The Fall of France

The French Resistance is a topic much examined by French historians searching to understand and highlight what was a small but fierce minority in France who operated in secret to actively resist and sabotage the Nazi invaders during WWII. The defeat of the French by the German Army in 1940 surprised the international community and left France stunned. The subsequent capitulation of the French to Hitler's demands was solidified by the armistice signed in June of 1940 by prime minister Marshal Philippe Pétain — a military hero of WWI. Pétain headed the new government from the southern spa town of Vichy, but his authority was limited, and many regarded the Vichy regime as a mere puppet government — particularly after 1942. Pétain's authority was confined to the southern half of a divided France. The Germans occupied the Northern half of France as well as sections of strategic coastline, and also reclaimed eastern territory that had been lost after WWI. The formation of the Resistance was a gradual process. Small independent acts of resistance occurred, but as far as a secret underground movement, the Resistance was still germinating. While the defeat was greeted with disbelief by the French, it was also largely accepted by the population. Questions still linger however: how had the French so miscalculated their defense and why had resistance to the Germans been so lackluster? Many historians point to the fatigue of the French citizenry, who were still recovering from the loss of young men killed during WWI. Others credit the bold strategies of the German military and the shocking "failure" of the Maginot line. Heralded as a technological marvel, the Maginot Line was a 280-mile impenetrable military fortress. It was designed to withstand intense artillery fire, poison gas, and included underground bunkers and gun batteries. Unfortunately, it was entirely avoided by the Germans as their superior Panzer tanks (Panzerkampfwagen) plowed through the "impenetrable" Ardennes forest as part of the Blitzkrieg that characterized early German victories in WWII.

Many contemporary accounts explain a kind of dazed disbelief that afflicted the French after this defeat. Paris was the city most immediately affected by the Occupation and inhabitants soon experienced food shortages and power failures, not to mention a drastic scaling back in cultural activities. Those who lived through the Covid pandemic of 2020 may recall the strange quiet that descended on formerly lively cities. In When Paris went dark : the City of Light under German occupation, 1940-1944 journalist Dominique Jamet is quoted describing this absence of people on the streets: "Paris without light, but Paris without cars, Paris without traffic jams, Paris without pollution, Paris without accidents, Paris without stoplights, Paris without noise...." (Rosbottom, 95). Others have noted the eerie absence of birdsong in the morning hours. In any case, the calm did not last.

Immediately after the so-called "Fall of France," General Charles de Gaulle (in direct opposition to Pétain's capitulation and Vichy government) established what would become the Free French — a government in exile based out of London. On June 18th, he addressed the people of France (though very few heard his initial broadcasts) and anyone in England who had tuned in, that the Free French were resisting the German Occupation. Slowly, the Resistance would begin to take shape as a varied assortment of individuals who worked in small groups (or cells) to protest and sabotage the German Occupation. It did not grow into a single unified organization until, arguably, the final stages of the War when de Gaulle attempted to present the Resistance movement as a more coherent force to the outside world — ultimately by creating the French Forces of the Interior (Les Forces françaises de l'intérieur or FFI). But, at their core, Resistants of all stripes shared the same goal — opposition to the Germans and to the Vichy regime. The Resistance-Nord had fewer members, but they created a more unified front ideologically. The Resistance-Sud had greater numbers, but was fractured into factions, with more Communists and anti-Gaullists. The population of France as a whole was also very polarized after the defeat, and even as time went on, and the sinister nature of Nazi plans became clear, there were still many divisions in French society. As seen in the notorious Affiche Rouge or "Red Poster" affair External, the Vichy government and the Nazis took advantage of these disputes and often made efforts to paint the Resistance as a group of foreign Communist criminals as a way to discredit their heroic efforts in the eyes of the French population.

The Maquis

In the rural areas, members of the Resistance were called Maquis External (short for Maquisards, a term originating from the island of Corsica). The Maquis were known to be ready for anything, and eager for vengeance against the Germans. Many of the Maquis were Frenchmen who refused to serve in Germany as forced laborers and instead joined the Maquis. There was an upsurge in volunteers after the Allied North African invasion caused the Germans (via the Vichy regime) to initiate compulsory enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers in order to increase manpower for Germany. Many men dodged this Service du travail obligatoire (or STO) and became guerrilla fighters who lived precariously in the mountains and wilder terrain of France. Sometimes, desperate for food, they would raid local farms giving them a bad name in some areas (though some farmers were sympathetic and happy to feed them). As the war went on, downed Allies also often joined the Maquis, sometimes after being rescued, hidden and treated for wounds by Resistants, or after being parachuted into France. These brave Allies often brought not only courage, but often specialized expertise from their elite military training. They were welcomed into the bands of guerrilla fighters. Arguably the most famous and powerful Maquis were the Maquis of Vercors External. Equipped with air-dropped U. S. Army combat gear and supplies, these brave men — including soldiers from the West African colonial troop the — Tirailleurs Sénégalais External — launched the Vercors Uprising in July of 1944 — just shy of the Liberation of Paris.

