Introduction

The colloquium on the “unrecognized resistance” was organized by the Club Témoin, founded in June 1998 by a diverse group (an ambassador, a general, a deputy, a journalist, a Sorbonne professor) who had played an important role in the Resistance, joined by others with State-recognized claims to participation in “the Resistance.” They wanted to give personal witness concerning the Occupation, the Resistance, and the deportations, in order to confront a simplistic vision of the history of that dramatic period and to fight against the disinformation that sometimes characterizes the presentation of that sad and painful period of French history.