On 10 May, 1940, German forces marched past the Maginot Line and began its siege of France. Within six weeks, German forces were able to overtake the French army and establish an occupancy. This singular movement divided the north and south of France in two, and created a lethargy of shock to the French citizens who had been reassured by the French government that victory was assured. To many, following the Third Reich’s reign was for the best. To others, hurt pride and repulsion of such abuse from the Germans would not allow for a quiet defeat. Stated quite eloquently by Leon Landini “We were all absolutely convinced that we were changing the world… For these courageous people, their faith and beliefs were worth fighting despite the danger” . These ‘others’ joined forces to become the French Resistance, and with the use of guerrilla war tactics and propaganda, helped turn the tide of the War to the Allied Forces.
The French Resistance was a term used for the multitude of resistance movements against German occupied France in World War II. While the organization was separated at first by whom the citizens followed or why they fought, all worked towards the same goal: the liberation of France and defeat of Germany. Starting as a meager group of intellectuals, the French Resistance soon grew and gained support from Winston Churchill himself . While the movement started more with a whisper than a bang, “by the end of 1940, there were six underground newspapers being regularly printed in the north” , and was cited to have over 100,000 members by 1944 .
The spreading of propaganda and underground information on a large scale became a major role for the French Resistance, and the downfall of many German pushes in France. Mostly done through newspapers, the Resistance used the literary form to sway readers to their cause. Poems, such as Liberte by Paul Eluard, was used to inspire French fighters, as it was “printed on leaflets, distributed in mass, parachuted by the [Royal Air Force] in thousands of copies, in crates with weapons, [to] the French maquis” . Originally named Une seule pensee, it is an ode for French liberty from the Germans. The words, which began as a poem to the woman Eluard loved, soon motivated French resistance fighters with the hope of liberty: “On the golden images, On the soldier’s weapons, On the crowns of kings, I write your name” . The resistance also used newspapers to inform underground fighters of pertinent news and the movements of their ‘troops’. A newspaper, dated during the liberation of Paris (23 August 1944), reads “The insurrection of the people of Paris has already liberated many public buildings” . While the author of the clipping is unknown, they themselves played a large role in unifying forces of the Resistance through what may seem a small slice of paper. USE ATACK PAPER
Although the movement seemed well organized, such large-scale propaganda could not start on its own. Agnes Humbert, born 12 October 1894, was an art historian and ethnographer. In the early days of German occupation, Humbert felt that an easy acceptance of German rule was entirely wrong. With the other members of the museum she worked at, she helped create Groupe du musée de l’Homme– one of the first resistance groups of occupied France . Their base, the Musée de l’Homme for which the group was named, served as a base for intelligence in the Resistance. The leaders– to include Yvonne Oddon, Boris Vilde, Anatole Lewitsky, and Humbert– were betrayed and arrested in April of 1941. While the captured men were killed by firing squad, the women were sent to a slave labor camp, where Humbert spent four years in unimaginable conditions. After her liberation by the Third United States Army, she wrote and released her diary of the harsh conditions of the camp under the title Notre Guerre in 1946. She wrote in her diary “Before this I never used to cry; now I’m learning fast. The tears stream down my cheeks as we leave the factory every day after work, and I have no shame; I’m not even embarrassed enough to hide them” to show how the harsh labor camps could break a person.
To continue on relevant people, Emmanuel d’Astier de La Vigerie was a French journalist and politician. After his dismissal from the French Navy when Germany took over, d’Astier formed La Derniere Colonne with Jean Cavailles, Raymond Aubrac, and Lucie Aubrac. In the earlier years they successfully carried out sabotage attacks at prominent train stations , and distributed approximately 10,000 propaganda flyers– written by Silan Rees that the “posters were pasted over the thousands that poured from Vichy’s own propaganda machine” . After the arrest of d’Astier’s niece and uncle, the group decided to lay low for the time being, but soon began the newspaper Liberation. After meeting Jean Moulin, the La Dernier Colonne joined forces with the Conseil National de la Resistance (CNR) to unify the Resistance. Later in the war, d’Astier joined Charles de Gaulle’s ‘government’ as a Commissioner to the Interior. He went on to become the Minister of Interior in the Algiers Provisional Government in 1943 after being forced to flee France . Later, when the war finished, he was a main contender for a united labor movement in France, which he never saw reach fruition.
