Facing the bureaucracy of violence: forgers of the Resistance (1940-1944)

The identification and registration of individuals contributed to the birth of the modern state. In authoritarian regimes, these bureaucratic processes are used to repress populations. Under the Occupation, the use of forgeries expanded as the policy of repression became more widespread: soldiers on the run, French citizens and foreigners of Jewish descent, members of the Resistance, and finally those dodging the STO (compulsory labour service). These tens of thousands of individuals turned to forgers, who thus played their part in the disintegration of German-occupied France. Of the 150 forgers identified, two-thirds worked in the graphics and image industries. This body of work masks the essential role played by accomplices in the administration. The forgeries of the Resistance reveal new forms of violence in contemporary conflicts. Nevertheless, French society and some of the forgers themselves considered this activity to be morally dubious.