The Resistance

by Matthew Cobb

  603 Marcot (1999); Foot (2004), p. 256. The Nazis soon realized something was up, and Sochaux managers were arrested or sacked, while Jean-Pierre Peugeot was threatened (he was apparently saved through the intervention of Ferdinand Porsche, director of the eponymous car company, in an act of ruling-class solidarity).

  604 NA HS/9/355/2. Letter from MARIE 11.3.44.

  605 NA HS/9/355/2. Letter from MARIE 5.4.44, ‘Brought back by Lysander 9/10th April 44’. ‘Villiers’ was the pseudonym of the socialist Daniel Mayer, but it seems unlikely he was Witherington’s Villiers – Mayer was based in Paris, and was a member of the CNR and was presumably not involved in sabotage in Clermont-Ferrand. After the war, Witherington was better known as Pearl Cornioley – she became engaged to her future husband, who was also in the Resistance, during her time in France. She died in February 2008.

  606 Durand (1968), pp. 580–1.

  607 There is a moving memorial to the dead at Ascq. After the war, the commanding officer of the SS division, Hauck, was tried in France and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

  608 For most of the period since the war, this lack of action was not discussed – a major history of the role of French railway workers in the Resistance, published in 1968, contained barely a mention of the role of the French railways in the Nazi deportation programme (Durand, 1968). For a polemical questioning of the record of the Resistance in this respect, see Rajsfus (2004), p. 280.

  609 Courtois & Rayski (1987), p. 37. Poznanski (2008) surveys the whole output of the Resistance with regard to the Jewish question and argues that the relative weight given to these issues was more a reflection of a political choice – conscious or unconscious – rather than the result of ignorance or disbelief.

  610 Courtois & Rayski (1987), p. 154.

  611 Chevandier (2006), p. 97. Similar descriptions can be found in the memories of Belgian Jews held in the Malines transit camp, before leaving for Auschwitz (Schreiber, 2000, p. 214).

  612 Courtois & Rayski (1987), pp. 13–4. The insidious way in which the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies gradually took over the whole of the lives of French Jews, eventually taking so many of them to destruction, is movingly shown in Hélène Berr’s diary (Berr, 2008), and in the afterword by the translator, David Bellos (Bellos, 2008). Hélène eventually died in Bergen-Belsen five days before the camp was liberated by British troops. Her diary, which closes in February 1944 with the words ‘Horror! Horror! Horror!’, shows she never realised that the Nazis were intent on exterminating the whole Jewish population of Europe.

  613 Courtois & Rayski (1987), p. 154.

  614 Courtois & Rayski (1987), pp. 179–80.

  615 The membership figures for the Union de la Jeunesse Juive (Union of Jewish Youth) hovered around the 500 mark (Collin, 1998, pp. 73–83). The breadth of Resistance activity by Jews is described in Poznanski (1995).

  616 Lescure (2007), p. 162.

  617 Cited in Delpard (2005), p. 186. Bronchart’s book of memoirs Ouvrier et Soldat (1969), from which this quote is taken, is incredibly difficult to obtain; only two library copies are known to exist (Polino, 2004).

  618 All details from Polino (2004).

  619 Incredible as it may seem, treatment of the Gypsies was even worse – they had no access to toilets, and were let out of their cells for one hour a day, during which they were beaten. Information about Mechelen is taken from Laurence Schram, Historian and Archivist at the Musée Juif de la Déportant et de la Résistance de Malines, article at http://www.massviolence.org (search for ‘Mechelen’ – accessed August 2008).

  620 Schreiber (2002), p. 197. All the material on the Mechelen convoy is based on Marion Schreiber’s book on the action of Livchitz and his comrades, which originally appeared in German in 2000. There is also an English translation (Schreiber, 2004).

  621 Schreiber (2002), p. 221.

  622 Schreiber (2002), p. 248.

  623 Schreiber (2002), p. 252.

  624 See, for example, Lévy (1989); Rayski (1992); Poznanski (2001).

  625 Adam Rayski has collected some bitter memories from people who were teenagers in the UGIF homes, where they were in fact held captive. In 1988 this reality was recognized by the French government, when it accorded the children who had been kept in UGIF-run homes the title of ‘political internees’. Rayski (1992), p. 208–9. This section is based on Rayski’s work. There is an English translation (Rayski, 2005). For a critical review of Rayski’s approach, see Caron (2006).

