La Fayette, We Are Here!

The French Résistance - Refusing Defeat & Occupation

Episode 37

The story of the Résistance is the story of ordinary men and women rising to the occasion. Risking everything to fight oppression, to defend their homes, their country, their way of life. Being a résistant could mean many things. You could be part of a network, you could just run errands or messages, you could spy on the Germans or just not answer their questions properly. The Résistance took many, many forms, just like the collaboration.

Join us as we explore this troubled, violent and fascinating period of French history!

Timecodes
Introduction
05:29 - Rising from the Ashes
13:47 - Deciding to Fight
20:31 - Unifying the Movements
26:56 - Liberating France
37:07 - Conclusion

Relevant Episodes:
The Fall of France of 1940, German Victory or French Defeat?
Charles de Gaulle, Tales of Grandeur

Music: Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs, composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, arranged and performed by Jérôme Arfouche.

Photograph: The Résistance fighter Simone Segouin, aka "Nicole Minet", on August 23rd 1944.

Support the show

Reach out, support the show and give me feedback!

You’re staring at grass, your head pushed on the ground by a boot on your neck. A rifle is pointed on your back and a soldier yells at you. He speaks German and is furious, you can’t understand a word he’s saying.

A Frenchman comes, he talks to the German. Calms him down. You are allowed to sit up, hands tied behind your back. The Frenchman, wearing a smart leather coat asks you very calmly: "we know you were a part of this. All we need are the names of your accomplices". You answer that you have no idea what he’s talking about, that you’re only a school teacher, that you’re even an infirm, having been wounded in 1940.

The Frenchman says "I know all that, and my friends here have soldiers posted in your school and in your home. You better start talking before they get trigger happy."

You start crying, silently. You knew this could happen and yet you didn’t want to believe it. The planning, the bombing of the train station, the next couple days. All went smoothly. Until this morning, when German soldiers showed up in on the street, grabbed you and brought you in the middle of nowhere. 

And then you see an out. You jump, grab a grenade hanging from the soldier’s belt. He jumps back, you hold the grenade against you. Then it’s over.

The next morning, a man carries a letter in Paris. This letter tells this tale, adding that the man’s wife had been executed in retaliation. No word on his children. The reader, a resistance leader, throws the letter away and says darkly, slowly "on les aura !"


Welcome, to La Fayette we are here! The French history podcast, by a Frenchman! Today, as you might have guessed from my little drama piece in introduction, we are talking about the French Résistance during the Second World War. This complex and very important movement who played a vital role in the western theatre of war.

I made up the story I just told, but it’s a representation of countless real stories, some of which I’ve read. Being a Résistant could mean many things. Planting bombs was one of them, but it could simply be a gesture, showing a German soldier to go left instead of right. It could be carrying a letter. It could be taking a photograph. It was a myriad of activities, but all could lead to great pain or even death. France and the French suffered a terrible blow in 1940 and not everybody reacted in the same way. Some hid, some fought, some took advantage of the situation for their own profit.

It can be very easy to judge these people decades after the facts. That is something I want to make clear from the get-go. Were all the Résistants heroes? Probably not. And were all the collaborators evil cowards? Probably not either. We can't see those situations as being black and white, it is much more complicated than that. Let me give you an example.

In high school, I had an excellent history teacher, Mr. Schneider. When he covered the Second World War, he talked about the occupation of France, the Résistance and the collaboration. To emphasize that we shouldn't be too quick to judge he said, and I'm quoting from memory: "I do not know how I would react in such a scenario. If an SS officer and a couple of soldiers would just show up in my classroom and bark at me to show them the Jewish students, would I comply? Would I fight? I'd like to think that I would resist them, that I would be stronger than them. But I've never been on the receiving end of a rifle, so I truly cannot say", end quote. He was being very honest, and I agree with him. I don't know how I would react either. We are all heroes in our minds, in theory. But once confronted with the real thing, with the idea of pain or death, our heroism will vanish, more often than not.

