L'Affiche Rouge - Tract de propagande antisémite et anticommuniste "Des Libérateurs ? La Libération par l'armée du crime !" - Joint : L'armée du crime

Rare example of this propaganda leaflet published by the Nazi Occupier, which became the most iconic image of the Resistance. This smaller version of the famous Affiche Rouge features the poster on the recto and a paragraph on the verso castigating « l'Armée du crime contre la France » ("the Army of Crime against France"). It opens with accusations against the « rêve mondial du complot juif » ("the global dream of the Jewish conspiracy") and claims that « si des Français sabotent, pillent et tuent (...) ce sont toujours des juifs qui les inspirent » ("if Frenchmen sabotage, loot, and kill (...) it is always Jews who inspire them").
A discreet horizontal crease, otherwise superb condition for an ephemeral document.

Accompanied by the rare brochure entitled 'L'armée du crime' ('The army of crime') in the format of a newspaper illustrated with 14 pages of photographs.
A trace of horizontal fold. A fine copy.

« Au fil des années, l'image de l'Affiche rouge s'est progressivement gravée dans la mémoire des Français. On ne se lasse pas de la regarder, de la revoir, de temps à autre, dans un journal, dans un document télévisé... C'est avec la même émotion que l'on écoute le poème d'Aragon avec la voix de Léo Ferré. Car il émane de cette affiche une force que ses auteurs ne soupçonnaient pas. » (Adam Rayski)
("Over the years, the image of the Red Poster has gradually become engraved in the memory of the French. We never tire of looking at it and seeing it again, from time to time, in a newspaper or on television... It evokes the same emotion as listening to Aragon's poem in the voice of Léo Ferré. This poster possesses a power its creators never anticipated." (Adam Rayski)

Through a remarkable reversal of its intended purpose, the Affiche Rouge became, upon its appearance on « les murs de nos villes » ("the walls of our cities"),  a symbol of the courage of the Resistance fighters, their achievements, and the international solidarity of freedom fighters.
Everything about the poster was designed to instill "fear among passersby": the colour of  « l'affiche qui semblait une tache de sang » ("the poster, which looked like a stain of blood"), the portraits of Manouchian and his men, « Noirs de barbe et de nuit, hirsutes menaçants »  ("black with beards and night, shaggy and menacing"), the strange names that were  "difficult" "to pronounce", the tally of each man's "crimes", and the photographic evidence, funneling into a grim procession of gray faces.
Yet, when Aragon wrote eleven years later Yet, when Aragon wrote eleven years later "But at time of curfew, wandering fingers / Wrote under your pictures 'Fallen for France'", it was not mere poetic license. As the Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration points out on its website: 'It is certain that here and there anonymous hands laid flowers at the foot of these posters or stuck banners on them that read "Martyrs" or "Yes, the army of the Resistance"'.
This is corroborated by the clandestine journal Les Lettres Françaises, published the following month, as well as by a leaflet distributed by the Mouvement National Contre le Racisme (National Movement Against Racism), a Resistance organization stemming from the Jewish section of the Main-d'Oeuvre Immigrée (Immigrant Labor) led by Adam Rayski:
« Très haute et dramatique avec ses dix médaillons sur un fond rouge-sang. C'est l'affiche « Des libérateurs ? » qui représente des « terroristes » juifs : un hongrois, un espagnol, un arménien, un italien, des polonais. La foule se presse silencieuse. Au-dessus de chacun de leurs portraits, - et pour nous faire horreur sans doute ? - on a noté leurs exploits. L'un d'eux a eu à son actif 56 déraillements, 150 morts et 600 blessés.
- Beau tableau de chasse, dit quelqu'un.
Une femme confie à son compagnon :
- Ils ne sont pas parvenus à leur faire de sales gueules.
Et c'était vrai. Malgré les passages à tabac, malgré la réclusion et la faim. Les passants contemplent longuement ces visages énergiques aux larges fronts. Longuement et gravement comme on salue des amis morts. Dans les yeux aucune curiosité malsaine, mais de l'admiration, de la sympathie, comme s'ils étaient des nôtres. Et en fait ils étaient des nôtres puisqu'ils luttaient parmi des milliers des nôtres pour notre Patrie, parce qu'elle est aussi la Patrie de la liberté.
Sur l'une des affiches, la nuit, quelqu'un a écrit au charbon en lettres capitales ce seul mot : MARTYRS. C'est l'hommage de Paris à ceux qui se sont battus pour la liberté. »
 
("Very tall and dramatic with its ten medallions on a blood-red background, this is the 'Liberators?' poster, representing 'Jewish terrorists': a Hungarian, a Spaniard, an Armenian, an Italian, and Poles. The crowd gathers silently. Above each of their portraits—meant, no doubt, to horrify us—their exploits are listed. One of them carried out 56 derailments, causing 150 deaths and 600 injuries.
'Quite the tally,' someone says.
A woman confides to her companion:
'They didn't manage to make them look ugly.'
And it was true. Despite beatings, imprisonment, and hunger, the passersby gaze at these energetic faces with their broad foreheads. They look long and solemn, as one salutes fallen friends. In their eyes, there is no morbid curiosity, only admiration and sympathy, as if these men were our own. And indeed, they were ours, for they fought among thousands of us for our homeland, which is also the homeland of liberty.
On one of the posters, someone had written at night, in charcoal and capital letters, a single word: MARTYRS. It was Paris's tribute to those who fought for freedom.")
 
