Faux Soir
Encyclopedia
Faux Soir was a spoof
issue of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir
published on 9 November 1943 by the Front de l'Indépendance
, a Belgian resistance
organisation. Employing the weapons of humour and derision against the Nazi occupiers, Faux Soir was, besides an act of resistance which cost the lives of some participants, a demonstration of Belgian comedy and of zwanze, the characteristic humour of Brussels
folk.
. It was relaunched by collaborationist journalists such as Horace Van Offel and Raymond De Becker with the acceptance of the German occupier. The most infamous author to publish in Le Soir during this time was doubtless Hergé
, with the cartoon The Shooting Star
(L'étoile mystérieuse) featuring his famous character Tintin
. The paper's propagandist
transformation led to its nickname Soir volé ("the stolen Le Soir"). Nonetheless it maintained a comfortable circulation of 300,000 (compared with just over 90,000 as of 2009).
The Front de l'Indépendance
(FI) was a Belgian resistance movement founded in March 1941 by Dr. Albert Marteaux, a communist, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, with the aim of uniting Belgian resistance fighters of various opinions and stances. By the end of the war the FI national committee would include representation from a large number of resistance organisations such as the armée belge des partisans, the les milices patriotiques, Wallonie indépendante, the Rassemblement national de la jeunesse and the country's main parties and trade unions.
Through these various organisations, the FI ran sabotage operations, escape routes, a false document
service, and circulated 250 different underground publications.
and Hainaut. The idea was to publish and distribute a fake issue of Le Soir on 11 November, which would be the 25th anniversary of the German defeat in World War I
.
Noël was enthusiastic about the idea, and along with Aubrion, he quickly put in place the steps which would allow such a significant operation to be carried out within 21 days. The publication date was fixed for November 9. The 10th was a Wednesday, the day when Le Soir would be published on four pages. The difficulty of printing a single page seemed enough, and the release of Faux Soir was put forward by a day.
Problems abounded. Firstly, Aubrion and Noël rapidly realised that the project would go well beyond their initial estimate of a few hundred copies. They decided to limit the circulation to 100 copies per newsagent or kiosk, adding a banner to each pack of newspapers which explained that the small number of copies was due to a breakdown of Le Soirs machinery. Nonetheless even this limited distribution demanded a print run of 5,000 copies, assuming 50 kiosks to give Brussels reasonable coverage.
Added to the difficulty of printing the fake newspaper, which in particular presupposed obtaining almost non-existent large-format paper and using printing machinery which was all under surveillance, the paper would have to be distributed under the very nose of the occupier as well as short-circuiting the normal distribution channels of the real Le Soir.
Through Théo Mullier, a member of the FI who worked for Le Soir, the resistance gained access to a printing template with the paper's title letterhead, and to a list of bookstores directly served by the newspaper with the time of day and size of each delivery.
Pierre Ballancourt, a linotypist
who published newspapers and tracts for the FI, put Aubrion in contact with his former employer, Ferdinand Wellens, a printer who would put his presses at the FI's disposal. As luck had it, Wellens was also a resistance sympathiser who already published for the FI. Wellens provided the use not only of the necessary paper, his workshops and linotypists, but also his presses, all for the price of one Franc
per copy. At this point the 5,000 copies were no longer a dream; it was decided to print 50,000, of which 5,000 would be distributed using standard routes. The others would be sold underground for 10 Francs each with proceeds going towards financing the FI.
The most tricky part was to ensure the circulation. One of the reasons that Le Soir was chosen was the fact that the paper was distributed in the afternoon at about 4 pm. Often, employees and workmen would have left work and be lining up outside the kiosks at the moment when the Le Soir was delivered; this situation was ideal for making quick sales of Faux Soir. The F.I's knowledge of distribution times permitted it to drop the 100 copies at about the right time. To allow all the copies to be sold, various plans were made for delaying the distribution of the real Le Soir. The British were asked to fly over Brussels on the afternoon of the 9th, which would trigger an air raid
warning and delay the printing of Le Soir. This would have the additional effect of emphasising the support that the FI received from the British. However, the British did not reply to the request. This led to a plan for sabotaging Le Soirs delivery vans.
By 27 October, the ingredients of the false publication had been assembled: the title flan, the articles, the photos, even the cartoon, announcements and the obituaries
, which were all written by enthusiastic participants. On the weekend of 30 October to 1 November, the paper was put together in Wellens' workshop. Wellens' linotypist, Julien Oorlinckx, worked throughout the weekend. The following week, the van sabotages were organised: at 3:30 pm, a few young partisans would throw incendiary devices into the vans parked in front of the Le Soir buildings. Théo Mullier would arrange to confuse the firefighting, and these measures together would delay the distribution of Le Soir enough for the operation. On 6 and 7 November the paper was printed by Wellens' machinery. The copies were carefully cropped to remove indentations which could act as a fingerprint
to trace the copies back to their machine of origin. The printing went on through the night of Sunday, and finished at about 3 am on Monday 8 November.
