Editing François Mitterrand (section)

===Full engagement in resistance: 1943–1945===
Mitterrand built up a resistance network,{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} composed mainly of former POWs. The POWs National Rally (''{{ill|Rassemblement national des prisonniers de guerre|fr}}'', RNPG) was affiliated with General [[Henri Giraud]], a former POW who had escaped from a German prison and made his way across Germany back to the Allied forces. In 1943 Giraud was contesting with de Gaulle for the leadership of the [[French Resistance]].

From the beginning of 1943, Mitterrand had contacts with a powerful resistance group called the ''[[Organisation de résistance de l'armée]]'' (ORA),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_aqtAAAAQBAJ|title=Mitterrand. A Study in Ambiguity|last=Short|first=Philip|publisher=Bodley Head|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4481-9189-5|location=London|author-link=Philip Short|access-date=17 October 2020|archive-date=30 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130174441/https://books.google.com/books?id=_aqtAAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> organised by former French military personnel. From this time on, François Mitterrand could act as a member of the ORA,<ref>Pierre Péan, op. cit., p. 302</ref> moreover he set up his own RNPG network with Pinot in February and he obtained funding for his own network. In March, François Mitterrand met [[Henri Frenay]], who encouraged the resistance in France to support François Mitterrand over Michel Cailliau.<ref>Pierre Péan, op. cit., pp. 309/310</ref> 28 May 1943, when François Mitterrand met with Gaullist {{ill|Philippe Dechartre|fr}}, is generally taken as the date François Mitterrand split with Vichy.<ref>[http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/mitt/dossier.asp?ida=418472 Patrick Rotman et Jean Lacouture, "le roman du pouvoir"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930230243/http://www.lexpress.fr/info/france/dossier/mitt/dossier.asp?ida=418472 |date=30 September 2007 }}, ''L'Express''</ref> According to Dechartre, the meeting on 28 May 1943 was set up because "there were three movements [of ''Résistance'':] […] the Gaullist, the communist, and one from support centers […] hence I was assigned the mission to prepare what would be called afterwards the merger [of the three movements]."<ref name=":0" />

During 1943, the RNPG gradually changed from providing false papers to information-gathering for [[Free French Forces|France libre]]. Pierre de Bénouville said, "François Mitterrand created a true spy network in the POW camps which gave us information, often decisive, about what was going on behind the German borders."<ref>Franz-Olivier Giesbert, ''François Mitterrand, une vie'', p. 94. "François Mitterrand avait réussi à mettre sur pied un véritable réseau de renseignement dans les camps. Grâce aux prisonniers de guerre, nous avons pu prendre connaissances d'informations, parfois décisives, sur ce qui se passait derrière les frontières"</ref> On 10 July François Mitterrand and Piatzook (a militant communist) interrupted a public meeting in the [[Salle Wagram]] in Paris. The meeting was about allowing French POWs to go home if they were [[Service du travail obligatoire|replaced by young French men forced to go and work in Germany]] (in French this was called "''la relève''"). When André Masson began to talk about "''la trahison des gaullistes''" (the Gaullist treason), François Mitterrand stood up in the audience and shouted him down, saying Masson had no right to talk on behalf of POWs and calling ''la relève'' a "''con''" (i.e., something stupid). Mitterrand avoided arrest as Piatzook covered his escape.<ref>On 12 July 1944 [[Maurice Schumann]] (la voice of the Free French) recounted this event on BBC radio.</ref>

In November 1943, the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' raided a flat in [[Vichy]], where they hoped to arrest François Morland, a member of the resistance.<ref>Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', op. cit., pp. 97 et 99</ref> "Morland" was François Mitterrand's cover name. He also used Purgon, Monnier, Laroche, Captain François, Arnaud et Albre as cover names. The man they arrested was [[Pol Pilven]], a member of the resistance who was to survive the war in a concentration camp. François Mitterrand was in Paris at the time.

Warned by his friends, Mitterrand escaped to London aboard a [[Westland Lysander|Lysander]] plane on 15 November 1943 (piloted by then-[[Squadron Leader]] [[Lewis Hodges]]). He promoted his movement to the British and American Authorities, but he was sent to [[Algiers]], where he met de Gaulle, by then the uncontested leader of the Free French. The two men clashed, de Gaulle refused to jeopardize the Resistance by including a movement that gathered information from POWs.<ref name="Franz-Olivier Giesbert 1996, p. 100">Franz-Olivier Giesbert, ''François Mitterrand, une vie'', éd. du Seuil, 1996, p. 100</ref><ref>Charles de Gaulle, ''Mémoires de guerre – L'Unité : 1942-1944'' (tome II)</ref> Later Mitterrand refused to merge his group with other POW movements if de Gaulle's nephew Cailliau was to be the leader.<ref name="Franz-Olivier Giesbert 1996, p. 100"/> Under the influence of Henri Frenay, de Gaulle finally agreed to merge his nephew's network and the RNPG with Mitterrand in charge.<ref>Pierre Péan book pp. 364/365</ref> Thus the RNPG was listed in the French Force organization from spring 1944.

Mitterrand returned to France by boat via England. In Paris, the three Resistance groups made up of POWs (Communists, Gaullists, RNPG) finally merged as the POWs and Deportees National Movement (''{{ill|Mouvement national des prisonniers de guerre et déportés|fr}}'', MNPGD) and Mitterrand took the lead. In his memoirs, he says that he had started this organisation while he was still officially working for the Vichy Regime. From 27 November 1943, Mitterrand worked for the [[Bureau central de renseignements et d'action]].<ref>Jean Lacouture, ''Mitterrand, une histoire de Français'', tome 1, p. 102</ref> In December 1943 François Mitterrand ordered the execution of Henri Marlin (who was about to order attacks on the "[[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]]") by Jacques Paris and Jean Munier, who later hid out with François Mitterrand's father.

After a second visit to London in February 1944, Mitterrand took part in the liberation of Paris in August; he took over the headquarters of Commissariat général aux prisonniers de guerre (general office for POW, the ministry he was working for), immediately he took up the vacant post of secretary general of POWs. When de Gaulle entered Paris following the [[Liberation of Paris|Liberation]], he was introduced to various men who were to be part of the provisional government. Among them was François Mitterrand, when they came face to face, de Gaulle is said to have muttered: "You again!" He dismissed François Mitterrand 2 weeks later.

In October 1944, Mitterrand and [[Jacques Foccart]] developed a plan to liberate the POW and concentration camps. This was called operation ''Vicarage''. On the orders of de Gaulle, in April 1945 François Mitterrand accompanied General Lewis as the French representative at the liberation of the camps at [[Kaufering concentration camp|Kaufering]] and [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]. By chance Mitterrand discovered his friend and member of his network, [[Robert Antelme]], suffering from [[typhus]]. Antelme was restricted to the camp to prevent the spread of disease, but François Mitterrand arranged for his "escape" and sent him back to France for treatment.<ref>Jean Lacouture, Mitterrand, une histoire de Français, éd. Seuil, 2000. The book is quoted on [http://www.fabriquedesens.net/Robert-Antelme-signataire-du La Fabrique de sens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010230744/http://www.fabriquedesens.net/Robert-Antelme-signataire-du |date=10 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Entretiens inédits François Mitterrand –|first=Marguerite|last= Duras|author-link=Marguerite Duras|publisher= Sonores}} {{ill|Frémeaux & Associés|fr}}, 2007 [http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=2087&product_id=834&category_id=69 en ligne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807030431/https://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=2087&product_id=834&category_id=69 |date=7 August 2020 }}</ref>