François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand was a French politician and the President of France from 1981 to 1995,and the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party,he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.
Charles AndréJoseph Marie de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to restore democracy in France. In 1958 amid the Algerian War he came out of retirement when appointed Prime Minister by President RenéCoty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year,a position which he held until his resignation in 1969.
Jean Moulin was a French civil servant and resistant who succeeded in unifying the main networks of the French Resistance,a unique act in Europe. He served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months later.
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain,commonly known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain,was a general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France,from 1940 to 1944,during World War II.
Maxime Weygand was a French military commander in World War I and World War II,as well as a high ranking member of the Vichy regime.
Free France was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by General Charles de Gaulle,Free France was established as a government-in-exile in London in June 1940 after the Fall of France during World War II and fought the Axis as an Allied nation with its Free French Forces. Free France also supported the resistance in Nazi-occupied France,known as the French Forces of the Interior,as well as gained strategic footholds in several French colonies in Africa.
The Fifth Republic is France's current republican system of government. It was established on 4 October 1958 by Charles de Gaulle under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 to his death in 1974. He was earlier the longest-ever Prime Minister of France,under President Charles de Gaulle,from 1962 to 1968.
Henri HonoréGiraud was a French military officer who was a leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War until he was forced to retire in 1944.
RenéSamuel Cassin was a French jurist known for co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
The liberation of Paris was a military battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Armistice of 22 June 1940,after which the Luftwaffe occupied northern and western France.
Raymond Marcellin was a French politician.
Jacques Soustelle was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces,a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria,an anthropologist specializing in Pre-Columbian civilizations,and vice-director of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris in 1939. Soustelle and his followers opposed any compromise with anticolonial activists in Algeria in the Algerian War.
Tremblay-en-France is a commune in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris,France. It is located 19.5 km (12.1 mi) from the centre of Paris.
Gaston Palewski,a French politician,was a close associate of Charles de Gaulle during and after World War II. He is also remembered as the lover of the English novelist Nancy Mitford,and appears in a fictionalised form in two of her novels.
The French Committee of National Liberation was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership,organize and coordinate the campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II. The committee was formed on 3 June 1943 and after a period of joint leadership,on 9 November it came under the chairmanship of de Gaulle. The committee directly challenged the legitimacy of the Vichy regime and unified all the French forces that fought against the Nazis and collaborators. The committee functioned as a provisional government for Algeria and the liberated parts of the colonial empire. Later it evolved into the Provisional Government of the French Republic,under the premiership of Charles de Gaulle.
Alexandre Parodi [aliases Quartus and Cérat] was a French senior civil servant,a member of the French resistance,General de Gaulle's appointee in charge of the French provisional government during World War II,a politician,permanent representative to the United Nations and NATO and the first French ambassador to Morocco.
The Empire Defense Council was a deliberative body established within Free France in 1940. It was subsequently superseded by the French National Committee.
The French National Committee was the coordinating body created by General Charles de Gaulle which acted as the government in exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. The committee was the successor of the smaller Empire Defense Council.
The Provisional Consultative Assembly was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resistance movements,political parties,and territories that were engaged against Germany in the Second World War alongside the Allies.
