The patriotic militias were formed in 1944 at the initiative of the Communist Party and organized by the CNR. These groups of citizens were tasked with preparing the country for a national uprising.
As early as August 1943, the leadership of the PCF called for the establishment of workers’ militias in factories, villages, and towns. On March 15, 1944, the National Council of the Resistance tasked the Departmental Liberation Committees with creating “patriotic militias” in coordination with the FFI, which brought together all Resistance organizations, including the FTP-M.O.I.
The liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, galvanized the fighting forces. More so than the FTP groups, the Patriotic Militias (MP) were intended to become mass organizations open to all patriots. Their primary objective was unambiguous: “to participate in the national uprising against the German occupiers, and to protect the lives and property of the French people ‘against terror and provocation […]’.”
The FFI’s primary mission is essential to the functioning of the “MPs”:
“Fight the enemy now by harassing his troops.”
There were many Jews in the patriotic militias, but young Jews from the UJJ (Union of Jewish Youth) formed specifically Jewish militias with the dual objective of recovering weapons and destroying the road signs used to guide German military convoys. Jean Tancerman, seconded from the Southern Zone, provided military leadership to the Jewish Patriotic Militia of Paris.
The operations of the MP, which are primarily controlled by the PCF, often pose logistical problems (shortages of weapons, a lack of leaders, and a shortage of fighters trained for this type of action).
On October 28, 1944, the Provisional Government of the French Republic issued a decree ordering the disarmament of the patriotic militias. Maurice Thorez, General Secretary of the PCF, oversaw their dissolution on the orders of General de Gaulle. After the FFI were incorporated into the regular army, Charles de Gaulle sought to assert the restoration of republican order under his sole command.
References:
— Unpublished handwritten inspection report by Cécile Cerf, an FTP-M.O.I. officer in the “Patriotic Militia” resistance group in Saône-et-Loire, August 1944.
— AACCE (Friends of the Commission Centrale de l’Enfance), 2009, *The Jews Resisted in France* (1940–1945: Testimony of Robert Endewelt), published by AACCE.
