Former resistant, Roger Fichtenberg died at the age of 98

Born on October 20, 1921 in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, Roger Fichtenberg grew up in a family of French Israelites, secular and republican. Roger completes his schooling in the 11th arrondissement at the Voltaire high school, then at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Paris. The end of recklessness comes with the invasion of France by the German army in May 1940. Then, it is the Exodus, the Fichtenbergs leave Paris for Allier in June 1940. They are appalled by the news of the armistice, the publication of the status of the Jews in October 1940.

Roger Fichtenberg told: "With my family, we took refuge in Lapalisse, near Vichy. Recruited by Henri Wahl, René Klein and Théo Klein, I am at the Éclaireurs Israélites de France. I then participated in camps of chiefs and created a troop of Scouts at Lapalisse. In March 1942, I was called to perform my service in the Chantiers de Jeunesse, but finally expelled as a Jew five months later. In August 1942, during the raids in the southern zone, Robert Gamzon (Castor), national commissioner of the EIF sent me to Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne) where I participated in the first rescue operations and concealment of young Jews threatened with arrest. In November 1942, I was sent to Perpignan to promote the escapes of internees from the camp of Rivesaltes and provide the escapees with false papers. In December 1942, I was able to convey young people to Switzerland (in the region of Annemasse). I then took a fake identity and became Jean-Pierre Lederne (a high school classmate). In January 1943, I again led groups towards the Spanish border, in the region of Oloron-Sainte-Marie.

In March 1944, Roger joined the Secret Army and was assigned two months later to the General Staff of the F.F.I. (French Forces of the Interior) of Lot-et-Garonne.  He participated in the battles for the liberation of Agen and occupied the prefecture on August 19, 1944.

Roger kept a coded diary throughout the war period.

After the war, Roger Fichtenberg became one of the leaders of Cojasor, which welcomes the survivors of the Holocaust. He then learned the trade of garment maker and made a career in the textile industry before engaging in politics in the 1950s within left-wing radicals. He will be elected municipal in Paris and the Ile-de-France Region for many years.

In 2015, he published his testimony of a young Jewish resistance fighter in the collection "Témoignages de la Shoah" (Testimonies of the Holocaust) by FMS/ Le Manuscrit: Journal d'un résistant juif dans le Sud-Ouest.  We discover the remarkable action of a "quiet and modest hero", in the words of Serge Klarsfeld.

Roger Fichtenberg was made a Knight of the National Order of Merit in 1983 and an officer in 2001. He also received the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1990, then those of officer in 2014. In 1996, he entered the Order of Academic Palms.

All our thoughts go to his loved ones.