  626 Poznanski (2001).

  627 The Maison d’Izieu is now a Memorial Museum.

  628 Rayski (1992), pp. 215–6.

  629 For a general discussion of the rescue of Jews by gentiles, see Moore (2004).

  630 Rayski (1992) p. 218.

  631 Brès & Brès (1987), p. 109. In the southern zone, two similar publications were produced: Unser Vaterland (‘Our Fatherland’) and Soldat am Mittelmeer (‘Soldier on the Mediterranean’).

  632 In summer 1942 Radio Moscow reported that deserters carrying these passes and copies of Soldat im Westen had gone over to the Soviets. Very little has been written on Resistance work towards German soldiers. The information in these paragraphs is taken from an interview given by London in the 1960s (Noguères et al., 1969, pp. 570–2), and from Bellanger (1961), p. 219. In his interview, London calls the TA ‘Travail anti-Allemand’; this is contradicted by other sources, e.g. the entry on Travail allemand in Marcot et al. (2006), pp. 214–5.

  633 Frey et al. (1996), pp. 354–9. See also Le Monde 2, 6–7 June 2004, pp. 38–41.

  634 Prager (1981). Shortly after D-Day, Monat was arrested by the Gestapo, shot and left for dead in the Bois de Vincennes. He survived and managed to get to the Rothschild Hospital, where his life was saved. But before he could be taken to safety, the Gestapo came for him again and he disappeared.

  635 It appears that only one copy of this leaflet still survives, in a rather parlous state. See Anonymous (1978), pp. 197–8 and 210. Pages 181–210 contain reproductions and translations of Arbeiter und Soldat. The leaflet is also described as Arbeiter im Westen (Calvès, 1984, p. 73) and, in a document written by Calvès, apparently in 1944, as Der Arbeiter. (André Calvès, 1944?, ‘La trahison de Conrad LEPLOW octobre 1943’. Manuscript in Fonds Calvès, BDIC, Nanterre, France). Also available at:

  http://michel.calves.free.fr/autres r%E9dactions/La trahison de Conrad LEPLOW octobre 1943.htm (accessed August 2008).

  636 Calvès (1984), p. 72.

  637 Calvès (1984), pp. 71–7; Pluet-Despatin (1980), pp. 67–8. Calvès escaped capture and made his way to Paris, where he helped Monat produce Arbeiter und Soldat. For more on Calvès, see Chapter 10.

  638 Erignac (1980); Grmek & Lambrichs (1998).

  639 Brès & Brès (1987), p. 126.

  640 This latter exploit later earned Lucie a place in a 1946 issue of the US publication True Comics (number 49), in a story entitled ‘Lucie to the rescue’. As the subtitle of True Comics had it – ‘TRUTH is stranger and a thousand times more thrilling than FICTION’. The opening page of the story can be seen at: http://archive.lib.msu.edu/AFS/dmc/comicart/public/all/true-comics49/AOH040.gif (accessed August 2008).

  641 This account is based on Aubrac (1993), Raymond Aubrac’s near-contemporary accounts, reproduced in Chauvy (1997), pp. 320–47, Klarsfeld (1997a,b) and Azéma (1997). Understandably, the accounts given by Lucie and Raymond Aubrac varied slightly over half a century, in terms of the detail of pseudonyms, precise dates, or what Barbie knew when. Chauvy (1997) used these variations, together with the ‘testimony’ of Klaus Barbie to insinuate that Raymond Aubrac worked for Barbie and that Lucie knew this. Chauvy also used the claim by a minor résistant that he had been told that British Intelligence launched the prison convoy attack to free him, and that Aubrac’s escape was a fortuitous by-product. There was no reason to believe any of this, apart from the inherently untrustworthy claims of an unrepentant Barbie, and the disquiet felt by those readers who considered that the minor differences in t
he accounts provided by the Aubracs must show they were hiding something. For more on this, see Chapter 11.

  642 Bouchinet-Serreulles (2000), p. 344. See also Verity (2000), p. 205, and Aubrac (1993), pp. 224–6. Lucie Aubrac does not mention Claude Bouchinet-Serreulles at all in her account.

