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Remarkable Heroes and Heroines of the French Resistance in World War II

Khalid Elhassan May 12, 2025 18 min

Resistance - Women and men of the French Resistance — Women and men of the French Resistance. Pegasus Battlefield Tours

21. Frenay After the War

After the liberation of France in 1944, Frenay served briefly in de Gaulle’s provisional government as Minister for Prisoners, Deportees, and Refugees. He eventually gave up on politics, and turned his energies to writing and preserving the history of the Resistance. His memoir, La Nuit finira (“The Night Will End”), published in 1973, is one of the major works about the Resistance period.

Henri Frenay died on August 6^th, 1988. Today, he is remembered a pioneer of the French Resistance – an organizer, writer, and patriot who helped lay the foundation for the larger, coordinated efforts that contributed to France’s liberation. His efforts demonstrated that early resistance, even in isolation, could grow into a national movement.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.