On 9 November at about 3:30 pm, some youths tried to set fire to the vans. However a passer-by gave the alert, and the sabotage was foiled. At 4 pm, the distribution of Faux Soir began. The bundles of 100 papers, tied with a banner explaining the absence of the usual number of copies, were dropped in the kiosks where the people of Brussels were awaiting their newspaper. The issues sold quickly without event. The customers went away, some of them starting to read their papers and stopping suddenly; glancing quickly around them, they folded their papers and retreated, astonished and eager to read the rest. In certain trams, to the great joy but also concern of the passengers, bemused readers loudly declaimed extracts from the paper. Everyone rushed to acquire a copy, as the deliveries of the real Le Soir arrived at the kiosk to the complete disbelief of the salesmen. Certain outlets were spooked, and stopped selling Faux Soir. Others offered their buyers a choice between the real and the fake one.
, a day late, performed the raid requested by Brussels. In the days which followed, the Faux Soir, gave great joy throughout Belgium. The 45,000 copies sold by the FI sold quickly. Some copies went for as much as 1,500 or 2,500 francs. 10,000 copies were distributed throughout Europe thanks to Dr. Marteau, the delegate of the FI in London. The paper was reproduced in facsimile
and had a comical effect throughout Europe.
The reaction of the Germans and the collaborators was quite the opposite. The inquiry was charged to the Gestapo
and ultimately identified the press machinery from which Faux Soir had originated. Wellens, Mullier, Oorlinckx and the machine operator Henri Vandevelde were all arrested. Wellens and Mullier never returned from the camp where they were taken. Somewhat later on, Aubrion was arrested; he was given a death sentence
which was commuted to 15 years in prison. In all about 15 people were arrested and sentenced to penalties ranging from four months (for distribution) to five years.
Faux Soir earned the FI recognition not only from the Belgian people but from London, in the form of a budget of 347,000 Francs at a time when financial support from London was unusual. If Faux Soir had been a good laugh and an example of Brussels zwanze it was above all an act of valour and resistance which had earned the death or prison of its participants. Recalling this gag which made the whole of Belgium laugh on 9 November 1943 never fails to evoke a smile.
with his arms on his waist, and his eyes raised to the heavens, saying "Das habe ich...".
The mystery of the two photos was clarified in a note which explained:
Moreover the titles of the first pages, as in the rest of the paper, seemed bland enough, for example "Effective Strategy", where the author strove to imitate the convoluted prose of Maurice-George Olivier, a collaborationist journalist who was a mouthpiece of propaganda communications for the people:
Another first-page article was the "German communiqué":
Finally, under the title "International week" and the subtitle "From picking back to defensive victory", Faux Soir drove the point home by asserting that:
From the classified section, to the obituaries and the advertisements, each paragraph was a farce aimed at one or another collaborationist, or hinting at the government in exile or the country's liberation.
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
issue of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir
Le Soir
Le Soir is a Berliner Format Belgian newspaper. Le Soir was founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel. It is the most popular Francophone newspaper in Belgium, and considered a newspaper of record.-Editorial stance:...
published on 9 November 1943 by the Front de l'Indépendance
Front de l'Indépendance
The Front de l'indépendance was a Belgian resistance movement during World War II, founded in March 1941 by Dr. Albert Marteaux of the Communist Party of Belgium, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, another communist...
, a Belgian resistance
Belgian resistance
Belgian resistance during World War II to the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany took different forms. "The Belgian Resistance" was the common name for the Netwerk van de weerstand - Réseau de Résistance or Resistance Network , a group of partisans fighting the Nazis...
organisation. Employing the weapons of humour and derision against the Nazi occupiers, Faux Soir was, besides an act of resistance which cost the lives of some participants, a demonstration of Belgian comedy and of zwanze, the characteristic humour of Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
folk.
Background
The Belgian newspaper Le Soir had ceased to appear on 18 May 1940, a few days after the German invasion of BelgiumBattle of Belgium
The Battle of Belgium or Belgian Campaign formed part of the greater Battle of France, an offensive campaign by Germany during the Second World War...
