André Bollier "Vélin" – Heroic Craftsman of the Clandestine Press (1920–1944)

André Bollier was barely 21 years old and finishing his studies at Polytechnique when, in June 1941, he was tasked by Henri Frenay with organising and distributing Combat, the newspaper of his movement.

A tireless worker, he brilliantly managed to combine his career as an engineer, his family life and the production of newspapers, leaflets and forged papers. When necessary, he did not hesitate to take up arms; it was he who notably led the spectacular escape of Berty Albrecht in December 1942.

After building a clandestine printing press from scratch on the rue Viala in Lyon, the man now known as "Vélin" was supplying, at the beginning of 1944, more than one and a half million newspapers and leaflets per month to several Resistance movements in both the southern and northern zones (Combat, Franc-Tireur, Défense de la France, La Voix du Nord…).

Arrested and tortured on several occasions, he managed to escape and resume his activities. On 17 June 1944, surrounded in his printing works by more than 150 German soldiers and militiamen, he fought his last battle with heroic resolve.

Born a few months after his father's death, his son Vianney Bollier paints here a striking portrait of this hero of the French Resistance, still too little known.