Now, my friends, let's take a look at the French Résistance. How it came about, how it evolved and how it actually contributed to the Allied war effort.


Rising from the Ashes

I encourage you to listen to my episodes on the Fall of France of 1940 and on Charles de Gaulle to get some context on both the war and on the future leader of the French Résistance. For now, suffice to say that after a devastating campaign in May-June 1940, France was utterly defeated by Germany. This shook the world, as France was considered Europe's main military power, it was the great winner of the First World War. And yet, it had been crushed by the Nazi military might in a matter of weeks.

The French were, of course, shaken to their core. How could this have happened? How could the Germans have taken Paris so quickly? How could millions of French soldiers now be sent in POW camps in Germany. The country was on its knees. During this very chaotic period, a few very important things happened that will have dramatic consequences on the coming years.

The first one, is probably the escape of Charles de Gaulle. Recently promoted General de Gaulle understands that France is about to fall and embarks on a plane for London on June 16th, 1940. Two days later, with Winston Churchill's support, he goes to the BBC to broadcast his famous appel. He ends his speech with this call to join him, quote: 

"The destiny of the world is here. I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who would come there, with their weapons or without their weapons, I invite the engineers and the special workers of armament industries who are located in British territory or who would come there, to put themselves in contact with me.

Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.” End quote.

Although this call is not heard by that many, it cements the creation of a force for the liberation of France, a force that will be a thorn in the German's side until 1945. While de Gaulle is in England, starting to create what will become the Free French forces, ordinary French citizens are facing a new reality: occupation by a foreign power. And the Nazis are no ordinary occupiers. They are brutal and bring with them one of the most hateful ideology ever created. The French know this and expect the worse, especially in the North, the zone under direct German control.

Things are a little better in the south, were the French still govern themselves, at least on paper, under the rule of the Vichy government and of Marshal Philippe Pétain. Although this government is not as tough on French citizens as the Germans, it is a collaborationist regime and it will get worse and worse over time. 

After the military defeat, many French citizens want to do something about the occupation of their country. Some start to organize themselves in groups scattered all over the country. They are part of the Interior Resistance. They aren't coordinated at first and initiate small actions, from acts of sabotage to outright bombings, but they aren't very effective at first. They lack cohesion and communication.

Those of have answered de Gaulle's call and went to join him are part of the France libre, Free France, they mostly operate from outside of France. They gather intelligence, help the Allies, mostly the British at first, in their struggle against Germany. To add to the complexity, the Résistance is divided between the Communists and the others. In August 1939, just before the war broke out, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression. In September 1939, they divided conquered Poland between themselves. Because of that, the French communist party could not call its members to resist the Germans. On paper, until June 1941 and the invasion of Russia, the Germans were their friends. This was a great problem for French Communists. Many wanted to fight the Germans despite the orders from the party, and non-communist French resistants felt that they could not trust the Communists because of this. And remember, at the time, the Communist party is one of France's biggest parties, millions of French are communists. 

Hence, as is usual I shall add, the French bicker among themselves as much as they fight the occupier, especially in the first months of the occupation. But they still manage to achieve the creation of two key elements of the resistance: networks and movements. The networks are more militarily oriented, they organize sabotages or the extraction of fallen British pilots for example. The movements are working on the intellectual side of things, on the creation of newspapers. They try to rally the French population to their cause and to fight German occupation with their words.

Over the course of the war, many resistance networks or groups will be created. Let me name the eight most important. Ceux de la Libération, a right wing network created in August 1940. Ceux de la Résistance, less political and more focused on the propaganda and intelligence, created in 1943. Combat, created in the Vichy zone in 1940, more focused on action, with a Social Christian leadership. Franc-Tireur, a left wing movement operating clandestine newspapers from 1941 on. The Front National, a communist movement created in 1941, also operating newspapers. Libération-Nord, a socialist movement operating newspapers from its inception in 1940, but it will also be involved in many actions later. Liberation Sud, a left wing movement focusing on clandestine newspapers, with a military wing emerging in 1942. And finally, Organisation civile et militaire, a more conservative network created in 1940.