. It was relaunched by collaborationist journalists such as Horace Van Offel and Raymond De Becker with the acceptance of the German occupier. The most infamous author to publish in Le Soir during this time was doubtless Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
, with the cartoon The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
(L'étoile mystérieuse) featuring his famous character Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
. The paper's propagandist
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
transformation led to its nickname Soir volé ("the stolen Le Soir"). Nonetheless it maintained a comfortable circulation of 300,000 (compared with just over 90,000 as of 2009).
The Front de l'Indépendance
Front de l'Indépendance
The Front de l'indépendance was a Belgian resistance movement during World War II, founded in March 1941 by Dr. Albert Marteaux of the Communist Party of Belgium, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, another communist...
(FI) was a Belgian resistance movement founded in March 1941 by Dr. Albert Marteaux, a communist, Father André Roland, and Fernand Demany, with the aim of uniting Belgian resistance fighters of various opinions and stances. By the end of the war the FI national committee would include representation from a large number of resistance organisations such as the armée belge des partisans, the les milices patriotiques, Wallonie indépendante, the Rassemblement national de la jeunesse and the country's main parties and trade unions.
Through these various organisations, the FI ran sabotage operations, escape routes, a false document
False document
A false document is a literary technique employed to create verisimilitude in a work of fiction. By inventing and inserting documents that appear to be factual, an author tries to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief for a work of art...
service, and circulated 250 different underground publications.
The Faux Soir project
The idea for Faux Soir came to Marc Aubrion on 19 October 1943 while he was editing an article planned for 11 November. The following day he shared his idea with René Noël, head of the press department of the FI in BrabantProvince of Brabant
Brabant was a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1815 until 1830 and a province of Belgium from 1830 until 1995, when it was split into the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant, the French-speaking Walloon Brabant and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.-United Kingdom of the...
and Hainaut. The idea was to publish and distribute a fake issue of Le Soir on 11 November, which would be the 25th anniversary of the German defeat in World War I
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
.
Noël was enthusiastic about the idea, and along with Aubrion, he quickly put in place the steps which would allow such a significant operation to be carried out within 21 days. The publication date was fixed for November 9. The 10th was a Wednesday, the day when Le Soir would be published on four pages. The difficulty of printing a single page seemed enough, and the release of Faux Soir was put forward by a day.
Problems abounded. Firstly, Aubrion and Noël rapidly realised that the project would go well beyond their initial estimate of a few hundred copies. They decided to limit the circulation to 100 copies per newsagent or kiosk, adding a banner to each pack of newspapers which explained that the small number of copies was due to a breakdown of Le Soirs machinery. Nonetheless even this limited distribution demanded a print run of 5,000 copies, assuming 50 kiosks to give Brussels reasonable coverage.
Added to the difficulty of printing the fake newspaper, which in particular presupposed obtaining almost non-existent large-format paper and using printing machinery which was all under surveillance, the paper would have to be distributed under the very nose of the occupier as well as short-circuiting the normal distribution channels of the real Le Soir.
The operation
Although the initial idea was to make Faux Soir a counter-propaganda pamphlet, it rapidly evolved into a parody. Faux Soir was to become a full expression of Brussels' zwanze humour, aiming to amuse Brussels, Belgium, and all European resistance sympathisers. While the articles were being written and edited, the practical problems were surmounted at a speed which can only be explained by the level of enthusiasm created by the project.Through Théo Mullier, a member of the FI who worked for Le Soir, the resistance gained access to a printing template with the paper's title letterhead, and to a list of bookstores directly served by the newspaper with the time of day and size of each delivery.
Pierre Ballancourt, a linotypist
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
who published newspapers and tracts for the FI, put Aubrion in contact with his former employer, Ferdinand Wellens, a printer who would put his presses at the FI's disposal. As luck had it, Wellens was also a resistance sympathiser who already published for the FI. Wellens provided the use not only of the necessary paper, his workshops and linotypists, but also his presses, all for the price of one Franc
Belgian franc
The franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into centimes , 100 centiem or Centime .-History:...
per copy. At this point the 5,000 copies were no longer a dream; it was decided to print 50,000, of which 5,000 would be distributed using standard routes. The others would be sold underground for 10 Francs each with proceeds going towards financing the FI.
The most tricky part was to ensure the circulation. One of the reasons that Le Soir was chosen was the fact that the paper was distributed in the afternoon at about 4 pm. Often, employees and workmen would have left work and be lining up outside the kiosks at the moment when the Le Soir was delivered; this situation was ideal for making quick sales of Faux Soir. The F.I's knowledge of distribution times permitted it to drop the 100 copies at about the right time. To allow all the copies to be sold, various plans were made for delaying the distribution of the real Le Soir. The British were asked to fly over Brussels on the afternoon of the 9th, which would trigger an air raid
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
warning and delay the printing of Le Soir. This would have the additional effect of emphasising the support that the FI received from the British. However, the British did not reply to the request. This led to a plan for sabotaging Le Soirs delivery vans.
