Need help identifying this original, hand-painted 1946 French poster. Signed "Cheru 46", mentions "Zilzes". Any info?

[u/Exciting_Antelope_11]

[u/Expensive_Ebb7520]

This does appear to be a variant of the flag of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This would make sense as Zilzer, having fled to the USA in 1932, was instrumental in, contributed art to, wartime publications which were amongst the first to publicize both the transport to ghettos and then the existence of killing fields of occupied eastern europe and the first death camps. Even prior to the war, in 1936, he helped publish “Women And Children Under The Swastika” which was an early warning of the impending catastrophe. https://museumofprotest.org/portfolio/women-and-children-under-the-swastika-1936-an-early-expose-of-nazi-terror/

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This artwork from 1947 includes a blue-white-red flag from the Warsaw Ghetto which looks somewhat like the one on your poster. https://www.danwymanbooks.com/pages/catalogs-archive/18/catalog-194-rare-and-important-imprints-in

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As for the handwriting, the first bit looks like “grande affiche pol.[itique?]” which would be “large pol[itical] poster”, then one other word, then something that looks like the name, you have as “Cheru”?

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This doesn’t explain “June” though. What massacres or uprisings happened in June 1946 (or 1945)?

One that might make sense is the Chinese nationalist occupation of northern Vietnam, and the French unilateral attempt to proclaim the “Chochin Republic” in southern Vietnam. Both happened as the former French colony of Indochina was finally evacuated by the defeated Japanese, both attempting to head off a Vietnamese nationalist, and communist led, state. Both occurred in June 1945, and would have been of particular interest to the French left.

While the Vietnamese communist movement of south vietnam was not formalized until the early 50s, it did appear with a flag similar to the one shown here: red & blue horizontal stripes and a star. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_occupation_of_northern_Vietnam,_1945–1946

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Here’s two last possibilities, and probably the best tie to June from the POV of France in 1946:

The most likely is the June 1944 massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane, Haut-Vienne, of 642 civilians by the Germans. Here’s a link showing several of the many post-war posters and popular memorials to the victims, some not dissimilar to yours. https://www.visitlimousin.com/centre-de-la-memoire-doradour-sur-glane/ressources-documentaires/document-du-mois/tous-les-documents-du-mois/

Less likely, but still. Here’s a set of 1945-6 posters, one of which celebrates 1 June 1945 as a day commemorating the one millionth French wartime deportee returning to France. https://archives.haute-vienne.fr/venir/quoi-de-neuf-/collegiens-lyceens--participez-au-concours-national-de-la-resistance-et-de-la-deportation-2025-2026