As you can see, it's a real mess. These networks and movements often operated in parallel, sabotaging roads, railways, communication lines, without much cooperation. They could even sometimes be detrimental to one another with some bad luck. Even though they had the same ultimate goal, the liberation of France, they didn't see eye to eye as to how this should be achieved, nor as to what should follow said liberation. Some wanted a return to the Third Republic, plain and simple. Others wanted the creation of a new Communist regime. There were even some monarchists in those groups! The Résistance needed consolidation, guidance. It would gain it progressively, in large part thanks to the efforts of one man: Jean Moulin.


Deciding to Fight

Jean Moulin is probably the most known French resistant. The movement as a whole counts many heroes, Lucie and Raymond Aubrac, Henri Freynay, André Dewarin aka colonel Passy, Pierre Brossolette, Simone Segouin, to name but a few. But Moulin incarnates for most people, to this day, the spirit of the French résistant. Let me tell you more about him.

Moulin was 41 years old when France fell in 1940. He was a préfet, in the Eure-et-Loire département, incidentally the départemental where I will be born, 45 years later. A préfet is the State's representative in a département or region. Their job is to uphold the law and to make sure the local authorities do so. They basically represent France as a nation, to the local level. Moulin, despite being a bit old for service, tried to get into the French army in 1939, but he was ultimately declared inapt because of his poor eyesight. Also, in 1940, the State decides that he'd be more useful as préfet than as a soldier. The French would need their representatives to help them through these terrible times. Moulin would indeed act as a shield for his fellow French citizens.

In June 1940, Wehrmacht officers meet Moulin. They accuse French tirailleurs sénégalais, Senegalese soldiers in the French army, to have perpetrated a massacre, killing civilians. The tirailleurs had committed no such thing, the French civilians had been killed by German bombings and the Nazis where trying to make these African soldiers pay the price. Moulin recognizes this and refuses to sign the German documents accusing the tirailleurs.

Moulin is arrested by the Wehrmacht on June 17 1940. The Germans beat him up and threaten him, but he refuses to budge. He then opens his throat with a piece of glass, trying to kill himself to prevent being used by the Germans. He is saved by the doctors, the tirailleurs will be captured as POWs. Moulin never signed any paper against them. 

He recovers from his wounds and first tries to remain a faithful servant of the State. But after a few months, he understands that the Vichy government is not the answer and that the French will need to fight the Nazi occupation. He leaves Chartres in November 1940 and heads for Paris. In his words he had to "faire quelque chose", to do something. Over the following year, he will meet with different Résistance leaders and will get in touch with the France libre of de Gaulle in London. Very quickly, he's recognized as a smart, courageous and clever man who can greatly help the Résistance.

As you've understood, the French Resistance lacked coordination. Different movements emerged from all over the country. They did share a goal, but not necessarily anything else. They also rose from the ground, not from the top, that made exchanges and coordination difficult. Fairly quickly, men like Jean Moulin would strive to improve this situation. They will build bridges between the different factions, promoting the fact that despite their political or philosophical mistrusting, they were all French and they all wanted to boot the Germans out of their country. But this work took years.

Try to remember also, this is a age where communication was much more difficult than now. Even in normal circumstances, everything moved slower than it does now. Operating in clandestinity only made matters worse. You could be found out, you could be betrayed, you could commit a deadly mistake. These people had to try and organize a resistance movement in a militarily occupied country, with a collaborationist fascist government over them. It was a gargantuan task. But slowly, step by step, they created an Armée des ombres, the army of shadows. 

From 1942 on, French networks worked with the British Special Operations Executive, the SOE, to track German operations, troop movements and so forth. Women where especially involved in activities of espionage, providing crucial informations for the allies. Informations had to be acquired for bombings for example. Let us cite Marie-Madeleine Fourcade who headed the spying network Alliance and worked directly with the British to spy on the Germans, but also to distribute weapons to other fighters across France. They would also sabotage factories or trains. Blow up roads, bridges, etc.

