National Council of the Resistance
The National Council of the Resistance directed and coordinated the different movements of the French Resistance during World War II: the press, trade unions and political parties hostile to the Vichy regime, starting from mid-1943.
Members of the CNR after the Liberation of Paris, September 1944. From left to right: Jacques Debû-Bridel (FR), Pierre Villon (FN), Gaston Tessier (CFTC), Robert Chambeiron (deputy secretary-general), Pascal Copeau (Libération-Sud), Joseph Laniel (AD), Jacques Lecomte-Boinet (CDLR), Georges Bidault (president), André Mutter, Henri Ribière (Libération-Nord), Daniel Mayer (SFIO), Jean-Pierre Lévy (Franc-Tireur), Paul Bastid (PR), Auguste Gillot (PCF), Pierre Meunier (secretary-general) and
Charles de Gaulle, circa 1942
Drawing of Jean Moulin based on iconic photo with hat and scarf, cross of Lorraine in background
The French Resistance was a collection of groups that fought the Nazi occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime in France during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. They also provided first-hand intelligence information, and escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind Axis lines. The Resistance's men and women came from many parts of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, liberals, anarchists, communists, and some fascists. The proportion of French people who participated in organized resistance has been estimated at from one to three percent of the total population.
French milice and resisters, July 1944
The cemetery and memorial in Vassieux-en-Vercors where, in July 1944, German Wehrmacht forces executed more than 200 people, in reprisal for the Maquis's armed resistance. The town was later awarded the Ordre de la Libération.
Identity document of French Resistance fighter Lucien Pélissou
The ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane, in the Limousin region of the Massif Central