  643 This was its later name. At the time it was known as Operation RENOVATE.

  644 Noguères & Degliame-Fouché (1976), p. 364.

  645 The historian of SOE, M. R. D. Foot, described Operation JERICHO as ‘mysterious’ (Foot & Langley, 1979, p. 85). Livry-Level & Rémy (1955) and Fishman (1982) provide detailed accounts of the operation (including implausibly precise contemporary conversations), but neither contains any detailed references to their sources. However, Rémy was in BCRA headquarters in London when the operation was planned, while Fishman spoke to many of the survivors, including MI6 operatives. Fishman concludes that the main aim of the operation was to free the MI6 prisoners. Both books state that the pilots were told that 100 résistants were due to be executed, and that the aim of the operation was to free these men. Ducellier (2002, 2005) claims there is no proof of any impending executions, that the National Archives at Kew contain no indication that the purpose of the raid was to free prisoners, and he concludes that the raid was part of the FORTITUDE deception operation, focusing Nazi attention on the Pas-de-Calais as the Allies’ chosen invasion site. The lack of any archival support for the ‘liberation’ claim is not necessarily surprising as there are no MI6 documents available – the only documents relating to the operation are those from the RAF (NA AIR 37/15). Furthermore, the presence on the operation of an unladen Mosquito solely for the purpose of filming the result of the raid fits ill with the suggestion that the whole thing was a ploy to fool the Nazis. At the end of 1944 a brief British propaganda newsreel film of the operation (‘The Jail Breakers’) was released, using the footage from the raid. A low-resolution version of this film can be obtained, free, from www.britishpathe.com (Film ID = 34095) (accessed August 2008).

  646 MI9 was officially created on 23 December 1939, and was initially housed in room 4242 of the Metropole Hotel in Northumberland Avenue, London (Foot & Langley, 1979, p. 34).

  647 The O’Leary line was betrayed by British con-man and petty thief, Harold Cole. Cole was eventually killed in confused circumstances in Paris in autumn 1945. Neave (1969), pp. 310–11. For Cole’s life, see Murphy (1987).

  648 Foot & Langley (1979); obituary of Andrée de Jongh, Independent, 6 December 2007, p. 49.

  649 Aglan (1994) shows the problems with writing the history of these circuits in the absence of archival evidence. Her book contains moving and sometimes contradictory oral testimony, but even so long after the events, some interviewees did not want their accounts to be published. The following section on JADE-FITZROY is based entirely on Aglan’s book.

  650 For example, when explaining that she had taken over the circuit following the arrest of Loustaunau-Lacau, she used the masculine grammatical form in her message to show she was supported by her comrades – ‘ENTOURÉ FIDÈLES LIEUTENANTS’, instead of ‘ENTOURÉE’ (Cointet, 2006, p. 110).

  651 Fourcade (1973), pp. 80–3.

  652 Fourcade (1973), p. 203. Among its many successes, ALLIANCE obtained intelligence about the V2 rockets being built at Peenemunde, including the size and range of the weapons, and also provided details of the kind of security papers that would be needed to get into the testing grounds. (There is a reproduction of the report on the V2 weapons, dated July 1943, in Fourcade, 1973, plate 13.) The British recognized the importance of the circuit and gave it a great deal of logistical support – for much of the war, ALLIANCE had more radio sets than the rest of the Resistance put together. The price paid by all the various intelligence circuits was incredibly high – for the Germans, these résistants were simply spies, and they were given even more brutal and summary treatment than was normally the case. ALLIANCE involved up to 3,000 people, 431 of whom were executed or died in deportation. Hundreds more were arrested. Sometimes these losses were the result of betrayal. The first MI6 agent who was sent to work with the circuit, ‘Bla’ (Arthur Bradley Davies), turned out to be a fascist who had infiltrated British Intelligence in the 1930s and worked as a Gestapo double agent within ALLIANCE for over a year (Cointet, 2006, p. 171). When he was eventually unmasked, Fourcade helped interrogate him and then sentenced him to death with the approval of MI6. She was not present when he was executed (Fourcade, 1973, pp. 151–3). After the war, Bla’s German handler, Robert Alesch, claimed that Davies had not been killed, but instead had been given money to leave France and had settled in Tunisia (Cointet, 2006, p. 176). Léon Faye, who was supposed to have carried out the execution, died in deportation (see note 9 above). It seems unlikely the truth will ever be known.

  653 See the many references to Hentic in Verity (2000).

  654 Aglan (1994), p. 133.

  655 Aglan (1994), p. 137. For a description of the terrible repression against the intelligence circuits, see Aglan (2007).

  CHAPTER 9

  656 Pierquin (1983), p. 107.

  657 There have been attempts to re-examine these two cases. For Farjon, see Perrault (1975); for Grandclément, see Terrisse (1996).