By 27 October, the ingredients of the false publication had been assembled: the title flan, the articles, the photos, even the cartoon, announcements and the obituaries
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
, which were all written by enthusiastic participants. On the weekend of 30 October to 1 November, the paper was put together in Wellens' workshop. Wellens' linotypist, Julien Oorlinckx, worked throughout the weekend. The following week, the van sabotages were organised: at 3:30 pm, a few young partisans would throw incendiary devices into the vans parked in front of the Le Soir buildings. Théo Mullier would arrange to confuse the firefighting, and these measures together would delay the distribution of Le Soir enough for the operation. On 6 and 7 November the paper was printed by Wellens' machinery. The copies were carefully cropped to remove indentations which could act as a fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
to trace the copies back to their machine of origin. The printing went on through the night of Sunday, and finished at about 3 am on Monday 8 November.
The final straight, and the circulation
On 8 November, the 5,000 copies set for direct distribution were issued at three distribution centres in Brussels based at cafés. Tens of volunteers left at set times to deliver their 100 copies to kiosks. However the news was not good. London had not responded to the request for overflight, and no-one had managed to contact the partisans who were to organize sabotage of the vans. A second sabotage was improvised, involving some youths who were participating in the distribution.On 9 November at about 3:30 pm, some youths tried to set fire to the vans. However a passer-by gave the alert, and the sabotage was foiled. At 4 pm, the distribution of Faux Soir began. The bundles of 100 papers, tied with a banner explaining the absence of the usual number of copies, were dropped in the kiosks where the people of Brussels were awaiting their newspaper. The issues sold quickly without event. The customers went away, some of them starting to read their papers and stopping suddenly; glancing quickly around them, they folded their papers and retreated, astonished and eager to read the rest. In certain trams, to the great joy but also concern of the passengers, bemused readers loudly declaimed extracts from the paper. Everyone rushed to acquire a copy, as the deliveries of the real Le Soir arrived at the kiosk to the complete disbelief of the salesmen. Certain outlets were spooked, and stopped selling Faux Soir. Others offered their buyers a choice between the real and the fake one.
Aftermath
The following day, the 10 November, the British Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, a day late, performed the raid requested by Brussels. In the days which followed, the Faux Soir, gave great joy throughout Belgium. The 45,000 copies sold by the FI sold quickly. Some copies went for as much as 1,500 or 2,500 francs. 10,000 copies were distributed throughout Europe thanks to Dr. Marteau, the delegate of the FI in London. The paper was reproduced in facsimile
Facsimile
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
and had a comical effect throughout Europe.
The reaction of the Germans and the collaborators was quite the opposite. The inquiry was charged to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and ultimately identified the press machinery from which Faux Soir had originated. Wellens, Mullier, Oorlinckx and the machine operator Henri Vandevelde were all arrested. Wellens and Mullier never returned from the camp where they were taken. Somewhat later on, Aubrion was arrested; he was given a death sentence
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
which was commuted to 15 years in prison. In all about 15 people were arrested and sentenced to penalties ranging from four months (for distribution) to five years.
Faux Soir earned the FI recognition not only from the Belgian people but from London, in the form of a budget of 347,000 Francs at a time when financial support from London was unusual. If Faux Soir had been a good laugh and an example of Brussels zwanze it was above all an act of valour and resistance which had earned the death or prison of its participants. Recalling this gag which made the whole of Belgium laugh on 9 November 1943 never fails to evoke a smile.
Content of Faux Soir
The reader's first surprise was on page one, which displayed two photos, while Soir volé usually had no more than one. The first photo, in the top left, showed dive-bombers with the title of "in the middle of action". A quick inspection revealed the unbelievable: the rosettes of the bombers were stars. In the bottom right, a second photo showed Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
with his arms on his waist, and his eyes raised to the heavens, saying "Das habe ich...".
The mystery of the two photos was clarified in a note which explained:
Moreover the titles of the first pages, as in the rest of the paper, seemed bland enough, for example "Effective Strategy", where the author strove to imitate the convoluted prose of Maurice-George Olivier, a collaborationist journalist who was a mouthpiece of propaganda communications for the people:
Another first-page article was the "German communiqué":
Finally, under the title "International week" and the subtitle "From picking back to defensive victory", Faux Soir drove the point home by asserting that:
From the classified section, to the obituaries and the advertisements, each paragraph was a farce aimed at one or another collaborationist, or hinting at the government in exile or the country's liberation.