European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

That was the structure of the clandestine organization of the Communist Party, which then applied to the French snipers and partisans.

We structured ourselves by regions and sectors.

The regions were numbered (I was in region 7) and then there were the sectors.

Our sector comprised three or four municipalities around Nanterre.

One of our comrades had a big garage at his parent’s house.

There was a little pavilion where we installed our material.

With our manual duplicator, we produced leaflets.

Our leaders gave us these announcements for resistance and we had to reproduce leaflets and distribute them.

We usually did that at night, which was very dangerous

because there was a curfew from 22h00 until 6h00 in the morning.

One was only allowed outside with an Ausweis (pass) issued by the police or by the Germans.

It’s strange when you think about it: nowadays our mailboxes are filled with advertisement,

in those days we were risking our lives, risking being arrested, beaten and tortured.

Many were used as hostages and shot. That was the case of the comrades, who I talked about before.

They were simply shot as hostages after an event of the resistance.

Those who say they were not afraid during that time, are either dumb or liars.

Or they didn’t do anything.

As soon as you were active in the resistance, there was always the danger of being arrested, with all the consequences.

Our police headquarters’ expertise was beating the foot soles of the people they arrested.

Asked about day to day life, we answer that the whole French population,