Combat (newspaper)
In 1941, Combat existed as a whisper. The newspaper's pages were printed in secret and passed from hand to hand through occupied France. Being caught in possession of it was enough to place a person in danger. By the time Paris was liberated, this underground sheet had survived long enough to step into the open. It had claimed a real address in the capital.
What a resistance newspaper was supposed to stand for once the occupation ended was not an easy question to answer. Could it hold a political identity in peacetime that it had forged under mortal threat? Those questions would define Combat for the next three decades.
Andre Bollier directed Combat's physical production through the years of German occupation, running an operation where exposure meant death. The Milice, the French paramilitary force that collaborated with the occupiers, eventually caught up with him. He did not survive. Combat continued printing without Bollier. The paper's final edition would not come until August 1974, thirty-three years after its founding.
In August 1944, Combat moved into the Paris headquarters of L'Intransigeant, stepping out of clandestine production and into a real newsroom. Albert Camus had been serving as editor in chief since 1943, and he continued in that role until 1947.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Malraux, Emmanuel Mounier, Raymond Aron, and Pierre Herbart all wrote for the paper in its liberation years. Among the main participants in the paper's production were Albert Ollivier, Jean-Paul de Dadelsen, Jean Bloch-Michel, and Georges Altschuler.
In January 1945, Combat printed 185,000 copies per edition; by August of the same year, that figure had fallen to 150,000. The Communist daily L'Humanite was at that point printing 500,000 copies. The gap between Combat's readership and that of the established political press was not closing.
Camus left the editorship in 1947, and the political turbulence of postwar France would test the paper in ways the Resistance never had.
In 1946, Combat declared its opposition to what it called the 'game of the parties' and drew closer to Charles de Gaulle. The paper never became the official voice of de Gaulle's movement. Alongside that sympathy, Combat was trying to speak for a popular non-Communist Left in France.
In July 1948, Victor Fay, a Marxist activist, took over the direction of the paper. His arrival came more than a year after the May 1947 crisis, when Communist ministers had been expelled from the government. Fay could not halt the paper's gradual drift toward popular subjects and away from serious political analysis.
In 1950, Combat hosted a public debate about the Notre-Dame Affair. The debate was triggered by a vehement letter from Andre Breton, written in response to the editor Louis Pauwels.
Philippe Tesson became editor in chief in 1960 and would hold that position for fourteen years.
During the May 1968 crisis, Combat backed the student movement. Its coverage was shaped by a Stalinist interpretation of events, reflected in contributions from writers including Jacques-Arnaud Penent.
On the 3rd of June, the paper published the 'Address to All Workers,' attributed to the Council for Maintaining the Occupations. The version it ran was falsified. Combat had stripped out every reference to the Situationist International and removed all passages attacking Stalinists.
Henri Smadja, who owned Combat, was approaching the end of his connection to the paper.
Philippe Tesson resigned from Combat in March 1974 and founded Le Quotidien de Paris, the successor paper he had long envisioned. Smadja had originally believed Tesson could be managed as a puppet-editor. But Smadja's own situation had grown precarious, in part because of complications tied to the Tunisian regime.
On the 14th of July 1974, Henri Smadja died by suicide. Combat ceased publication the following month. Le Quotidien de Paris, the successor Tesson had built, continued to publish until 1996.
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Common questions
When was Combat newspaper founded?
Combat was founded in 1941 as a clandestine newspaper of the French Resistance. It was printed in secret during the German occupation of France.
Who edited Combat newspaper during and after World War Two?
Albert Camus served as Combat's editor in chief from 1943 to 1947. Production during the war years was directed by Andre Bollier, who died as a result of Milice repression.
Who contributed to Combat newspaper after the liberation of France?
Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Malraux, Emmanuel Mounier, Raymond Aron, and Pierre Herbart all contributed to Combat in its postwar years. Albert Ollivier, Jean-Paul de Dadelsen, Jean Bloch-Michel, and Georges Altschuler were among the main participants in the paper's production.
What was Combat newspaper's circulation in 1945?
Combat printed 185,000 copies per edition in January 1945, falling to 150,000 by August of the same year. By comparison, the Communist daily L'Humanite was printing 500,000 copies during the same period.
What did Combat newspaper do during the May 1968 crisis?
Combat backed the student movement during the May 1968 crisis, approaching it from a Stalinist perspective. On the 3rd of June 1968, the paper published a falsified version of the 'Address to All Workers,' stripping out references to the Situationist International and removing passages that attacked Stalinists.
When did Combat newspaper close and why?
Combat ceased publication in August 1974, the month after its owner Henri Smadja died by suicide on the 14th of July 1974. The paper's editor Philippe Tesson had already resigned in March 1974 to found Le Quotidien de Paris, which he conceived as Combat's successor.
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