(1922–1943)
Simon Frid was born in 1922 in Tuszyn, Poland. His parents fled poverty and anti-Semitism and emigrated to France in 1937.
The Frid family moved to Paris and worked in the garment industry. Their father, Jenkel, died at the start of the war.
In 1940, Simon enlisted in the Polish army in France; then, in 1941, he was detained at the Pithiviers transit camp , where foreign Jews were interned, but he managed to escape.
In 1942, he left for Lyon to join his sisters.
His mother, Ruchla Frid, was arrested during the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundup, interned at Drancy, and then deported to Auschwitz on July 29, 1942, on Convoy No. 12.
Simon Frid joined one of the very first groups of young Jews in Lyon; in October 1942, through his brother-in-law, Nathan Chapochnik (known as Francis), he made contact with a member of the Resistance who was a leader in the FTP-M.O.I. of the Carmagnole Battalion in Lyon.
Young Simon became the technical officer of this battalion; he took part in military operations, stored explosives at his home—some of which he had obtained from miners and quarry workers in the Isère region—and also built homemade bombs.
On May 29, 1943, during a mission to obtain food ration cards (essential to the survival of the Resistance fighters) that went awry, Simon Frid was arrested; he was carrying two pistols and a fake ID card.
On November 23, 1943, he was sentenced to death by the Special Division of the Lyon Court of Appeals for “attempted murder of law enforcement officers in the line of duty and attempted murder of private citizens.”
On December 4, at the age of 19, he was guillotined in the courtyard of Saint-Paul Prison in Lyon.
The president of the Special Section, Faure-Pinguely, who was responsible for his conviction, was executed by Simon Frid’s FTP-M.O.I. comrades a week later, on December 12, 1943. His death was avenged.
An FTP-M.O.I. detachment from Lyon is named after Simon Frid.
The commemorative plaques at Saint-Paul Prison mention the name of Simon Frid, and a street in Lyon’s 8th arrondissement is named after him.
References:
— Collin Claude, 1998, *Jeune Combat: Young Jews in the Resistance*. Published by Presses universitaires de Grenoble.
— Le Maitron: Jean-Pierre Besse, Jean-Sébastien Chorin, Michel Thébault.
— Annette Wieviorka, 1986, *They Were Jews, Resistance Fighters, Communists*. Ed. Denoël.
— Photo: private collection (DR)
