The Departmental Liberation Committees (CDL) were clandestine organizations established as early as 1943 under the authority of General de Gaulle. These CDLs represented all political factions of the Resistance within their respective departments.
In 1943, General de Gaulle established the Departmental Liberation Committees (CDL), which were formalized on April 21, 1944, by an ordinance of the French National Liberation Committee.
The goal is to establish organizations of civil Resistance alongside a military structure, the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).
The CDLs are the departmental-level representatives of the National Council of the Resistance. They are supported by numerous local committees.
Operating in secret, the CDLs are tasked with paving the way for a swift return to republican rule:
- to help the Resistance fighters
- prepare for the liberation of the territory, in particular by purging and reorganizing the country’s administration, which had been corrupted by the Vichy regime’s collaborationist influence.
- become collaborators with the authorities after the Liberation.
All factions of the Resistance were represented in the CDLs, from the Republican right to the Communists (including the FTP), but the PCF dominated many of the committees, particularly the Paris Liberation Committee (CPL), led by André Tollet. The Committee’s newspaper, *Le Patriote parisien*, published three underground issues from March to June 1944.
In July 1944, there were forty Local Liberation Committees (CLL) in Paris. The Paris Committee played a very important role in the liberation of the capital from August 19 to 25, 1944. It then set about drawing up new voter rolls for the municipal elections in April 1945, but the unity forged while operating underground struggled to hold.
Far-reaching government reform could not be carried out. Once the war ended, the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), led by Charles de Gaulle, reduced the CDLs to an advisory role. The CPL would henceforth be limited to commemorative activities.
Reference:
Charles Riondet, 2017, *The Paris Liberation Committee: 1943–1945*. Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