Resistants performed a wide range of subversive activities. Printing and distributing clandestine newspapers to rally support for liberating France, sabotaging telecommunication networks, providing intelligence to Allied forces, creating false papers that helped Jews escape, rescuing Allied soldiers, and destroying key infrastructure by bombing bridges vital for transport were all vital operations undertaken by the Resistance. More controversial were the guerrilla tactics used, and the assassinations of German soldiers, often by the more militant and better-armed Communists in the Resistance. The Communist Maquis were known as the Francs Tireurs et Partisans and they were known for their finesse and technical skill — as well as their ferocity. Their assassinations brought about violent reprisals from the Germans, who usually shot many innocents as retribution. The Resistance gained considerable traction as the war progressed, especially as the Germans became increasingly aggressive in their tactics. The summer of 1942 saw in increase in deportations as France was pressured to, and in some cases eager to, supply more Jews to meet the German quotas. The most famous roundup of Jews took place in Paris that July 16th: la rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver External (known as the Vel d'Hiv). This was the largest round up of French Jews during the Holocaust, totaling over 13,000 men, women and children who were placed in a large indoor sports arena. The conditions were deplorable, and as France witnessed the incarceration of entire families, the scale of the atrocities that were occurring under Nazi rule (and even under the Vichy government itself) began to disgust and alarm the general population. French director Roselyne Bosch's film La Rafle External, produced by Alain Goldman in 2010 depicts with heart-wrenching accuracy these unimaginable mass arrests during La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv. This, and other "round ups" in France began to turn the tide of public opinion.

Unification of the Resistance

De Gaulle was trying to unite the disparate factions of the Resistance under one name, and under his authority. In 1942 he sent French civil servant and Resistant Jean Moulin as his emissary to try to combine Resistance fighters under his name as the Forces Françaises Combattantes External (Fighting French Forces). By the beginning of 1943, with the war at a turning point and Vichy repression escalating, the Resistance became bolder and Moulin and de Gaulle had some measure of success in coordinating factions. Three networks, Combat, Libération, and Franc-Tireur et Partisans, joined together to form the Mouvements Unis de Résistance External. After the D-Day landings in June of 1944, the Resistance became even more emboldened and was instrumental in the Allied victory. As the Allied forces shifted the balance in favor of the French, the population became more outwardly hostile to the Germans. Making use of Allied forces and supplies enabled the French to play an important role in reclaiming their country from Nazi Germany.

The French Resistance was especially key in assisting the Allies after the Invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. They provided military intelligence to the Allied forces, and sabotaged electrical power grids and transport facilities. De Gaulle's newly minted French Forces of the Interior (FFI) had grown to 400,000 members. Resistants were sometimes suspicious, if not outright hostile to one another as trust was a luxury during these years. Informants were rewarded handsomely and Resistants had to be extremely careful about protocol in handling sensitive information including names of other members or plans for an operation or meeting. When a Resistant was captured and released there was often suspicion as to how they gained their freedom, perhaps by betraying their fellow Resistants. Today there is still considerable contention over who made up the bulk of the Resistance, and more importantly — who controlled the narrative of the French Resistance after the War was over. Many accounts, and even historical records, contradict one another. Leaving these contentious questions to the historians, this guide nevertheless attempts to parse out the many identities of French Resistants and supply ample research material for further study.

Reckoning with the Past

For many, the French Resistance may evoke images of young students bravely protesting along the Champs Elysées as they did in 1940. However, a rigorous examination of France's "dark years" under the Occupation demands a reckoning of the French national consciousness. It must be recognized that there were factions of French society that were sympathetic to the Germans and to the ideology of the Nazis. The National Revolution —Révolution nationale (a conservative ideology embraced by Pétain in France) as well as a sense that French society had been in moral decline since the beginning of the Third Republic opened the door for Nazi rhetoric and propaganda. Lurking antisemitism and old resentments were exploited and coupled with xenophobia to rally many French citizens to the "cause" of "purifying" their country of these influences. The attitude of each French citizen toward the German Occupation was obviously an individual matter, but as a whole many French citizens initially managed to tolerate the German Occupation whether out of fear, tacit approval, or indifference, and a minority actively supported their cause and profited from their actions. The German soldiers stationed in France, at least initially, were instructed to be polite to the average French citizen. Those who could, sometimes simply made the best of what they viewed as a wartime situation. There has been much criticism of France mythologizing and exaggerating the size and effectiveness of the Resistance — presumably out of shame for the degree of active collaboration that occurred. Certainly, accounts of the Resistance were used to create a narrative of redemption, however, that does not diminish the role that the Resistance had in mobilizing increasing numbers of French to rise up against their German Occupiers.

