History
Counterpropaganda such as leaflets, broadsheets (such as the first pages of the ), brochures, posters, and clandestine newspapers began to appear in France. In September 1941, German police in Paris reported discovering leaflets written in German and co-signed by the Communist Parties of Germany (KPD) and Austria (KPÖ). On 10 July 1942, General Karl Oberg posted a notice in every town hall in the Occupied zone announcing penalties applicable to the families of anyone convicted of disseminating propaganda against theCensorship and repression
Censorship in France was the enemy of the underground press during the Second World War. Under the German occupation and the laws of thePrinting and distribution methods
In the face of repression, underground newspapers faced many problems with supplies. Paper, ink and typewriters were scarce, expensive and their sale was meticulously controlled. Printing centres were also few and far between and were used for propaganda newspapers. The first clandestine newspapers were therefore handwritten with very few copies. However, two processes were useful for clandestine production: the "roneo"''Radio Londres'' and the underground press
After the Fall of France in 1940, theCalling for resistance
The content of clandestine newspapers focused exclusively on the motivations and nature of the Resistance struggle, and why it was necessary. The duty to act is clearly stated in the first issue of '' Libération'' of July 1941 which stated that the newspaper per se is an action and that the situation can only be changed "by action and through action". '' Combat'' followed it by giving in January 1942 "guidelines for action". There was only one cause common to all underground newspapers: to appeal to as many French people as possible to join the fight against the occupier, to "chase away the invader" as ''Libération'' wrote in August 1941, with the aim of liberating French territory. The first form of action targeted by the underground press was the call to read and circulate copies of the clandestine press. It also encouraged the reader to become a distributor. It was a form of "combat through words", as ''Combat'' wrote in December 1941. The situation at the time only allowed for resistance via verbal struggle. "We will take part in the crushing of Germany, even at the risk of our own lives," wrote the August 1941 issue of ' The clandestine press worked to counter the ideas of theTop-circulation titles
''Combat''
The ("Little Wings") appeared in the''Défense de la France''
A few Parisian students decided to found a clandestine newspaper to denounce the occupation of France. Benefiting from the support of industrialists and printers, the young Resistance fighters managed to produce an increasingly professional newspaper which ended up having the highest circulation of any underground paper as of January 1944. The first issues were printed on a Rotaprint''Le Franc-Tireur''
''Birth of the movement
The initiators of the movement met at home or during card games at the Café . The first members were Antoine Avinin, member of the Young Republic League political party and left-wing Catholic, , former city councillor, , and , former communists turned radicals. They and a few others got together at the end of November 1940 and founded a movement they called "" whose mission was to fight against government propaganda and to mobilize against defeat and the authoritarian order which was taking hold. The group began by writing leaflets against the Nazis and Pétain, which were limited to small numbers of hand-typed copies due to lack of funds.Birth of the paper
The group had its first wave of success with the arrival of Jean-Pierre Lévy, an Alsatian refugee who brought a ronéo in the spring of 1941 and launched the idea of expanding its influence by publishing a real newspaper. With the support of the printer , 6000 copies of the first issue were published in December 1941. They were printed on four pages of 21 x 27.5 cm (8 1/2 x 11 inch) format. The title "Franc-Tireur" is an allusion to the groups of volunteers who formed outside the normal military framework to defend their country and the Republic in the Franco-Prussian War. The tone of articles was humorous (the newspaper's ironic subtitle was, "monthly as far as possible, and by the grace of the Marshal's Police". then "monthly in spite of the Gestapo and the Vichy police" and took an offensive tone against the Marshal and the Germans. The main themes were opposition to the new order and the occupying Germans, denunciation of their misdeeds, and the call to resistance by all people of good will. Issue number one ended with the words, "There is only one task: to resist, to organize.".''L'Humanité''
On 27 August 1939, the Édouard Daladier government banned publication of ''L'Humanité'' after it approved the German-Soviet Pact. ''L'Humanité'' then appeared clandestinely for five years (383 issues of 200,000 copies) and refrained from attacking the Germans until August 1940. Many of its journalists and manufacturing staff perished in the struggle against the Nazi occupier, such as Gabriel Péri (responsible for an international column, shot on 15 December 1941 at theNational Front publications
The National Front published numerous national and local clandestine newspapers and flyers. From the spring of 1943 to the Liberation, 79 publications were published. In 1944-1945 they published, according to an internal''Libération''
The underground paper was the voice of the Resistance movement Libération-Sud. It was launched in July 1941 by''Témoignage chrétien''
On 16 November 1941 in Lyon, Jesuit priest Father''La Vie ouvrière''
Prohibited from publication in 1939, reappeared as an underground paper in February 1940. In the early days of the occupation,Other titles
Others include ', which published 20 issues of two- to three hundred copies, the first eight of which were under the name . It stopped publishing early in 1941.. The underground paper ' was published inFiction publishing
A small number of underground presses were also active in printing illegal books and works of literature. The most notable example of this was ''See also
* Brazzaville Conference *References
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* .External links
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