Faux Soir
Front page of the Faux Soir
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| Owner(s) | Front de l'Indépendance |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Marc Aubrion René Noël |
| Publisher | Ferdinand Wellens |
| Founded | 9 November 1943 (only one issue) |
| Political alignment | Satirical; Pro-allied |
| Language | French |
| Circulation | 50,000 copies |
The Faux Soir was a spoof issue of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir published on 9 November 1943 by the Front de l'Indépendance, a Belgian resistance organisation. Employing the weapons of humour and derision against the Nazi occupiers, the Faux Soir was, besides an act of resistance which cost the lives of some participants, a demonstration of Belgian comedy and of , the characteristic humour of Brussels folk. The incident was the centerpiece for the 1954 film, Un Soir de Joie.
The Belgian newspaper Le Soir had ceased to appear on 18 May 1940, a few days after the German invasion of Belgium. It was relaunched by collaborationist journalists such as Horace Van Offel and Raymond De Becker with the acceptance of the German occupier. The most famous author to publish in Le Soir during this time was doubtless Hergé with The Adventures of Tintin comic The Shooting Star (L'étoile mystérieuse), featuring his famous character Tintin. The paper's propagandist transformation led to its nickname Soir volé ("the stolen Le Soir"). Nonetheless it maintained a comfortable circulation of 300,000 (compared with just over 90,000 as of 2009 for the modern Soir).
The Front de l'Indépendance (FI) was a Belgian resistance movement founded in March 1941 by Dr. Albert Marteaux (a communist), Father André Roland, a Roman Catholic priest, and Fernand Demany, with the aim of uniting Belgian resistance fighters of various opinions and stances. By the end of the war the FI national committee would include representation from a large number of resistance organisations such as the Armée belge des partisans (PA), the Milices Patriotiques (MP) (Patriotic Militias), Wallonie indépendante (Independent Wallonia), the Rassemblement national de la jeunesse (National Rally of Youth) and the country's main parties and trade unions.
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