MAQUIS: Most of the maquis operated in hard-to-reach forest and mountain areas, which explains why there were more in the south than in the north. They began as groups of men who had refused to do compulsory labour service (STO) or had deserted the youth construction brigades and were therefore breaking the law.

The AS, ORA and FTP approved these movements, which grew in spring 1943. In spring 1944 Allied parachute drops armed the Glières (Savoy), Vercors (Dauphiné) and Mont Mouchet (Auvergne) maquis, which had thousands of men. They helped to liberate France, in particular by preventing German troops from reaching territory freed by the Allies after D-Day.

MILITIA: French paramilitary organisation founded by Joseph Darnand in 1943. In collaboration with German troops, the militia hunted down and killed Resistance members, Jews and men who had escaped compulsory labour service.

MILITARBEFEHLSHABER: German military administration. The Germans set up a military administration in all the territory they occupied. The Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich was headquarted at the Hotel Majestic in Paris. Until summer 1942 it also had authority over police operations and conducted a policy of repression. When the MBF failed to catch those who had committed attacks, it executed hostages, who were usually taken from prisons or internment camps. The SS took over police operations on 1 June 1942.

MISKA: Bowl. Russian word that deportees of all nationalities used. In German: Schüssel.

MOI: Main-d'oeuvre Immigrée (“immigrant labour organization”). A pre-war group that the French Communist Party had created to defend immigrant workers’ rights in France. It was a force in the labour camps set up by Vichy and at the rural building sites that employed many foreign workers. In cooperation with local Resistance leaders, MOI created maquis and FTP units. Many of its members were arrested and deported.

MONT-VALERIEN: From 1940 to 1944 the Germans used Mont-Valérien, a fortress located in the town of Suresnes, to execute Resistance members and Free French fighters who had parachuted into France. As early as October 1945 the GPRF thought of building a monument there to those who had died for France during the Second World War. On 6 November 1945 General de Gaulle signed a decree opening a national subscription. On the night of 11 November the bodies of 15 soldiers, Resistance members and Free French fighters who had died for France between 1939 and 1945 were buried in a casemate used as a temporary burial vault. De Gaulle visited Mont-Valérien every year on 18 June, but work on the Memorial did not start until his return to power in May 1958. In a ceremony on the night of 17 to 18 June 1960, the 16 bodies were placed in front of veiled high reliefs. Then they were buried in the crypt whose door is in the middle of the wall. Since then, the ceremony of 18 June, organised by the Order of the Liberation, has taken place in front of this “Mémorial de la France Combattante” (“Memorial of Fighting France”).

MUR: Mouvements Unis de la Résistance (United Resistance Movements). MUR included three movements in the southern zone: Combat, Libération (south) and Franc-Tireur. It was created in January 1943 and resulted from one of Jean Moulin’s unifying missions for which General de Gaulle sent him to France.

MUSLIM: nickname for haggard deportees who were so exhausted that death was imminent.

MUTZEN: German word for “cap”: deportees had to wear one.

MUTZEN AB: German for “Cap off!” Deportees had to remove their caps whenever they passed an SS.

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