FTP-M.O.I. Groups

As early as March–April 1942, the French Communist Party established a highly organized armed Resistance force: the French Francs-Tireurs and Partisans, known as the FTPF or FTP. In the spring of 1942, groups of Francs-Tireurs and Partisans M.O.I., known as the FTP-M.O.I., were established in Paris under the military leadership of Boris Holban.

These highly trained M.O.I. groups originated from the Organisation Spéciale of the PCF. Among the FTP-M.O.I. resistance fighters were many veterans of the International Brigades, well-versed in the use of weapons in Spain and in living underground in their home countries. Alongside them, very young, inexperienced resistance fighters volunteered. The particularly harsh repression targeting Jews made them more quickly ready for combat.

Jews of immigrant origin were assigned to several detachments, but the second detachment was exclusively Jewish. A special team was formed from elite fighters for delicate operations (Jews were among its members).

Being a member of the FTP-M.O.I. meant living in hiding and devoting oneself full-time to military activities. Jewish FTP-M.O.I. members were taken in by the Jewish section of the M.O.I. and had to cut off all contact with their families. For them—both as resistance fighters and as Jews—the need to remain underground was twofold.

In France, the FTP-M.O.I. were key players in the armed struggle, which began with isolated, symbolic actions before evolving into full-scale urban guerrilla warfare or rural resistance movements in the provinces. Their military leaders are members of the FTP, and their political leaders are activists from the M.O.I.

These fighters’ direct attacks on military targets were decisive: enemy trains carrying military equipment were derailed, German command posts were set ablaze, weapons depots were devastated, military trucks were destroyed, and hotels requisitioned by the army were stormed…

The FTP-M.O.I. are being hunted down throughout France. The Jews who are members of the FTP-M.O.I. are able to carry out major operations thanks to the support of the civilian Resistance within the Jewish section of the M.O.I. and a portion of the French population.

In 1944, the Resistance movements united under a single organization, the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). The FTPF and the FTP-M.O.I. were incorporated into the FFI.

The Jews who served in the FTP-M.O.I. were certainly driven by a deep desire to fight against the Holocaust, but they were equally motivated by an ideal of justice and their love for the French Republic.