There were many important figures involved in the resistance. Here are a select few from the resistance movement in Toulouse and in other areas. In Toulouse there were many key figures. Information on every resistor mentioned is hard to find therefore only a few have been mentioned. There were important figures in Toulouse but there were also many like De Gaulle for example who urgere.d the resistance from else where.

Key Figures

Charles de Gaulle

‘Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not and shall not die.’

Extract from De Gaulle’s radiobroadcast 18^th June 1940

 After the outbreak of the Second World War, de Gaulle was given command of various French offences during the war. He achieved various successes and was the only commanding officer that was able to make the Germans retreat during their invasion of France. In June 1940, Paul Reynaud, the French prime minister, appointed him as minister of war. On 16^th June Henri-Philippe Petain had overthrown Reynaud in order to create a government who would comply with the Nazis. De Gaulle, fearing for his life fled to England where on 18^th June 1940, he made a radio broadcast appealing to the French to continue their resistance against German invasion. He played a key role in appealing to those who wished to resist and helped kick start the resistance movement.

   After the overthrowing of Reynaud, the U.S. president Franklin .D. Roosevelt recognised the Vichy regime of Petain as being the French Government whereas Great Britain’s Winston Churchill refused to do so, claiming that de Gaulle was the leader of ‘liberated France’. As a result of de Gaulle’s actions, a court martial in Toulouse sentenced him in absentia to four years in prison. A second court martial sentenced him to death. 

   De Gaulle also emphasized the importance of unifying the separate resistance movements however these attempts were greatly dented after the arrests of two key figureheads in French liberation movements-Jean Moulin and Charles Delestraint in 1943. De Gaulle also created a provisional government on 26^th May 1944 that helped to create a sense of resistance in the liberated areas of France.  

 Marie Louise Dissard

  Marie-Louise was born in Toulouse and when France surrendered to Germany she joined the French Resistance. She worked under the orders of a British army officer with and her movement was based in the south. Dissard became the leader of this network after various important figureheads of the movement were arrested. Marie Louise was born in 1880 and due to the fact that she was an elderly woman, the Gestapo did not expect her as being a member of the Resistance. This enabled her to travel around France in order to meet up with allied airmen and escort them to the Pyrenees where they would be escorted back to safety. Dissard had to work in hiding after a member of the Gestapo found her name on in a notebook of a captured airman. Marie Louise Dissard helped to transport around 250 airmen to safety during the resistance, and after the war she was awarder the American Medal of freedom for her efforts. 

Francois Mitterrand

  In 1940 Mitterrand became a member of the French army however he became injured during an offensive and was captured by the Germans. After having escaped in 1941. As a follower of Petain’s Vichy regime, he was given a post of documentation service by the government. By 1943 however, he had left his post with the Vichy regime due to the fact that he disagreed with the decision of deporting French workers to Germany. After severing ties with the government, Mitterrand joined up with the French resistance movement known as the Organization of Armed Resistance (ORA).

   When he met de Gaulle in London in 1943, de Gaulle put him in charge of unifying the resistance movements representing former soldiers. In February on his return from England, he became head of a movement that was in charge of returning French prisoners and deportees who were still in Germany, back to France.

Jean Moulin

     Jean Moulin began to develop left-wing views during his experience in the Spanish civil war. Moulin was imprisoned in 1940 after the creation of the Vichy regime because he refused to co-operate with the German army. Moulin was then released from prison after attempting to kill himself. From late 1940 he began meeting people who wished to drive the German Army out of France. He met with such people as Henry Frenay who created the Combat group, one of the most important early resistance groups. In September 1941 he met up with various exiled French leaders in London in including de Gaulle. During his visit, Moulin showed these figures a report that was called ‘The Activities, Plans and Requirements of the Groups Formed in France’. Charles de Gaulle was impressed with the knowledge that Moulin showed on the situation in France therefore he believed that Moulin should become the leader of the resistance from within France.

   On 1^st of January 1942 Moulin parachuted his way back into France and brought with him substantial sums of money in order to help set up the underground press. His main aim after arriving back in France was to unite various different resistance movements. After having persuaded around eight different groups to unite, he formed the ‘Conseil National de la Resistance’ (the National Resistance Council). On 7^th June 1943, an important member of French Resistance was captured by the Gestapo and was tortured. The Gestapo then obtained enough information to find Jean Moulin who died whilst being tortured on the 8^th July.

Pierre Villon

  Villon, a communist, went into hiding after the outbreak of the Second World War and formed the undercover newspaper l’Humanité. At first many communists were afraid to join any resistance movements due to the fact that the Communist party had been banned in France. After Hitlers invasion of France however, Villon called for people to resist, and was soon able to create a resistance group called the Front National. Pierre Villon and the Front National was one the eight groups who united under Moulins leadership and he remained loyal to this cause until France became liberated. After the war he was appointed to the central committee of the French communist party.

written by Michael and Sarah Grant