Organization of the resistance of the armies

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The Organization de résistance de l'armée (ORA) ( Resistance Organization of the Army ) was a French paramilitary resistance organization during World War II .

founding

After the German invasion of the zone libre ( free zone ) in November 1942, the ORA was founded on January 31, 1943 as an - even so-called apolitical - organization. It united former French military personnel in the resistance against the German occupation, but did not recognize Charles de Gaulle's claim to leadership. The ORA was founded by General Aubert Frère . Frère had been President of the Tribunal that sentenced de Gaulle to death in Clermont-Ferrand in August 1940 .

guide

General Aubert Frère led the ORA from its founding in 1940 until its arrest and deportation in 1943 to the Struthof concentration camp , where he died on June 13, 1944.

After Frère, General Jean-Edouard Verneau led the ORA. He was arrested on October 23, 1943, and died during his deportation to Buchenwald on September 14, 1944.

After him General Georges Revers took over the leadership, with General Pierre Brisac as deputy.

In the Sud zone , which was not occupied by Germans, the ORA grew rapidly, due to the recruitment of officers and weapons supplies from the Vichy Army. In 1944 it merged with two other large resistance organizations, the Armée secrète (AS) and the Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) to form the Forces françaises de l'intérieur (FFI), but retained its autonomy within the FFI.

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