The Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) was established on June 3, 1944, and Charles de Gaulle took the helm. The external Resistance and the internal Resistance are united.
The Allied landings took place on June 6, 1944. Numerous soldiers of various nationalities (American, Canadian, Australian, Norwegian, and others) headed for the beaches of Normandy to confront Hitler’s army and gradually liberate the territory. The Free French Forces (FFL), affiliated with “Free France” since 1940, joined forces with the Allies. Thanks to the efforts of the entire resistance movement, German troop reinforcements heading for Normandy were held back.
On August 15, 1944, the landing in Provence took place. Colonial troops (particularly the African riflemen) played a major role in the operation.
The Nazis, sensing their end was near, relentlessly sought to spread terror. In Haute-Vienne, for example, four days after the Allied landings in Normandy, they massacred 642 residents of the village ofOradour-sur-Glane—men, women, and children—in retaliation for Resistance activities in the region.
In Lyon, Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo and a torturer responsible for the execution of numerous Resistance hostages, continued to send thousands of Jews—adults and children alike—to their certain deaths.
Convoys of deportees continued to leave France for the extermination camps. There were approximately 79 convoys (some of which were not numbered) between 1942 and 1944. The conditions for the deportees on these trains were appalling.
In July 1944, a convoy departed from Toulouse that would later be nicknamed the “ghost train.” For nearly two months, this train transported about a thousand deportees to the Dachau camp in Germany. When the few survivors of the “ghost train” arrived in Dachau on August 28, it was the very same day that Bordeaux was liberated…
On August 17, 1944, with the liberation of Paris imminent, Aloïs Brunner, the Nazi commander of the Drancy internment camp, left France… with one final convoy.
By expanding and intensifying its actions, the Resistance continued in 1944 to destabilize the Occupying Forces through armed and civilian resistance. Information was once again disseminated through leaflets, a dangerous activity. At the same time, rescuing Jewish children—who still had to be hidden—remained a priority.
