("Liberation-North") was one of the principal resistance movements in the northern occupied zone of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

during the

Second World War 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 one of the eight great networks making up the National Council of the Resistance.

History

Initially an underground newspaper, from December 1940 to November 1941 Libération-Nord was transformed into a resistance movement. Aiming to express the secret movements of the non-communist unions among the

Confédération générale du travail The General Confederation of Labour (, , CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is the largest in terms of votes in the Labour C ...

the

Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens The French Confederation of Christian Workers (; CFTC) is one of the five major France, French confederation of trade unions, belonging to the Christian socialism, social Christian tradition. It was founded in 1919 as the Trade Union of Employe ...

and the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO), Libération-Nord was formed around

Christian Pineau Christian Pineau (; 14 October 1904 – 5 April 1995) was a noted French Resistance fighter, who later served an important term as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1956 through 1958. Life and career Pineau was born in 1904 in Chaumont-en-Bass ...

and the team of the ''Manifeste des douze''. The movement was not entirely

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

but the leadership was socialist. In 1942, two resistance networks were created from within Libération-Nord under the command of the Bureau central de renseignements et d'action: * Phalanx in the ''zone Sud'', created by Christian Pineau * Cohors-Asturies in the ''zone Nord''. In early 1943 Libération-Nord began to organise armed groups under the impetus of

Jean Cavaillès Jean Cavaillès (; ; 15 May 1903 – 4 April 1944) was a French philosopher and logician who specialized in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science. He took part in the French Resistance within the '' Libération'' movement and was a ...

and Colonel Zarapoff. Represented at the National Council of the Resistance, where he exerted the influence of the underground SFIO, the movement withheld its participation from the

Mouvements unis de la Résistance The Communist Party of Belgium (, , abbr. PCB) is a communist party in Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is border ...

in December 1943. With the instar of the

Organisation civile et militaire The ''Organisation civile et militaire'' (OCM, "Civil and military organization") was one of the great movements of the French Resistance in the '' zone occupée'', the German-occupied region of northern France, during the Second World War. The O ...

, Libération-Nord failed to create a great workers' party with its origins in the resistance.

Principal members

* Pierre Boursicot * Jean Aimé Caillau *

* Michel Collinet * Jean-Baptiste Daviais *

Paul Rassinier Paul Rassinier (18 March 1906 – 28 July 1967) was a French political activist and writer who is viewed as "the father of Holocaust denial". Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert; Jacobs, Steven L. "Rassinier, Paul", ''Dictionary of Genoci ...

* Jean Gosset * René Iché * Marcel Mérigonde *

* Yves Rocard * Louis Saillant * François Tanguy-Prigent * Colonel Zarapoff

Bibliography

* Alya Aglan, ''La Résistance sacrifiée. Le mouvement Libération-Nord'', Flammarion, 1999 (), nouvelle édition, « Champs », 2006. * Christian Pineau, ''La Simple Vérité. Regard sur la période 1940-1945'', Juillard, 1960 * Marc Sadoun, ''Les Socialistes sous l'Occupation'', Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1982 ()

History

Principal members

Bibliography

See also