Administrations (noyautage des administrations publiques or NAP). In May 1943, he arrives in Paris, where he joins Ceux de la Résistance (CDLR). He also joins the Paris Liberation Committee (Comité parisien de la Libération or CPL). On 20 August 1944, he and a small group enter the Paris Town Hall. He is one of those involved in negotiating the truce during the Parisian uprising.

Philippe Viannay 1917-1986

In 1940, three Sorbonne students - Philippe Viannay, Hélène Mordkovitch and Robert Salmon - decide to resist the Occupation. Together, they launch the newspaper Défense de la France in 1941. Philippe and Hélène marry in 1942. As their group expands, they make contact with the Mouvement de libération nationale (National Liberation Movement). In 1944, Philippe Viannay leads a maquis guerilla group of the French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l’intérieur or FFI) in Seine-et-Oise.

Christian Pineau1904-1995

Christian Pineau is a bank clerk and trade union activist. He resists the Vichy government by writing a trade union manifesto in conjunction with others, but particularly Robert Lacoste. A committed activist, he founds the newspaper Libération, and is its first editor. He meets Charles de Gaulle in London in February 1942 and sets up two intelligence networks called Phalanx and Cohors, leadership of the latter being entrusted to Professor Jean Cavaillès of the Sorbonne. After a second visit to London, he is arrested in Lyon in May 1943 and deported to Buchenwald, from where he returns in 1945