The clandestine Communist Party, which was in the process of rebuilding itself, focused its efforts initially on the social front by coordinating solidarity initiatives. Very quickly, in October 1940, the PCF leadership established groups withinthe Organisation Spéciale, initially composed of seasoned activists, tasked with protecting party leaders during public speeches. Jews who had immigrated were among the members of these groups.
At the same time, others wanted to integrate, under Jacques Kaminski’s leadership, the OS groups that reported directly to the Jewish section of the M.O.I. By the winter of 1940–1941, all these groups were operational. They continued to operate in “triangles,” in teams of three activists. The “triangle”* of M.O.I. leaders at that time consisted of Louis Gronowski, Jacques Kaminski—who had joined the national leadership—and Artur London.
These groups focused their efforts primarily on opposing the Vichy government, which was still viewed as a puppet regime serving the Nazis, and distributed leaflets and underground editions of the communist daily, *L’Humanité*.
At the same time, the first groups of young Jewish communists from the M.O.I., formed as early as the summer of 1940, were firmly organized in Paris by December and then in Lyon by January 1941. Many of these young people had been educated in the youth centers of the M.O.I.’s dynamic network of associations before the war.
Most of them were born in France; they share their parents’ democratic ideals and identify as both Jews and French.
In late March 1941, the first arrests of Jewish communists took place in the capital. From March through May, the arrests continued, targeting young people in particular.
*While operating underground, the M.O.I.’s operational cells consisted of three Resistance fighters: a political leader, a military leader, and a technical leader.
