THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Clair, Louis
They Died For Freedom Of The Press By LOUIS CLAIR WE think of the newspaperman as quietly sitting behind a desk, observing, describing, and fighting with no stronger weapons than the typewriter...
...After having endured this torture 3 times consecutively, Marc Bloch died in prison...
...We read in an editorial of Lyon Libre of November 1944, written by one of the closest friends of the 3 martyrs: "We sometimes ask ourselves whether your death was not too high a price for our victory of which so many mediocrities now take advantage...
...HENRI MAZUIR joined one of the Resistance groups early in 1943...
...He bought 2 printing presses and rented an abandoned house...
...ANDRE BOLLIER, an engineer, member of the Resistance organization Combat: from July, 1943, to mid-June, 1944, he was national propaganda chief for the organization...
...Bollier mastered all difficulties...
...Many of today's newspapers have the same names which they carried Underground: Combat, Franco-Tireur, Action, and Defense de la France can now be bought at every newsstand...
...I want to speak of 3 martyrs of the French Underground press—3 of those who died so that others might know the truth...
...The entire South of France was supplied from the little villa in Lyons...
...When every house is watched...
...when every town is shut off from the neighboring city by a tight set of controls...
...But there were hundreds of them...
...Weeks went by until a convenient house could be found, more weeks to transport printing machines under the very eyes of the Gestapo and of Petain's Militia agents...
...People must know before they can act...
...This is how 3 men of the Resistance press died...
...Railway employes often were helpful, but they did not always know when the rounds were expected to pass...
...And yet, theirs was not a vain fight...
...He elaborated plans for the France of the future, the France that again will be free...
...He was tortured for days, but did not divulge any secret...
...They wanted the addresses and names of the members of the Central Council of Resistance: Bloch was tortured in the most sadistic way...
...Yet, has the spirit that sustained the Underground press been preserved...
...Finally, the machines began to run...
...A revolver shot put an end to his life...
...There is many a fight ahead, many a battle to be waged...
...Truth must become militant...
...28, 1943, he was arrested in the printshop...
...For 5 months he rode on his railroad trains with death as a silent, ever-present companion...
...In June of the same year he was entrusted with the mission of spreading the local issue of Franc-Tireur in the Rhone region...
...One day Bollier was arrested in the streets...
...And maybe truth will again have to go underground...
...On June 17, 1944, 250 Nazi SS—and Militia—men stopped in trucks in front of the house in the Rue Viala...
...when every stationery store is supposed to report immediately the purchase of an unusual quantity of paper or printer's ink...
...But the Gestapo did not know the location of his printshop...
...Hundreds died the martyr's death so that the people of France should know the truth...
...He worked in the printshop and transported the papers in large suitcases by train to the more distant towns...
...He was wounded...
...All over the country, men and women eagerly devoured these little, badly printed sheets, since the official press was read only— if at all—for news on rationing and food distribution...
...The little house in the dark alley of Lyons has become peaceful—instead the presses on Main Street are bustling...
...On Dec...
...On Oct...
...Ordinary sheets are put out in ordinary printshops...
...He was one of the key writers for the Cahiers Politiques and the Revue Libre, the 2 main theoretical magazines of the Resistance movement...
...I want to speak of a few men who took up this brave fight...
...But in many cases such information was lacking, and the man entrusted with the transport just hoped for good luck...
...Three men...
...Five main Resistance papers were printed here: Combat, Franc-Tireur, Action, Defense de la France, La Marseillaise...
...Then he was revived and pressed for information...
...Bollier tried to escape...
...His torturers did not succeed in obtaining any information from him...
...He covered the walls of the cellar with cork to quench the noise...
...From this dark cellar, 2 trusted collaborators managed to circulate monthly 1,500,000 copies of newspapers and leaflets...
...They Died For Freedom Of The Press By LOUIS CLAIR WE think of the newspaperman as quietly sitting behind a desk, observing, describing, and fighting with no stronger weapons than the typewriter and the blue pencil...
...Those who fought in the Resistance realize that there still is a long road until the goals which they had set themselves in their Underground fight will be realized...
...How could one evade the police patrols not only on the trains but at all stations, where they controlled in and outgoing traffic...
...When freedom is suppressed, when the Gestapo reigns over the land, to tell the unfettered truth becomes a vital function, to combat the influence of the paid press agents an essential task, a dangerous but indispensable mission...
...MARC BLOCH, one of the greatest modern historians, was active writing for the Underground press...
...So, the impossible was done...
...Charles De Gaulle, who was hailed as liberator during the Vichy days, now wields power to censor the new press, and he makes use of this power...
...Not a single member of the Resistance was endangered through his arrest...
...when, in spite of public hostility to the invader, the Gestapo always finds new informers —under such conditions the attempt to print a paper would seem suicidal...
...His aim: to establish a secret printshop right in the center of the "Capital of the Resistance," Lyons...
...France is free again...
...And yet, for 5 months Mazuir circulated his copies in the assigned area...
...The Resistance press was born...
...Early in March, 1944, the Gestapo that searched for him for a long time, succeeded in arresting him...
...But the Frenchmen who opposed Nazi oppression realized from the outset that a free press is the necessary condition for any effective mass resistance...
...The Resistance movement had informers among the Vichy police service and thus often knew the hours at which control was relaxed...
...Then the printshop was denounced to the Gestapo...
...But during this war, the European publicist had to become an active fighter if he was to remain true to his calling...
...Three times he was submitted to one of the most dreadful of all tortures, the so-called "bath": with arms and legs tied, he was put into ice-cold water and kept under water until he lost consciousness and was nearly drowned...
...21 he was shot...
...Through him it hoped to uncover the central organization of the Resistance...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 20
