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On this day of May 8, which commemorates the end of the war in Europe in 1945, the figure of Jean Moulin is celebrated. This prefect, dismissed after having shown himself to be rebellious against the Germans, worked to federate the Resistance movements.
Jean Moulin, emblematic character of the Resistance, has achieved the impossible. From the first days of the Occupation, this prefect will say no. In hiding, he will unify all resistance movements behind General de Gaulle, until the sacrifice of his life. In June 1940, Chartres had just been bombed and the Germans entered the city. Among the notables, only one man remained at his post: the prefect Jean Moulin.
Clandestine work to unify resistance fighters
Very quickly, the Germans demanded that he sign a document wrongly accusing the Senegalese skirmishers of having massacred civilians. But he refuses and the blows rain down. Jean Moulin is locked up for hours, surrounded by corpses. But he does not submit. Later, in his jail, so as not to have to give in, he tries to commit suicide. He signed his first act of resistance there. Revoked, he will choose to go underground to identify all those who resist.
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