This failure of Nazi and collaborationist propaganda was confirmed by an internal report from the Renseignements Généraux (French intelligence services), which quickly noted the unexpected reaction of the population.
Printed in 15,000 copies and posted across towns and villages in France between February 22 and 24, 1944, the poster was meant to crown a violent media campaign to discredit the increasingly effective Resistance groups, which were soon to unite as the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).
The Centre d'Étude Antibolchévique (Anti-Bolshevik Study Center), responsible for designing the poster, reused the style and slogans of earlier propaganda but attempted to innovate by using photography for the first time. By replacing the usual stigmatizing caricatures with actual portraits of the protagonists, the poster inadvertently put a face to the Resistance and offered the public heroic icons. The foreign nationalities of the fighters emphasized the universal nature of the struggle for Freedom.
 
It is this Freedom that dominates the visual space of the poster, crushing the 'crime' with its dual presence in white and red through the majestic characters used for the words "libérateurs" ('liberators') and "libération".
Even the words 'Army of Crime' become eminently positive in this composition. Ten young men, with luminous faces and determined gazes, facing what appears to be their execution wall, earned the title of an "army" capable of "liberating" France from the supposedly invincible Nazi force.
The poster's red background, chosen to evoke both crime and Communism to provoke rejection, is slashed with thick black strokes that align it more with the Nazi flag than with the Soviet hammer and sickle. The large "V" drawn in the center, meant to mock the Resistance's rallying symbol, instead irresistibly resembles an inverted swastika, transformed into a proclamation of Victory.
What was intended as a bloody funnel closing in on the "terrorists" became a chalice consecrating these shadowy heroes occupying the top of the poster. Meanwhile, at the bottom, the black arrowhead cast opprobrium on the crumbling Occupation.
 
It is difficult to imagine a more counterproductive piece of propaganda paired with such evocative power. Immediately perceived by the population as the symbol of the reversal of forces and, above all, of a real French contribution to the advance of the Allied troops, the Affiche Rouge plastered across France, and its accompanying leaflets and brochures, presented the image of a sprawling Resistance. It helped establish the narrative of a France that was predominantly resistant, Gaullist, and anti-Pétainist.
 
Posters redacted, leaflets abandoned, brochures destroyed, very few copies of these documents remain today, even though they marked a major turning point in the Second World War. Like Zola's J'accuse , the poor quality of the paper and the ephemeral nature of these documents, even though they were distributed in large numbers, meant that they were not destined to go down in history, and the preservation of the few copies that have come down to us is the precious work of 'patriotic bibliophiles', as Vercors called them. More than just major historical documents, these are above all one of the rare sources of information on this crime.
The trial of the 23 members of the Manouchian Group was rushed through in a single day by the German military tribunal at the Hôtel Continental on February 19, 1944. On February, 21, there were in fact only 22 of them 'when the guns bloomed' on Mont-Valérien, while Golda (Olga) Bancic was beheaded on May, 10 in Stuttgart.
Strangely, unlike earlier cases, little else is known about the trial of the Manouchian Group. Only the verdict and the famous letters from the condemned to their families remain. These letters have shaped the collective memory of the Resistance:


 « Il n'est rien de plus beau que de mourir pour la France. » (Georges Cloarec, age 20) 
('There is nothing more beautiful than to die for France.');


 


« [...] vous avez toujours été pour moi le Paradis, c'est pourquoi j'ai sacrifié ma vie » (Rino Della Negra, age 20) ;
('You have always been paradise to me, which is why I sacrificed my life.');


 


« Vous ne devez pas vous attrister mais être gais au contraire, car pour vous viennent les lendemains qui chantent. » (Thomas Elek, age 19) 
('you shouldn't be sad but, on the contrary, gay, since for you there will be singing tomorrows.');


 


« Je n'ai pas peur de mourir. Je trouve quand même que c'est un peu trop tôt. Comme cadeau d'anniversaire, c'est réussi, n'est-ce pas ? (...) Vive la France. » (Léon Goldberg, age 20)
('I'm not afraid to die. I just think it's a bit too soon. Quite a terrific birthday present, don't you think?');


 


« Je meurs pour la Liberté. » (Stanislas Kubacki, 35 ans)
('I die for freedom.');
 



« Bonheur à ceux qui vont nous survivre et goûter la douceur de la Liberté et de la Paix de demain. » (Missak Manouchian, 37 ans)
('I wish for happiness for all those who will survive and taste the sweetness of the freedom and peace of tomorrow.');


 


« J'aime tout le monde et vive la vie. » (Marcel Rayman, 20 ans) 
('I adore you, and long live life.');


 


« Bientôt la vie sera plus belle. » (Robert Witchitz, 19 ans)
('Soon life will be beautiful.')


 
 
 
 
 
In fact, paradoxically, it is only thanks to the Affiche Rouge, and even more so to the leaflet and brochure L'Armée du Crime, that some elements of this secret trial have been preserved. Collaborationist newspapers reproduced only the "notes" released by the Vichy-controlled French Information Office, which itself seemed poorly informed: : « On publiera à la suite des dépêches sur la répression du banditisme et du terrorisme, les informations sur le procès des terroristes qui se déroule actuellement à Paris. » (Consigne n° 1460, Sunday, february, 20) ('Information about the trial of the terrorists currently taking place in Paris will be published following dispatches on the repression of banditry and terrorism').
Thus, the poster—a veritable death notice that avoided naming itself as such and sought to desecrate the memory of the dead with xenophobic and antisemitic rhetoric— has become the final and indelible trace of the heroic lives of the « vingt et trois étrangers et nos frères pourtant » (' twenty-three foreigners and yet our brothers '), the young faces of these « vingt et trois amoureux de vivre à en mourir » ('twenty-three who loved life to death )' and the now-enshrined names of the 23 fighters of the Manouchian Group « qui criaient la France en s'abattant » ('who cried out France as they fell').