The Independent Front (french: Front de l'Indépendance or FI; nl, Onafhankelijkheidsfront, OF) was a left-wing faction of the

Belgian Resistance The Belgian Resistance (french: Résistance belge, nl, Belgisch verzet) collectively refers to the resistance movements opposed to the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Within Be ...

in German-occupied Belgium in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was founded in March 1941 by Dr Albert Marteaux of the

Communist Party of Belgium french: Parti Communiste de Belgique , abbreviation = KPB-PCB , colorcode = , leader1_title = Historical leaders , leader1_name = Joseph JacquemotteJulien LahautLouis Van Geyt , founder = Julien Lahaut , founded = , dissolved = , merge ...

, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, another communist. The aim of the organisation was to unite Belgian resistance groups of all opinions and political leanings; nonetheless the only political party that was affiliated as such was the Communist Party. The FI operated a significant propaganda, social and paramilitary organization, in addition to its military and sabotage functions and operated in competition with the larger pro-government Secret Army.

History

Activities

The FI established

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

operations, escape routes and a

false document A false document is a technique by which an author aims to increase verisimilitude in a work of fiction by inventing and inserting or mentioning documents that appear to be factual. The goal of a false document is to convince an audience that what ...

service, and distributed 250 different underground publications. This essential part of the war, in the area of information, found a culmination of sorts in the publication by the ''Front'' on 9 November 1943 of ''

Faux Soir The "''Faux Soir''" was a spoof issue of the newspaper ''Le Soir'' published in German-occupied Belgium on 9 November 1943. It was produced by the Front de l'Indépendance, a faction in the Belgian Resistance, in a satirical style that ridiculed ...

'', a spoof version of the ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

'' newspaper circulated under the noses of the occupation authorities. The FI was highly active in preventing large numbers of Belgian men being forced to leave the country to work as forced labour in Germany. These 40,000 of these so-called "Réfractaires" were hidden by the FI's "Organisation Socrates". In February 1943, the FI sent the sociologist Victor Martin on a spying mission in Germany to search for reliable information about what happened to the Jews deported to Germany. He came back in May with the first reliable report on their fate, as well as with detailed information on the functioning of the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Affiliated groups

From the start, the ''Front de l'Indépendance'' was intended to act as a

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

to which other resistance groups could affiliate. By the end of the war, it had formed alliances with representatives of a large number of institutions, including: * ''

Partisans Armés The Armed Partisans (french: Partisans armés, or PA) was a faction of the Belgian Resistance, resistance in German occupation of Belgium during World War II, German-occupied Belgium in World War II. The group was affiliated to the Belgian Communi ...

'' (PA, Armed Partisans), * '' Milices Patriotiques'' (MP, Patriotic Militia), * ''Solidarité'' (Solidarity, founded in 1942 as the social service of the F.I. to help victims of the Nazi repression and their families, those who refused to go in Germany under the

Service du travail obligatoire The ' ( en, Compulsory Work Service; STO) was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany to work as forced labour for the German war effort during World War II. The STO was created under law ...

, foreign illegals etc.; the Belgian section of the Secours Rouge continued within this clandestine organization), * ''Comités de lutte syndicale'' (Committee for the Trade Union Fight) * ''

Wallonie Libre ''Wallonie libre'' ( French; literally "Free Wallonia") is a minor political party active in Wallonia in Belgium which originated as a group active within the resistance in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Affiliated with the Walloon ...

'' (Free Wallonia), * ''

Comité de Défense des Juifs The Committee for the Defence of Jews (french: Comité de Défense des Juifs, or CDJ; nl, Joods Verdedigingscomiteit, JVD) was a group within the Belgian Resistance, affiliated to the Front de l'Indépendance, founded by the Jewish Communist Her ...

'' (CDJ, Committee for Jewish Defence) * LOMO ( nl, Leraren Officieel Middelbaar Onderwijs, Middle school teachers of the public network in Flanders), whose leader Aloïs Gerlo (1915–1998) was an activist of the Communist Party between 1940 and 1956 * ''Front'', the underground newspaper * ''

Österreichische Freiheitsfront The ''Österreichische Freiheitsfront'' ( en, Austrian Freedom Front) was an antifascist organization created by Austrian and German communist refugees in Brussels and Paris during the Second World War occupation of Belgium and France by Nazi Germa ...

'' (Austrian Freedom Front), an

antifascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

organisation created in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

emigrės from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frontdelindependance 1941 establishments in Belgium World War II resistance movements Belgian resistance groups