Albert Camus, an author and philosopher from French Algeria, describes the evolution of the French Resistance in his "Letters to a German Friend". In 1944, two of these four letters were published in Combat, the underground Resistance paper he edited. He was discussing the "reasons for the delay," meaning the slow response to the German invasion. Initially, these letters read as a justification of Camus' personal evolution from pacifist to Resistant, but they are often also viewed as a justification of the slow and admittedly ambiguous response of the French nation as a whole. This is due to the polarized population of France — especially in the years leading up to the War. The different factions in French society were complex. Those sympathetic to the National Revolution were disgruntled by what they saw as a dissolute lifestyle and advocated for a return to the traditional values of Work, Family and Country (Travail, Famille et Patrie). The French Communist Party or Parti Communiste Français (PCF) were anti-nationalist, and before Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, they were loyal to the workers as a class rather than to France as a nation. It was also widely believed that many Communists were Jewish, and possibly foreign-born, which played into the fears of France losing its national character. Many did not support de Gaulle, but in the end the PCF did end up working with de Gaulle's "Free French" force and even participated in the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) based on their common enemy of the collaborationist Vichy regime. These are just the very simplest divisions and they created endless tension and mistrust within the Resistance, and in France at large.

Commemorating the Resistance

While one single unified Resistance never truly formed, the small cells coordinated with one another. In both large and small ways Resistants thwarted the Germans and played a critical role in preserving the modern French republic. Judging from many of the memoires written, it was often the small gestures by anonymous resistants who may not have been official members, that boosted the morale of the citizens and individuals who were under attack during these fraught years. Resistance hero Jean Moulin served as a unifying force for the Resistance due to his truly remarkable courage — even under torture — never betraying his comrades. Jean Moulin's life supplies a seemingly infinite number of inspiring events, but perhaps the most unique, (highlighted in The Resistance, p.84) is how he used his hobby of drawing to taunt the Germans even after his capture. After being badly tortured and beaten by a Gestapo officer he managed to draw a vicious caricature and present it to his captor. It is sometimes these last moments of defiance that can feel vindicating and offer some sense of power to the powerless. While it is rumored the Moulin jumped to his death, many historians believe his captor was so enraged by his refusal to divulge information that he beat him to death — ironically defeating his own purpose of extracting valuable intelligence information.

Of course, not everyone is as heroic and crafty as Jean Moulin, but one of the best ways to study and understand this dark time in French history is to read some of the countless stories of ordinary citizens who risked their lives to hide, help, and save Jews — some of them worked for religious organizations, while others acted covertly on their own terms. This guide points to a wide variety of material including Primary Sources, Biographies & Memoires, and Underground Resistance Newspapers and Publications. Historical Fiction and Graphic Novels can also add a human dimension to this period in history. Looking at the participants — be they American D-Day Veterans, Women, African Colonial Soldiers, Jewish Partisans, Resistants in the Church, or Communists, enriches your overall understanding of the complicated landscape. Any serious study of the material and literature requires a critical eye toward agendas, biases, and inadvertent as well as blatant misrepresentations. It does not make for an easy task or create a simple narrative — which is partly why it is such an interesting topic.

With the Invasion of Normandy imminent, a poem was utilized as a sort of code to the French Resistance. It was broadcast over the radio to convey the upcoming liberation of France from the Wehrmacht (German Army). It is one of the most revered poems in the French language: Paul Verlaine's Chanson d'automne (Autumn Song). This poem signified the long-awaited arrival of the Allied forces on D-Day, and it instigated a enormous surge of activity in the Resistance. Shortly before June 6th, 1944, Special Operations Executive (SOE) broadcast the first three lines of the poem over Radio London. This signaled to segments of the French Resistance that the invasion was coming. When they broadcast the next three lines, the Resistance knew to begin a full-scale sabotage of the German infrastructure. The French Forces of the Interior (FFI) were able to greatly impede German mobilization by blowing up railroad tracks and attacking German Army equipment and garrison trains that were on their way to the Atlantic coast. This poem remains so famous in France that there is a museum dedicated to its significance — Musée du 5 juin 1944 External. The first lines of the poem are below in both French and English. To students of the French language, an audio version External is available online. Another poem that will forever be synonymous with the French Resistance is Le Chant des Partisans External. This was a tune by Anna Marly External that served as the inspiration to poets Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon, who wrote the accompanying lines that would make this the anthem of the Free French External, French Resistants and the Maquis in particular. The lyrics of the song revolve around the idea of a life-or-death struggle and capture the ardent and desperate fervor of the French Resistance. Both poems are deeply meaningful to those in France who remember these dark — but ultimately defiant years.

Chanson d'Automne

Les sanglots longs

Des violons

De l'automne

Blessent mon coeur

D'une langueur

Monotone.

-Paul Verlaine

Autumn Song

The autumn's throbbing

The French Resistance is one of the most studied topics in all of French history, perhaps as a way to find some sort of redemption for the dark years of the Nazi Occupation of France and the collaborationist government of Vichy. The Nazi Occupation in general is one of the most complicated and painful chapters in French history and for that reason it has attracted enormous scholarly attention. