European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

This happened in less than a month.

The Nazis crossed the French border on May 10th, 1940 and on June 10th they were in Paris.

Everybody was scared and tried to leave.

We did not understand how in this country of freedom,

where we had everything we wanted, self-sufficient country

(its agriculture and its industry), suddenly nothing was left.

Ration tickets,

we were hungry, cold.

So we felt the need to explain to the people why we were in this situation.

With this group of young people we were able to assemble, those who had stayed in Nanterre or had come back,

we produced posters with a children’s printing set. We then pasted them onto the walls.

They would say: “Out With the Invaders.”

When we were able to get a duplicator, we started producing leaflets.

The resistance started to organize itself.

We were in touch with other comrades on a higher level and created the Patriotic Youths Union.

We had no weapons at the time, as in Paris we were not able to benefit from the Allie’s parachuting.

In Paris, contrary to the rest of the country,

the Germans had demanded that everyone hand over their weapons to the French police, even their hunting rifles.

Without weapons our main activity consisted in explaining

to the people what had happened and why we were now in this situation.