Following several attacks targeting German soldiers, retaliatory operations were planned with the participation of the French police. From January 22 to 24, 1943, Nazi authorities and René Bousquet, Secretary General of the Vichy police, organized a large-scale roundup in Marseille. Approximately 8,000 people were arrested. 782 Jews were sent to the Compiègne camp and then deported to the Sobibor extermination camp. None of them returned. A decision was made to destroy the “criminal district”: the Germans dynamited and razed the northern sector of the Old Port.
Other cities were also affected by the persecution of Jews (Aix-en-Provence, Nîmes, Carpentras, Avignon, Arles, Clermont-Ferrand, etc.).
The ongoing violence perpetrated by the occupying forces and the collaborationist Vichy government did not shake the Resistance’s resolve. The prospect of victory and Liberation prompted the Communist Party, beginning in early 1943, to advocate a strategy of national unity. It called for the unification of all French people who opposed Hitler. This unification took place within the National Front for the Struggle for the Liberation and Independence of France. conceived by the Party in 1941. Action against the Nazis and their collaborators intensified.
The underground Jewish section of the M.O.I. also set out to expand its influence and sought to unite with other Jewish organizations and all factions of the Resistance. The activities of the clandestine organization “Solidarity” were gaining momentum in both the south and the north.
For the leaders of the Jewish section, it is necessary to rally, educate, and train Jews—who are being hunted down from all sides—for military or civilian combat. In the spring of 1943, the Jewish communist resistance from the North and South zones merged into a single organization.
This was a decisive step:the Union of Jews for Resistance and Mutual Aid (UJRE) was founded. It was established by seven members of the Resistance: Idel Korman, Edouard Kowalski, Adam Rayski, Sophie Schwartz and Techka Tenenbaum represent the Paris office. Charles Lederman and Jacques Ravine are the representatives of the Southern leadership.
The UJRE will be operational as of May 1943.
At the same time, the Jewish section of the M.O.I. foundedthe Union of Jewish Youth (UJJ), led in Lyon by Jacques Kott and in Paris by Robert Endewelt. Young Jewish communists, who were already involved in rescuing Jewish children, joined the UJJ. The new organization aimed to create a broad coalition of democratic forces among Jewish youth throughout the country. In June 1943, the publication *Jeune Combat* became the UJJ’s main organ.
Just like the UJJ, whose creation it helped foster, the UJRE is an underground organization dedicated to uniting for the country’s liberation and improving the plight of the Jews. It would bring together all the clandestine resistance organizations stemming from the Jewish section, notably the Union of Jewish Women (UFJ) and the UJJ, which were joined by Jews active in the FTP-M.O.I.
Despite operating in secret, the UJRE mobilized its activists and, above all, recruited hundreds of new members. It also forged closer ties with other Jewish organizations such as the Éclaireurs Israélites de France (EIF) and the Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants ( OSE).
In the south (in Lyon, then in Toulouse, Marseille, and Grenoble), combat groups composed, among others, of young Jews from the UJJ took the name “UJRE combat groups,” one-tenth of which would join the FTP-M.O.I.
The UJRE’s combat units train diligently and are gradually shifting from sabotage to military action. However, unlike the FTP-M.O.I., the members of these groups do not lead exclusively military lives. They maintain an outwardly legal lifestyle, are not supported by the organization, and provide for their own needs.
