Until November 1942, armed conflict took place exclusively in the occupied northern zone, but on November 11, following the Allied landing in North Africa— Operation Torch—German tanks crossed the demarcation line and invaded the south of France. Many Jews sought refuge there after the roundups.
The resistance fighters’ actions began to bear fruit by the end of 1942, but in 1943, in the face of relentless Nazi persecution, the FTP-M.O.I.’s struggle intensified across the regions. Several highly active groups stood out in the south:
— The Carmagnole Battalion in Lyon.
— The Marat Company in Marseille (later known as Maurice Korzec).
— The 35th Brigade in Toulouse (later known as the Marcel Langer Brigade)
— The Liberty Battalion in Grenoble.
These groups are made up of Italians, Spaniards, French, and, for the most part, Jewish immigrants.
In February 1943, Marcel Langer, a Polish Jew and member of the FTP-M.O.I., was arrested in Toulouse while carrying a suitcase filled with explosives supplied by Resistance miners from Carmaux. Prosecutor Pierre Lespinasse sought the death penalty for him. Langer was guillotined on July 23, 1943.
In retaliation, Pierre Lespinasse was executed by members of the Toulouse Resistance in October 1943. The 35th Toulouse Brigade then symbolically adopted the name Marcel Langer Brigade.
Similarly, in December 1943, Faure-Pinguely, a judge of the Special Sections, was killed by a group of FTP-M.O.I. fighters from the Carmagnole Battalion in Lyon in retaliation for the beheading of the resistance fighter Simon Frid.
Intimidation is working. No judge is seeking the death penalty for a resistance fighter anymore, but the violence of the security forces has intensified.
