Pierre Georges

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Pierre Georges (1919-1944), better known as Colonel Fabien, was one of the two members of the French Communist Party who committed the first assassinations on the brutal invading army in World War II (see Military history of France during World War II). By then many French communists had died in concentration camps just as many French former soldiers had died on building projects as slave laborers in Nazi Germany, while Jews were being attacked and killed by the Nazi state.

The son of a baker, Georges fought for the Republican side against the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War until the exodus of the International Brigades in 1939.

In 1940, he joined the French Resistance Franc Tireurs Partisans - at the time, still largely operating through the sabotage of German equipment in France. In 1943, he was captured and tortured but escaped. He made the ultimate sacrifice when he died while fighting for Alsace's liberation.

The former Place du Combat in Paris was renamed Place du Colonel Fabien in honour of Pierre Georges. The Paris Métro station Combat was also renamed Colonel Fabien, and the French Communist Party headquarters, located there, is often called that itself. Likewise, many streets in towns with communist mayors are named Colonel Fabien.