European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

They searched them and found the revolver I had given to Louis Meunier.

He didn’t like weapons, but I gave him one, telling him he needed it to defend himself.

They found his FFI (Forces Françaises à l’Interieur – the French Forces inside the country which was the resistance) bracelet as well.

His family never blamed me, but I always wonder if things would have happened differently, had I not given him a revolver.

I am afraid so. It all had a big impact on me.

I would have been there with them had we not decided that I would meet the comrades to get the mayor.

That shows how thin the thread is life hangs on. Just a little bit of luck.

Going in the underground; Activities

One could be part of the resistance movement and have a normal occupation as well.

I worked in the Simca factory.

That was an Italian enterprise. The director, Mr.Picosi, was Italian.

They produced cars before the war. During the occupation, we were forced to produce axels for tanks.

We started sabotaging the machines during our work.

In the beginning of 1943, Hitler had begun to lose some battles.

He lost the battle of Stalingrad, the battle in Libya.

He had to mobilize his entire male population, having occupied almost whole Europe.

He had to keep his war machinery going.

An agreement was signed between the French Pétain-Laval government

and the German administration to create the so-called STO (Forced Labor).

In the beginning, they tried it with propaganda, saying that one worker going to work in Germany would liberate ten Prisoners of War.