Although war broke out in September 1939, for most people it was only after the German invasion of May/June 1940 that war's reality arrived in Paris. Worms involved himself in the resistance movement, and in September 1941 was one of those who created the "Combat" resistance network, and the eponymous resistance newspaper. He operated in the Aude department, according to one source, as an "ROP" ("Resistance, Organisation, Propaganda") agent. In May 1942 Roger Stéphane, as he was known to resistance comrades and, subsequently, to posterity, was arrested and held in Fort Barraux which had been converted into an internment camp, but he managed to escape on 16 November while undergoing a hospital visit to La Tronche. His arrest had been mandated by René Bousquet, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry of the puppet regime which at this time was governing the southern part of France with the increasingly inflexible backing of German state agencies such as the Gestapo. The ministry decree mandating his arrest cited his "gaullist activities". He was later rearrested and held at Évian-les-Bains, let out only in June 1944 as the war, in this part of Europe, drew to its conclusion. He lost little time in making his way to Paris where, during the final part of August 1944, together with Gérard Philipe, he took part in the liberation of the City Hall ("Hôtel de Ville"). During the final months of fighting he fought under André Malraux in the Alsace-Lorraine Independent Brigade.