Introduction

Abstract

On 5 August 1946, the city council of Roubaix gathered in what was supposed to be a routine session. It was almost two years after the liberation. Roubaix, the traditional capital of the linen industry in the French department of Nord, was now governed by a left-wing coalition of socialists and a small faction of communists. During this particular council session, however, bitter political conflict escalated. The communist alderman Eugène Doyen took the floor, and using violent rhetoric, accused the socialist mayor Victor Provo of being a Nazi collaborator.¹ Indeed, the mayor had been appointed by the collaborating Vichy administration in 1942 before being democratically elected in 1945. During the occupation—according to the communist alderman—the mayor had refused active support to the Resistance. Moreover, he had supposedly given lists of local Frenchmen to the Germans for forced labour deportation. Two hundred inhabitants were present during the council session, applauding or alternatively booing Doyen’s speech. After this attack, mayor Provo responded publicly. He stressed that during the German occupation, he had always governed the city with the approval of the clandestine socialist movement. He had silently but actively supported the Resistance. He also mentioned that his predecessor, the socialist mayor Jean Lebas, had ordered him to follow this strategy. The latter was no longer there to confirm this; Lebas had died in German captivity. The political incident signalled the breakdown of the city coalition. A few weeks later, the mayor stripped the communist aldermen of their powers. A report by the department of 12 August 1946 concluded that the majority of the city’s inhabitants continued to support the mayor.