In 1941 and 1942, thousands of ordinary French citizens join various resistance networks or movements, all over the country. They do polarize between communists and gaullists, which creates lots of issues, on top of the more practical ones. Moulin meets de Gaulle who instantly likes him and sees him as the man to unify the movements. It's a daunting task, but Moulin accepts and works towards that goal. To that effect, he has to sneak out to England and be parachuted back in France several times.

We also have to acknowledge that many French citizens resist without being part of any group. In 1942, about 13% of French résistants are part of an organization. About 55,000 people are quote and quote "official" résistants. But many, many more resist the Germans in many other ways. 1942 will also prove to be a crucial year for the Résistance as a whole, let's see why.


Unifying the Movements

From 1940 to 1941, the French had created their networks and started undermining the German operations and helping the allies as best they could. By 1942, they were better organized, but so were the Germans. The Résistance also needed more men and women, and the Germans would create the circumstances to augment the ranks of the Résistance.

By 1942, the French had been occupied for two years. The Germans were cracking down on the population more and more often, with increasing brutality. The Vichy regime was also proving to be more and more a puppet of the Nazis. French citizens where being arrested, tortured and deported left and right, all over the country, especially in the military occupied zone, the north and west. The Germans, aided by the French police, conducted rafles, those huge arrest campaigns aimed at French Jews. The most famous is the Rafle du vélodrome d'hiver, conducted in July 1942. Over 13 thousand jews were arrested, brought to the winter velodrome before being sent to Auschwitz. The Germans initiated the rafle, but it was conducted by thousands of French policemen. Out of the 13 thousand people arrested, less than a hundred came back alive. None of the 4100 children arrested survived. The French authorities only acknowledged their responsibility in 1995, under the impulsion of president Jacques Chirac. An immense and horrible stain on France's history.

Faced with such barbarism, many Frenchmen and women decided that they too, like Moulin, had to do something, and the ranks of the Résistance more than doubled in a year. In November 1942, following the allied landings in North Africa, the Germans occupied the south zone, then called the free zone. The whole of France was now under direct German military control, with the Vichy regime helping them out, under the guise of officially maintaining order and French law. The last straw happened in February 1943, when Germany imposed the STO, the Service du travail obligatoire, or mandatory labour service, allowing the Germans to have thousands of Frenchmen go to Germany to work in the factories. Basically slave labour. When called to the STO, many Frenchmen chose to join the Résistance instead.

In the south, where the population is less dense, the French had an advantage: the country itself. They could hide in the forests and mountains. Live in caves, hidden from the Germans. Doing such a thing was called prendre le maquis, or joining the maquis. The maquis is both a Mediterranean vegetation type and also a byword for fleeing from the authorities in Corsica. These fighters where called the maquisards. From 25,000 in early 1943, they became over 100,000 in June 1944.

In late 1942, the paramilitary branches of the various movements are united under the name L'armée secrète, or secret army. They are to be under the leadership of general Delestraint, who will remain in post until his arrest in May 1943 and his deportation to Dachau, where he will die in 1945, days before the Allies liberated the camp.

On January 26th, 1943, Jean Moulin manages to persuade the leaders of the three main resistance movements, Combat, Franc-tireur and Libération-Sud to unite under the name Mouvements unis de la Résistance, or Resistance united movements. While they are making these changes, de Gaulle is also busy unifying the French forces outside of France. Put together, they form the National comity of national liberation, which will eventually become the Provisional government of the French Republic in 1944. 

Despite mutual animosity, the differences between communist and gaullist résistants diminished in 1943. Both faced the same risks and were tortured in the same way if captured by the Gestapo or the Vichy militia. The motto was France d'abord, France first. They were determined to make life impossible for the Germans and to undermine the Vichy regime, but they were facing terrible odds. They had to deal with the Gestapo, the German army, the French police, and also traitors within their own ranks.