Lucie Aubrac, originally Lucie Samuel, was a French history teacher who married Raymond Samuel and took the alias Aubrac. She and her husband helped form La Dernier Colonne with d’Astier in 1941, and took a major role in the editing of Liberation. In March of 1943, Raymond is arrested, but was released after she intervened with the local prosecutor. Although his freedom did not last long: he was arrested once again in June the same year. This time, she claimed to be his fiancée, and that he was caught while visiting a doctor. When her plea did not work, she asked to ‘marry’ him, since he was supposed to be executed. She then broke him and 15 other prisoners out by an organized resistance in cars who attacked the vehicle he was in. After the war, she became the first woman to sit in a French parliamentary assembly as a resistance representative. (Use Lucie sources:2)
Jean Cavailles was a French philosopher who worked in the French army as an infantry lieutenant. Honored for bravery twice, Cavailles was captured in June of 1940. He soon escaped from Belgium to Clermont-Ferranc. After meeting d’Astier and creating La Dernier Colonne, they started Liberation, which became the words of the Resistance. After moving to Paris in 1941, he helped form the Liberation-Nord, a sister wing of their original group (now named Liberation-Sud). He was charged by Charles de Gaulle to form an intelligence network known as the Cohors, that soon reached into parts of Belgium. A coupe lead by, had Cavailles captured, not once, but twice when his intial escape plan failed. During his time in prison, he kept a diary about the harsh conditions the French suffered in such places, which was unfortunately published posthumously. Cavailles was denounced as a public enemy in (insert year) and actively sought out, so he escaped to London, where he had the chance to meet de Gaulle in person. After a brief hiatus in London, Cavailles came back to France only to be betrayed by one of his liaison officers and was arrested for the third time on 28 August 1943. Unlike the last two times, escape was impossible. In a quick succession of events, Cavailles was brought upon a firing squad, where he was shot and killed by the Gestapo, and thrown into a grave marked with ‘Unknown no5’. (FIND SOURCES)
The Maquis, who received their name from their propensity to hide in the deep woods and shrubbery of the French countryside, were the French Resistance’s fighting bands who dealt in guerrilla warfare tactics. Comprised of everyone from right-wing nationalists to anarchists, the Maquis was diverse group of men and women. Beginning as a small group of those escaping the Service du travail obligatoire– the forced labor and deportation of French citizens to Nazi Germany – they organized very quickly over necessity, and became a large reason for the success of the French Resistance. (can fit 2 sources from AB)
Other than the obvious use of guerrilla warfare, the Maquis’, was known to use common tactics forgotten, such as carrier pigeon and word of mouth. This motley crew started as a mash of willing men and women, soon turned into a well-organized group that “spied on Germans, sabotaged German infrastructure, and aided the escape of Allied soldiers trapped behind enemy lines” . They also were the soldiers to fight “against the Axis powers behind enemy lines” after being trained by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Operational Group (OG) . Not only were they trained by war veterans in the OG, they had close ties with Britain and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) through Charles de Gaulle. The band had to rely heavily on the British for weaponry and stole what they needed from German soldiers.
Though the Maquis could not be considered an army, they were fighters who greatly contributed to the liberation of France. In the beginning, they were tiny groups spread far using hand-made explosives to take out train tracks, or small ambushes on singular enemy soldiers. This moved towards a more organized and militaristic approach with the help of the OGs. Operation Justine, which consisted of the training of Maquis and the engagements of guerrilla tactics, started in June 1944 . Their first attack, an ambush near Lus-la-Croix-Haute, saw the death of 60 and wounding of 25, and 3 out of the 6 trucks destroyed .Although the German army later retaliated, the Maquis left the day with only 2 dead, a the first of many victories the maquis will help with. For Operation Overlord, fighters provided not only manpower, but much needed intelligence on “German defenses and carried out acts of sabotage to disrupt the German war effort” .
The liberation of Paris began with an uprising staged by the French Resistance. The French Resistance also helped with the liberation of Paris, starting the whole battle with an uprising. As early as April, Resistance members called upon Parisians of all ages to join in the fight through propaganda posters. Around 20 August, Resistance fighters began to organize for a siege, laying a battleground for the soon to be all out war in Paris. Until 22 August, small skirmishes happened all over the city in a bid to gain control of German resources. On the 23 of August, one of the last days of the Battle of Paris, German troops and tanks were commanded to open fire on the Grand Palais, a French Resistance Stronghold. In the 6 days it took to liberate Paris, an estimated 2,500 French Resistance fighters were either wounded or killed .
In conclusion, French Resistance fighters helped win the war and liberate France with their guerilla war methods and propaganda use. Regular citizens, like Emmanuel d’Astier and Lucie Aubrac, worked hard to sway occupied France to the resistance. The maquis also contributed enormously to the battles fought in France, despite many never being militaristically trained. In the end France’s liberation was due partly to the everyday man (or woman) who would not let Germany destroy their country.