In occupied France, the Communists reorganize in a state of confusion. The Party, a victim of Petainist repression, publishes a manifesto against Vichy. Until the spring of 1941, the main target of the PCF (French Communist Party) was Marshal Pétain, “puppet of the Germans”.
Communist Jews re-established links within associations or various underground groups, and set up a great deal of local mutual aid.
In July and August 1940, on the initiative of Albert Youdine, the first groups of young Jewish M.O.I. communists opposed to the collaborationist regime were formed.
At the end of July, Louis Gronowski returned to occupied Paris. On August 1, 1940, as national manager of all language groups, he was put in charge of restructuring the immigrant workforce by the PCF.
The “triangle” of M.O.I. leaders was now made up of Louis Gronowski, Jacques Kaminski, who had joined the national management team, and Artur London.
In September 1940, the Jewish section was reconstituted and its former leaders gathered in Paris around Louis Gronowski and Jacques Kaminski. Together, they created the illegal organization “Solidarité ” (later Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et l’Entraide, UJRE). Initially a mutual aid and information organization, “Solidarité” soon became a Resistance organization. Social action was never separated from political action.
According to the PCF, only the establishment of communism could eradicate anti-Semitism. While the collaborationist press presented the conflict as a war fomented by the Jews, the Party, in L’Humanité of September 10, 1940, denounced anti-Semitism. It called for the union of all workers against capitalism ” without distinction of religion or race “. But it felt that the “Jewish question” was a matter for “Solidarité” or the Jewish section of the M.O.I., which were better placed to alert Jews.
The importance of leaflets and the press has never escaped the communists. The Jewish underground section of the M.O.I. was very active, and former editors of the Naïe Presse were mobilized.
The periodical, a mimeographed sheet, reappeared clandestinely at fairly regular intervals under the Yiddish title, Unzer Wort from September 29, 1940. Marceau Vilner takes part in the writing and distribution of this underground newspaper.
Subsequently, the French version was entitled Notre Parole in the northern zone, and Notre Voix in the southern zone, the word or voice of Communist Jews’ opposition to Petainism and anti-Semitism. In the wake of “Solidarité”, numerous self-help groups were formed among Jewish intellectuals, artists, writers, lawyers and doctors.
Organizations such as the Jeunesses Communistes Juives (JCJ) and theUnion des Femmes Juives (UFJ) were quick to play a specific Resistance role alongside “Solidarité” in the fight against Vichy and the occupying forces.