On June 21st, 1943, Jean Moulin and seven other resistant leaders are betrayed, most probably by René Hardy. They are arrested during a meeting in a suburb of Lyon, in eastern France. Moulin is identified as the main leader of the Résistance and is tortured by Klaus Barbie, the head of Gestapo for Lyon. He's then sent to Paris, where he suffers further torture. He dies of his wounds during his transfer to a German prison in July 1943. This is definitely a blow for the Résistance and Moulin's successor, Georges Bidault, has a lot of trouble to keep the networks united. But the French have to find a way to make things work. If 1943 was the year of unification, 1944 would be the year of liberation.


Liberating France

In 1943 and early 1944, the Allies invaded Sicilia then Italy itself. On the Easter front, the Soviets were driving the Germans back after their victory at Stalingrad. It was becoming obvious that France would soon be the theatre of a new front. That is were the western front would migrate, to make the final push into Germany. The Allies knew that they could count on the French Résistance to provide them with badly needed intelligence and to strike against the German army to slow their response to the invasion.

The fight against the occupiers was taking its toll though, not only because of betrayals and arrests. In the early Spring of 1944, troops from the Vichy Milice and German soldiers attacked the maquisards hidden in the Alps and in the Massif Central. The French suffered heavy losses. But the maquis proved very effective nonetheless, using guerrilla tactics to harass the German army all over the country.

In preparation for the landings in Normandy, the French résistance was reorganized in February 1944 as the Force Françaises de l'intérieur, or Interior French Forces, FFI for short. In the weeks prior to June 1944, they prepared a vast operation to sabotage telephone lines, railways, roads, supply lines, etc. They also took measures to delay the German response to the allied invasion. The Allies used a poem from Paul Verlaine to let the Résistance know about the landings. On June 1st, they broadcast "Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne...", meaning that they are getting ready. On June 5th, at 9:15 PM they broadcast: " Blessent mon coeur d’une langueur monotone...", announcing that the troops are on their way. The French insurrectionists launch their actions right away.

They cause considerable delays to the German response. Case in point, the whole SS division Das Reich is crucially delayed by the actions of the maquis, preventing it from entering the fray and attacking the barely established allied bridgeheads. 

Later, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said quote: "We were depending on considerable assistance from the insurrectionists in France. Throughout France the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaign.... Without their great assistance the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves."

The Résistance also worked on local committees to achieve two objectives. The first was to keep the pressure on the Germans, the second was to establish order following the departure of both the German and Vichy authorities. A power vacuum could create chaos and many leaders feared summary executions of those barely suspected of being collaborators. Many were indeed beaten or murdered, but it would have been a lot worse without these measures.

As the Allies progressed into the country, the Résistance focused more and more on one particular goal: the liberation of Paris. In early August 1944, French workers and policemen go on strike, refusing to aid the Germans anymore. On August 19th, French policemen take the police headquarters by force. FFI fighters join them and form barricades to fight the 20,000 German soldiers stationed in the French capital. Paris becomes the theatre of a brutal battle in the following days. French general Leclerc, head of the 2nd armoured division, sends his troops to help the Résistance and to take back Paris. The city is liberated on August 25th. This event proves extremely important for the French, including for the post-ward period. In the legend, the French freed themselves, ousting the Germans from their capital without any American or British troop taking part in the action. While this is true, the liberation would have been impossible without American and British support. But legends tend to ignore such feeble calls to detailed accountings of events.

Over a thousand French résistants are casualties of the liberation of Paris and their action probably prevented the city itself from suffering extensive damages if the allies had sent in the tanks and planes as a first wave.

A similar story was happening in southern France. The allies, actually mostly French troops, landed in Provence on August 15th 1944. They made quick and efficient progress northwards, in good part thanks to the actions of the FFI. The Germans were constantly harassed and suffered heavily from the French attacks. A few months later, France was totally liberated and the war in Europe ended in May 1945. 


After the war

Thanks to the efforts of the Free French forces and of the Résistance, Charles de Gaulle could establish himself as leader and put France as one of the winners of the war. The Americans and British had to recognize this and to support France as it struggled to reestablish itself as an important power. 

