European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

Therefore we started producing the leaflets.

Nowadays that may seem relatively banal.

In Nanterre, several resistance groups were slowly forming.

We were the youngsters of the Communist Youth Movement,

but we were separated from the adults in the Communist Party for safety reasons.

Some of them were arrested while distributing the leaflets. They were sentenced.

Two women were both deported. One of them died during the deportation.

I tell you this to explain that distributing these flyers or newspapers at the time was risking your life.

Concerning the male resistant fighters, there were more than 15 arrests.

We had not internalized the importance of organizing ourselves in the underground yet. Everyone knew each other.

Nine of them were shot and the other eight died during the deportation to Auschwitz.

Political activities 

During the elections of 1935, the reactionary government of Nanterre

had been replaced by a communist government.

During the electoral campaign, there were always meetings in the various neighborhoods.

These meetings were called “Le compte rendu des mandats”. My father often took me along.