After being demobilised in 1940, Jean Delpech returned to Paris. In order to support himself, he worked as a technical drawing teacher at the “Travail et Joie” youth centre in Saint-Ouen, and then, from 1943 onwards, at the “Rue de Madrid reception and screening centre for young offenders” in Paris. Teaching was hard work and poorly paid but at least it enabled him to escape Compulsory Work Service (STO). Despite his lack of means, Jean Delpech came into his own among his young pupils and showed proof of real talent as a teacher. During this period, the artist created numerous works, drawings and engravings, providing invaluable testimony to life under the Occupation. They depict food shortages, empty shop windows and the German army’s omnipresence in the streets of Paris. They also show the damage done by allied airstrikes. These works seem to have acted as an emotional outlet for Jean Delpech, enabling him to cope with the period’s anxieties. Such fears were exacerbated in particular by Jean Delpech’s underground activities, forging false papers for Jews and Resistance fighters, activities that forced him to take constant risks.