The National Council of the Resistance (French : Conseil National de la Résistance; CNR; also, National Resistance Council) 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.
Various resistance movements had arisen in France since the start of the German occupation in June 1940. With the possible exception of the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans and other groups loyal to the Communist Party of France, the maquis groups were mostly unorganised and unrelated to one another. This lack of coordination made them less effective in their actions against the Nazi occupiers.
Charles de Gaulle, exiled in London and recognized by the UK as leader of Free France, began forming a committee to unify the resistance movements. On 1 January 1942 he delegated this task to Jean Moulin. Moulin achieved the feat on 27 May 1943 with the first meeting of the Conseil National de la Résistance in the apartment of René Corbin on the second floor of 48, Rue du Four, in Paris.
Aside from Moulin and his two assistants, Pierre Meunier [ fr ] and Robert Chambeiron , representatives of the eight main French resistance movements, members of six of France's major political parties and the two large pre-war trade unions all attended the Rue du Four meeting.
Representatives of the eight major resistance movements:
Under Jean Moulin's earlier influence, Combat, Franc-Tireur and Libération-Sud had already agreed to regroup themselves in January 1943 to create the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, with their joint military arms forming the Armée secrète (Secret Army).
Representatives of the two trade unions which had been outlawed with the creation of the Labour Charter of the 4th of October: [1]
Representatives of the six main political parties of the French Third Republic:
However, shortly after the CNR's creation, its president Jean Moulin was arrested at Caluire by the SS. Over the next three days, Moulin was tortured by Klaus Barbie himself, and died during his transfer to Germany. He divulged no information to his torturers and his silence likely allowed the CNR to pursue its activities.
After Moulin's capture and death, the Conseil National de la Résistance decided for security reasons to end its plenary sessions and created an executive office of five members, with each member representing his own group and two others. The new office was under the direction of Alexandre Parodi, delegate-general, and Georges Bidault, the new president. On 9 September 1944 Louis Saillant succeeded Bidault as head of the CNR.
On 15 March 1944 the CNR adopted, after months of negotiations, the Programme of the Conseil National de la Résistance. [2] The document was strongly influenced by communist groups like the Front National , especially in part II, "Measures to be taken immediately after the liberation of the territory", which envisioned the establishment of a social democracy with a planned economy in France after liberation. Some of the proposed measures were applied, at least to a certain extent, after liberation, including the nationalisation of energy (Électricité de France was founded in 1946), insurance companies (AGF in 1945) and banks (Crédit Lyonnais in 1945, Société Générale in 1946), the creation of social security programs and the independence of trade unions. They are many of the so-called acquis sociaux (social rights) of the second half of the 20th century in France.
The Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters, called maquisards, during World War II. Initially, they were composed of young, mostly working-class, men who had escaped into the mountains and woods to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire which provided forced labor for Germany. To avoid capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups.
Jean Pierre Moulin was a French civil servant and resistant who succeeded in unifying the main networks of the French Resistance in World War II, a unique act in Europe. He served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months later.
Henri Frenay Sandoval was a French military officer and French Resistance member, who served as minister of prisoners, refugees and deportees in Charles de Gaulle's Provisional Government of the French Republic.
The National Front for an Independent France, better known simply as National Front was a World War II French Resistance movement created to unite all of the resistance organizations together to fight the Nazi occupation forces and Vichy France under Marshall Pétain.
Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie was a French journalist, politician and member of the French Resistance.
Combat was a large movement in the French Resistance created in the non-occupied zone of France during the World War II (1939–1945).
The Provisional Government of the French Republic was the provisional government of Free France between 3 June 1944 and 27 October 1946, following the liberation of continental France after Operations Overlord and Dragoon, and lasting until the establishment of the French Fourth Republic. Its establishment marked the official restoration and re-establishment of a provisional French Republic, assuring continuity with the defunct French Third Republic.
Tripartisme was the mode of government in France from 1944 to 1947, when the country was ruled by a three-party alliance of communists, socialists and Christian democrats, represented by the French Communist Party (PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Popular Republican Movement (MRP), respectively. The official charter of tripartisme was signed on 23 January 1946, following the resignation of Charles de Gaulle, who opposed the draft of the constitution. The draft envisioned a parliamentary system, whereas de Gaulle favored a presidential system.
Libération-sud was a resistance group active between 1940-1944 and created in the Free Zone of France during the Second World War in order to fight against the Nazi occupation through coordinated sabotage and propaganda operations.
Ceux de la Libération was a French resistance movement during the German occupation of France in World War II.
The armée secrète was a French military organization active during World War II. The collective grouped the paramilitary formations of the three most important Gaullist resistance movements in the southern zone.
Mouvements unis de la Résistance was a French Resistance organisation, resulting from the consolidation of three major Resistance movements in January 1943 and also the merger of the military arms of these movements within the Armée secrète. Its committee was headed by Jean Moulin. These three then merged with five other major movements to form the Conseil National de la Résistance.
Franc-Tireur was a French Resistance movement of centrist political orientation and the smallest of the three founding member-organisations of the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance in 1943.
Noyautage des administrations publiques, also known by the abbreviation NAP, was an arm of the French Resistance, started by André Plaisantin of the Combat movement, with the aim of infiltrating the Vichy Government. It was started in 1942 on a suggestion from Claude Bourdet to Jean Moulin.
André Charles Adrien Tollet was a French upholsterer, trade unionist and communist. He played a central role as chairman of the Paris liberation committee in the days leading up to the Liberation of Paris in 1944.
Maxime Blocq-Mascart was a French banker, economist and lobbyist who became a leader of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45). He had antisemitic sympathies. He headed the conservative Organisation civile et militaire (OCM) in the later part of the war. After the war he was involved in various organizations to assist resistance members and families who had been disrupted by deportations. He supported eugenic approaches to revive the falling birthrate. He was a Conseller d'Etat from 1951 to 1962.
The clandestine press of the French Resistance was collectively responsible for printing flyers, broadsheets, newspapers, and even books in secret in France during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. The secret press was used to disseminate the ideas of the French Resistance in cooperation with the Free French, and played an important role in the liberation of France and in the history of French journalism, particularly during the 1944 Freedom of the Press Ordinances.
Antoine Louis Avinin [aliases Albert Arnaud, Albert Anceau, Albert Audin, Talbert] was a French businessman, resistance fighter and politician.
Jean-Pierre Lévy was a French Jewish industrialist and Second World War resistance leader. He worked in the textile industry before being called up as a reserve officer ahead of the war. After the fall of France Lévy joined the resistance and in 1941 co-founded the Franc-Tireur movement. He led the organisation and edited its newspaper. After meeting with Jean Moulin he agreed to help co-ordinate resistance movements in France and went on to join the directorate of the Mouvements unis de la Résistance (MUR). Lévy left France in April 1943 to meet resistance leaders and Charles de Gaulle in London and Algiers. He returned in July and was arrested in October. Lévy was freed by a MUR raid and joined the National Council of the Resistance. He was present at the August 1944 liberation of Paris.
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