Arthur Dallidet

Arthur Dallidet (12 October 1906 – 30 May 1942) was a French metal worker, Communist and trade union leader in the Renault factories, who became a leader of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45). Dallidet was born into a working-class family, left school early and worked as a fitter, moving from job to job. While in his twenties he began to organize trade union cells. He joined the French Communist Party and was noticed by the leaders, who sent him for education to Moscow and then assigned him to assist the Cadre Commission, which checked the loyalty of party members. Dallidet was an orthodox party member, and supported the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. After the start of World War II in September 1939 the Communist Party was banned. Dallidet went underground and played a leading role in organizing the clandestine structure of the party, which at this stage did not actively oppose the Germans in the "imperialist" war. The French Communists changed to active resistance after the German invasion of Russia in June 1941. Dallidet was placed in charge of security for the armed Resistance, the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP). He was arrested in February 1942, and despite severe beatings gave nothing away. He was executed by firing squad. Arthur Dallidet was born on 12 October 1906 in Nantes, Loire-Inférieure, son of a fitter who had worked for sixteen years at the Chantiers de la Loire shipyard in Nantes. His mother worked in a cannery in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire. Both parents supported the French Communist Party (PCF, Parti communiste français). Dallidet wrote in 1933 that "I was brought up to hate the curé, the flic and the army." He left school in 1919, when he was thirteen. His headmaster found him a place as an apprentice designer with a company in Nantes, but he did not like office life and left in July 1921. He became an apprentice boilermaker at the Chantiers de la Loire, staying there until July 1924. Dallidet worked at the Batignolles factory in Nantes from 1924 to 1926.