— Ch. 1 · The First Shot In Bordeaux —
French Resistance.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
On the 28th of August 1940, a Polish Jewish immigrant named Israël Carp stood on the streets of Bordeaux and jeered at a German military parade. He was not an armed fighter or a trained soldier. He was simply a man who refused to accept that the Reich would win. The German authorities shot him dead that same day. This execution marked the first time a résistant lost their life for resistance activities in France.
Carp's death did not stop others from acting. On the 7th of September 1940, a nineteen-year-old Frenchman named Pierre Roche cut phone lines between Royan and La Rochelle. He was caught and executed by German forces. By November 1940, three more saboteurs had been shot for similar acts of defiance. These early deaths created a climate of fear but also inspired deeper commitment among ordinary citizens.
In December 1940, a man named Jacques Bonsergent became a symbol of resistance when he was arrested after witnessing a confrontation between Parisians and German soldiers. He insisted on taking full responsibility for his actions even though he had done nothing wrong. On the 23rd of December 1940, he was executed. His death transformed posters warning about challenging the Reich into shrines covered with flowers and flags. People stopped reading these notices wordlessly and exchanged glances as if mourning together.
The Great Round-Up Of July
On the 16th of July 1942, nine thousand French policemen began rounding up Jews throughout Paris. They arrested twelve thousand seven hundred sixty-two Jewish men, women, and children. The victims were taken to the Val d'Hiv sports stadium before being sent to Drancy camp and finally Auschwitz. This operation was known as the grande rafle or great round-up.
Most of those who arrested the Jews were French police officers working under Vichy authority. Some one hundred Jews killed themselves rather than be captured while twenty-four died resisting arrest. Madame Rado survived Auschwitz but her four children perished in gas chambers. She witnessed bystanders watching with empty expressions that seemed indifferent to the suffering unfolding around them.
Religious leaders responded differently to this crisis. Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon opposed the round-ups despite previously supporting Vichy antisemitic laws. He argued in a sermon that the final solution went too far. Archbishop Jules-Géraud Saliège of Toulouse declared in a pastoral letter on the 23rd of August 1942 that Jews were part of mankind and their brothers. Pastor Marc Boegner denounced the round-ups in September 1942 asking Calvinists to hide Jews.