Editing Louis Aragon (section)

== World War II (1939–1945) ==

In 1939, he married Russian-born author [[Elsa Triolet]], the sister of [[Lilya Brik]], a mistress and then partner of Russian poet [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Elsa Triolet and Aragon|url=https://www.maison-triolet-aragon.com/elsa-triolet-and-louis-aragon|access-date=22 January 2020}}</ref> He had met her in 1928, and she became his [[muse]] starting in the 1940s. Aragon and Triolet collaborated in the [[French Left|left-wing French]] media before and during World War II, going underground for most of the [[Vichy France|German occupation]].<ref name=":0" />

Aragon was mobilized in 1939, and awarded the ''[[Croix de Guerre 1939–1945|Croix de Guerre]]'' (War Cross) and the military medal for acts of bravery. After the [[Battle of France|May 1940 defeat]], he took refuge in the [[Zone libre|southern zone]]. He was one of several poets, along with [[René Char]], [[Francis Ponge]], [[Robert Desnos]], [[Paul Éluard]], [[Jean Prévost]], [[:fr:Jean-Pierre Rosnay|Jean-Pierre Rosnay]], etc., to join the [[French Resistance|Resistance]], both through literary activities and as an actual organizer of Resistance acts.

[[Otto Abetz]] was the German governor, and produced a series of "black lists" of authors forbidden to be read, circulated or sold in Nazi Occupied France. These included anything written by a Jew, a communist, an Anglo-Saxon or anyone else who was anti-Germanic or anti-fascist. Aragon and [[André Malraux]] were both on these "Otto Lists" of forbidden authors.<ref>Moorehead, Caroline. 2011. A Train in Winter. Pages 21–22.</ref>

During the war, Aragon wrote for the underground press ''[[Les Éditions de Minuit]]'' and was a member of the [[National Front (Resistance)|National Front]] Resistance movement. His poetry was published along texts by Vercors ([[Jean Bruller]]), [[Pierre Seghers]] or [[Paul Éluard]] in Switzerland in 1943 after being smuggled out of occupied France by his friend and publisher [[François Lachenal]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONJXAAAAYAAJ&q=fran%C3%A7ois+lachenal+luis+aragon|title=Livres hebdo|date=1995|publisher=Éditions professionelles du livre.|isbn=9782877302500|language=fr}}</ref>

He participated with his wife in the setting up of the National Front of Writers in the southern zone. This activism led him to break his friendly relationship with [[Pierre Drieu La Rochelle]], who had chosen [[collaborationism]].

Along with Paul Éluard, [[Pierre Seghers]] and [[René Char]], Aragon would maintain the memory of the Resistance in his post-war poems. He thus wrote, in 1954, ''[[L'affiche rouge|Strophes pour se souvenir]]'' in commemoration of the role of foreigners in the Resistance, which celebrated the [[FTP-MOI|Francs-Tireurs et Partisans de la Main d'Oeuvre Immigrée]] (FTP-MOI).

The theme of the poem was the [[Affiche Rouge|Red Poster]] affair, mainly the last letter that [[Missak Manouchian]], an Armenian-French poet and Resistant, wrote to his wife [[Mélinée Manouchian|Mélinée]] before his execution on 21 February 1944.<ref>Mélinée Manouchian: ''Manouchian'', EFR, Paris 1954</ref> This poem was then set to music by [[Léo Ferré]].