  658 In June 1943, shortly before he was captured by the Nazis, Jean Moulin informed London that Joseph Darnand (not yet leader of the Milice) was prepared to join the Free French – ‘LEAVE IT TO YOU TO DECIDE ON THIS SENSATIONAL PROPOSITION,’ cabled Moulin (Cordier, 1999, pp. 275 and 908, n. 30). For London this was ‘morally unacceptable’. Cordier (1999), p. 908 n. 30. Darnand was prepared to think the unthinkable and go over to the Free French because he was ‘disgusted’ with Vichy and with its total subservience to the Nazis (Darnand was a fascist, but he was not a Germanophile). However, Darnand was put off by London’s precondition that he would have to explain himself on the BBC and then would become a rank-and-file soldier in the Free French army. Increasing Resistance activity, the growth of the maquis and the evident threat of an Allied invasion constituted a real menace; as Darnand put it to fellow members of the Milice in November 1943: ‘We are proud that we will fight by the side of the Germans. It is a question of life or death. You will be hanged with me, we will all hang if we do not know how to fight.’ Azéma (1990), p. 92.

  659 Azéma (1990), p. 95.

  660 This mistaken choice was dramatized in Louis Malle’s 1974 film Lacombe Lucien, in which the young man of the title joins the Milice, but only after trying to join the maquis. There were plenty of real Lucien Lacombes, some of whom later realized their mistake and changed sides after D-Day. For contemporary descriptions of why people joined the Milice, see Chanal (1982).

  661 For a discussion of the military courts, see Sansico (2007).

  662 Krivopissko (2006), pp. 196–7.

  663 Piketty (1998), p. 303.

  664 For the history and impact of ‘Le Chant des Partisans’, in particular the song’s role after the war, see Raskin (1991). Various versions of the song are available online; iTunes classifies the lyrics, by Joseph Kessel and Maurice Drouon, as ‘explicit’. French rappers Ruffneck Smala and the Toulouse rock group Zebda have both performed the song in recent years, showing its continuing power and resonance.

  665 Nal (1975), p. 83.

  666 For details of the Milice in Grenoble and the surrounding region, including first-hand accounts of why people joined, see Chanal (1982). The fury of the Milice may have been partly due to the fact that Grenoble was the scene of many operations by Liberté, a group of Jewish partisans that regularly claimed responsibility for attacks on factories and power supplies (Ravine, 1973, pp. 252–63).

  667 The anti-fascist soldier was called Kospiski; he escaped and joined the maquis, but was eventually killed during fighting in August 1944.

  668 Noguères & Degliame-Fouché (1976), pp. 116–7; Vistel (1970), pp. 352–6; Nal (1975); Fortrat (1945); Frenay (1976), p. 329.

  669 Défense de la France 44 (15 March 1944) in Granet (1961), p.
247.

  670 The local paper reported: ‘35 young people recently took part in training sessions for cadres of the charity “Effort et Joie”. Their aim was to spread the practice of camping and life in the open air . . . For over a week these youngsters carried out intensive physical training. Eventually, our young sportsmen put on their rucksacks and returned to the capital, determined to return to their task the next fine day.’ Wetterwald (1946), p. 120.

  671 Jacquemin (1985). Jacquemin’s description is available at: http://chantran.vengeance.free.fr/Doc/Jacquemin%2014.pdf (accessed August 2008).

  672 Baynac (2007) has argued that, shortly before Moulin died, he was in negotiations with the Americans and wanted to ‘go over’ to the US. The evidence that Baynac has assembled is thin at best and tendentious at worst, and the meaning he puts on it is not generally accepted.

  673 In reality the Central Committee was not able to impose its authority over either the Armée Secrète or the maquis, and what little influence it had slowly oozed away over the following nine months. There are several accounts of this complex organizational struggle at the highest level of the Parisian Resistance. See, for example, Hostache (1958), pp. 216–9 and 389–404; Hostache (1976), the interventions that followed, and Hostache’s reply (pp. 415–32); Crémieux-Brilhac (2001), pp. 1103–37.

  674 Piketty (1998), pp. 318–9.

  675 Bollaert had been proposed by Brossolette, who had been passed over by de Gaulle when there were discussions about who should succeed Moulin at the head of the CNR. Before the war, Emile Bollaert had been a Prefect, in 1942 de Gaule appointed him the future Prefect of Paris. Brossolette may have felt he could influence Bollaert by acting as a kind of mentor to him (Piketty, 1998, p. 311).

  676 See Marshall & Yeo-Thomas (1955) and Seaman (1997).

  677 Bourdet (1975), p. 233.

  678 Seaman (1997), pp. 98 and 99.

  679 Seaman (1997), p. 99.