Géo Gras Group
The abolition of the Marchandeau Decree on August 16, 1940, allowed the ultra-right French Popular Party led by Jacques Doriot to maintain anti-Semitic unrest in Algiers.
On 7 October 1940, the Vichy regime rescinded the Crémieux Decree of 1870, a law that gave French citizenship to Algerian Jews.
LICA members André Temime and Emile Atlan, together with Charles Bouchara and Paul Sebaoun, formed a pro-Allied resistance group.
Among its leaders were Fernand Aïch, Roger Albou, Émile Atlan, Charles Bouchara, Jean Gamzon, Jean Gozlan, André Levy, Germain Libine (future special guard of General De Gaulle), George Loufrani, Roger Morali, André Temime, and general counsel Raphaël Aboulker, cousin of José Aboulker.
On 22 October 1942, US General Mark W. Clark met secretly in Algeria with the Resistance in advance of the planned Allied invasion.
Supplies of arms by the Allies had failed, so very old Lebel Model 1886 rifles, stolen from the military by Colonel Jousse, were distributed to resistance fighters.
At 9:00 PM on 7 November, on orders from General Mast or Colonel Jousse, section leaders of the Group led their fighters to key positions of the city.
They seized as the barracks of 19th Army Corps, police stations, the arsenal, telephone exchanges, the office of the Governor General (also known as Summer Palace), the Prefecture, and the headquarters of Radio Algiers.
However, the Allied invasion was 15 hours behind schedule because of rough seas, communication failure with the Resistance, and the difficulties of the first Anglo-American amphibious operation in the ETO.
Resistance fighters tried to hold these positions as long as possible, resulting in the deaths of Lieutenant Jean Dreyfus,[7] and Captain Alfred Pillafort.
The action of the members of the Géo Gras Group was a victory of a lightly armed civilian force over the regular army.
[11] General Giraud repealed the Vichy anti-Jewish laws on 14 March, and closed the internment camps for Jewish soldiers on 28 April, but did not reinstate the Crémieux Decree.
In June, Giraud and De Gaulle combined the ex-Vichy regime in North Africa with Free France in the French Committee of National Liberation.
On 8 November 1943, the first anniversary of the invasion of North Africa, Giraud decorated the main organizers and French participants in the operation, including d'Astier de la Vigerie and Aboulker, whom he had arrested a few months earlier .