France was divided into two camps: those who resisted and those who collaborated. Of course, the reality was much more nuanced than that, but many people took a black or white view on things. Men accused of collaborating were often executed. Women had their heads shaven brutally and in public, with swastikas tattooed on their foreheads. People took advantage of the situation to settle old disputes in blood. But the French government managed to restore order and also to make some much needed reforms. Thanks to their great contribution to the Résistance, women finally gained the right to vote in French elections. Social security was implanted in the country. They worked on reestablishing the French Republic with its prerogatives and rights guaranteed to all French citizens.

Even in the decades following the war, many stories circulated and lives were influenced by what had happened during the war. Former résistants were honoured in the country with the title of Compagnon de la libération. There wasn't much that could put you in better light than having been a resistant during the war. Their legend was even overblown, and in 1968, the resistants were part of the problem according to the French youth who wanted to change their country and move on. 

Before I conclude this episode, I would like to tell you a family story that my dad told me. Both my grand-fathers fought in the French army in 1939-1940. My paternal grand-father, Frédéric, was captured and sent to Germany. He stayed there until 1942. When he came back, he and my grand-mother, Odile, had my father, in 1943. They were living in Issy-les-Moulinaux, a suburb of Paris. In early 1944, acknowledging that Paris would probably become a war zone again, they decided to go to the country with their infant son. They moved to Brézé, near Saumur, in the Loire valley. My grand-father had an uncle there, a wine producer.

One day, this uncle noticed that bottles were missing from his cave. He figured he had a burglar. He was also an ex-soldier, so he and my grand-father decided to wait for the thief to come back to capture him. They sat in the dark at the back of the reserve until they saw two men. They were German soldiers. That night, they did nothing, they just stood there. Fred's uncle was furious and decided to act, Fred agreed to help him.

They waited a few more nights until the two soldiers finally came back. In the darkness of the reserve, Fred and his uncle jumped the soldiers and beat them up. The Germans run for their lives. Fred had an idea, to go check the morning call at the local Kommandantur, the German headquarters. During reviewing, a German officer saw the two beaten up soldiers. They didn't admit to their theft, they lied and said they had gotten drunk and fought each other. They never came back for more wine after that. Not a big contribution to the Résistance, but a good story nonetheless.


Conclusion

The story of the Résistance is the story of ordinary men and women rising to the occasion. Risking everything to fight oppression, to defend their homes, their country, their way of life. Being a résistant could mean many things. You could be part of a network, you could just run errands or messages, you could spy on the Germans or just not answer their questions properly. The Résistance took many, many forms, just like the collaboration. As I've said in my introduction, we should not be too quick to judge people who were facing such a difficult situation.

We can however acknowledge the immense courage of those who, despite the terrible odds, decided to do something. Those who refused to accept defeat and occupation. Some became résistants right in 1940, others joined up later depending on circumstances. Whatever their realities were, they all contributed to the French Résistance in one way or another, and that has to be recognized.

It should also be noted that not only French people fought the Germans in France. Immigrants also did their part, people who were living in France at the time and refused to let this country be ruined by the Nazis. For example, the Armenian leader Missak Manouchian and his men orchestrated dozens of raids agains the Germans in 1943, before being betrayed and killed. People from all origins, social or ethnic, fought for their freedom and for France's freedom.

Their part in the history of the Second World War is less and less known. Of course, nobody should pretend that France was only liberated by the FFI and the French forces, that is ludicrous. But we should still acknowledge that without these men and women, liberating Western Europe would have taken much longer and cost many more lives. 

Finally, their story should be a reminder of how people behave when faced with oppression. Some accept it, some even embrace it, but some fight it with all their might. And those will lay their lives for this fight. They cannot be stopped short of killing them. They are always a thorn in their oppressors' side. They never, ever stop. Even when faced with strong divisions on their worldviews, they find ways to make things work to achieve the greater goal. Freedom for them and their fellow citizens. Oppressors from all over the world should do well to remember the story of the French Résistance. Because this is not a French story, it is a universal one.

Thank you for listening, au revoir

People on this episode

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.