At the start of the war, King Leopold III of Belgium chose—amid controversy—to surrender to the Nazi threat. A group of Belgian ministers and parliamentarians fled the country. After briefly seeking refuge in Poitiers, the exiles arrived in Limoges on May 31, 1940, where they were welcomed by Mayor Léon Betoulle. They condemned the king’s surrender in a vote and occupied several offices in the Town Hall and the prefecture. Belgian flags flew alongside French ones. On November 16, 1940, Léon Betoulle was dismissed by government decree and replaced by André Faure, a local industrialist.

Under German occupation, Limoges Town Hall became a stronghold and a key center of Resistance activity in the southern zone. Lucien Berdasé, head of the military affairs office and later the census bureau, became an indispensable ally to the Resistance. His efforts were wide-ranging: he sabotaged lists of Jewish residents, issued fake certificates for departures to Germany, hid weapons stored at the Town Hall, forged birth certificates, and established a regional network for producing false documents. He also provided safe passage and travel permits for Maquis vehicles, with the support and complicity of Laporte, the prefecture’s secretary-general. Suzanne Rodi-Boyer, who oversaw food ration card distribution at the Town Hall, also contributed to the Resistance by creating false papers for Jewish families using stamps stolen from the municipality.

On March 4, 1945, General de Gaulle visited the Town Hall. Georges Guingouin, a Companion of the Liberation, served as mayor of Limoges from April 29, 1945, to October 19, 1947.