A former Resistant, Roger Fichtenberg died at the age of 98

Born on 20 October 1921 in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, Roger Fichtenberg grew up in a family of French Israelites, secular and republicans. Roger did his schooling in the 11th arrondissement at the Lycée Voltaire, then at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. The end of recklessness came with the invasion of France by the German army in May 1940. Then, it was the Exodus; the Fichtenberg left Paris for Allier in June 1940. They are dismayed by the news of the armistice, the publication of the status of Jews in October 1940.

Roger Fichtenberg said: "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 chefs and created a troop of Scouts in Lapalisse. In March 1942, I was called to perform my service at the Chantiers de Jeunesse, but finally expelled as a Jew five months later. In August 1942, during the roundups 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 and concealment operations for young Jews threatened with arrest. In November 1942, I was sent to Perpignan to facilitate the escapes of internees from the Rivesaltes camp and to provide them with false papers. In December 1942, I was able to transport young people to Switzerland (in the region of Annemasse). I then took on a false 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 took part in the fighting for the liberation of Agen and occupied the prefecture on 19 August 1944.

Roger kept a coded journal throughout the war period.

After the war, Roger Fichtenberg became one of the leaders of Cojasor, which welcomed 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 was elected municipal in Paris and the Ile-de-France region for many years.

In 2015, he published his account of a young Jewish resistance fighter in the collection "Témoignages de la Shoah" ("Testimonies of the Holocaust") at 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 knight of the Legion of Honor in 1990, then those of officer 2014. In 1996, he entered the Ordre des Palmes académiques.

All our thoughts are with his loved ones.