Noyautage des administrations publiques, also known by the abbreviation

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...

 NAP, was an arm of the French Resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

, started by André Plaisantin of the Combat

Combat (French Resistance)

Combat was a large movement in the French Resistance created in the non-occupied zone of France during the Second World War .Combat was one of the eight great resistance movements which constituted the Conseil national de la Résistance....

 movement, with the aim of infiltrating the Vichy Government. It was started in 1942 on a suggestion from Claude Bourdet

Claude Bourdet

Claude Bourdet , son of the dramatic author Édouard Bourdet, was a writer, journalist, polemist, and a militant French politician, who was born in 1909 and died in 1996 in Paris. He was a son of the poet Catherine Pozzi....

 to Jean Moulin

Jean Moulin

Jean Moulin was a high-profile member of the French Resistance during World War II. He is remembered today as an emblem of the Resistance primarily due to his role in unifying the French resistance under de Gaulle and his courage and death at the hands of the Germans.-Before the war:Moulin was...

.

The branch of the NAP charged with infiltrating the highest parts of the Vichy administration was called "Super-NAP", and was led by Albert Chambon.

The NAP only started developing effectively after the merging in early 1943 of the main zone libre

Zone libre

The zone libre was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during the Second World War, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on June 22, 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered by the French government of Marshal Philippe Pétain based in Vichy,...

resistance movements, namely Combat, Libération-Sud

Libération-sud

The Libération-sud resistance group was established by a group of French people, including Emmanuel d'Astier, Lucie Aubrac and Raymond Aubrac. The first important Resistant group to emerge after the German occupation, it began publishing Libération in July 1941...

 and Franc-Tireur

Franc-Tireur (movement)

Franc-Tireur was a French Resistance movement founded at Lyon in November 1940 under the name "France Liberté". It was renamed "Franc-Tireur" in December 1941 on the proposal of Jean-Jacques Soudeille...

, into the Mouvements unis de la Résistance

Mouvements Unis de la Résistance

Mouvements Unis de la Résistance was a French Resistance organisation, resulting from the regrouping of three major Resistance movements in January 1943 and also the merger of the military arms of these movements within the Armée secrète . Its committee was headed by Jean Moulin...

 (MUR). It subsequently expanded into the zone occupée

Zone occupée

The zone occupée was the area of France where German occupying troops were deployed during the Second World War after the signature of the Second Armistice at Compiègne...

.

The primary missions of the NAP were the passing of information to Free France, the safety of the French Resistance, "professional" sabotage

Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...

, provision of 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...

s, and preparing to take power at the moment when France would be liberated.