The Independent Front (, , FI; , , OF) was a left-wing faction of the
Belgian Resistance
The Belgian Resistance (, ) 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 Belgium, resistance was fragmented between many ...
in
German-occupied Belgium in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It was founded in March 1941 by Dr
Albert Marteaux of the
Communist Party of Belgium
The Communist Party of Belgium (, , KPB; , , PCB) was a political party in Belgium from 1921 to 1989. The youth wing of KPB/PCB was known as the Communist Youth of Belgium. The party published a newspaper known as ''Le Drapeau Rouge'' in French ...
, 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 far-right
Secret Army.
[
]
History
Activities
The FI established sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...
operations, escape routes and a false document 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'', a spoof version of the ''Le Soir
''Le Soir'' (, ) is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with '' La Libre Belgique'', it is one of the most popular Francophone newsp ...
'' 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".Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
.
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 or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...
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'' (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 ' (STO; ) was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany to work as Forced labor in Germany during World War II, forced labour for the German war effort during World War II.
The STO was ...
, 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'' (Free Wallonia),
* '' Comité de Défense des Juifs'' (CDJ, Committee for Jewish Defence)
* LOMO (, 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 1956antifascist
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 op ...
organisation created in Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
by communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
emigrÄ—s from Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frontdelindependance
1941 establishments in Belgium
World War II resistance movements
Belgian resistance groups
Communism in Belgium