Emmanuel d'Astier

Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (6 January 1900 – 12 June 1969) was a French journalist, politician and member of the French Resistance.

Born in Paris, he attended the Naval Academy, but resigned from the French Navy in 1923. He became a journalist and a poet and was involved with the integralist and monarchist journal Action Française, but turned towards the Left after the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).

When the Second World War broke out, d'Astier re-enlisted into the French Navy and became the head of naval intelligence. However, after the fall of France and the proclamation of Vichy France, he was dismissed for his political dossier.

In Clermont-Ferrand, d'Astier formed the Resistant group La Dernière Colonne, later known as Libération-sud, with Raymond Aubrac, Lucie Samuel and Jean Cavailles. During 1941, the group carried out two sabotage attacks at train stations in Perpignan and Cannes. In February, they organised the distribution of 10,000 propaganda flyers, but one of the distributors was caught by the police, leading to the arrest of d'Astier's niece and uncle. The group decided to cease activities. After a few months' hiatus, they began to work on an underground newspaper, Libération. The first edition was put together with the help of the typographers from a local newspaper and printed on paper supplied by local trade-unionists. 10,000 copies were produced in July 1941.

In 1942 d'Astier met with Jean Moulin to discuss unification of the Resistance and eventually joined forces into the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR, National Council of Resistance). In 1943 he met Charles de Gaulle in Algiers and joined his Free French Forces government-in-exile as a Commissioner to the Interior.

...
Wikipedia