European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Even those who hadn’t done anything or maybe taken advantage of the situation now called themselves resistance fighters.

It was a huge joy to have liberated France, even though it wasn’t quite over.

Alsace-Lorraine was still occupied; there was still the submarine basis in the enclave of La Rochelle.

But really it was liberation.

We had the satisfaction of saying that we had won.

Not all of the comrades that had been in the group with us joined the army afterwards.

But we had committed ourselves through the entire war.

I continued because I wanted to avenge Louis. At his funeral we had sworn that we would avenge him.

That meant to fight the Nazis until the end.

Preparation of the Liberation day

Louis Meunier and I were very close. I was also very close to his family.

We knew each other from the times of the Communist Youth Movement.

Our group did not only consist of young communists, but of young Catholics as well,

or of people that hadn’t been affiliated to any group.

His death affected me enormously.

The day he was arrested by the Nazis, along with his father, we had separated just a quarter of an hour earlier.

The collaborating government, the mayor of the municipality, had already been arrested by the resistance

and we were supposed to organize the take-over of the City Hall

and the establishment of the Liberation Committee for the following day.

This all happened on August 20th 1944. The Germans were still in Nanterre.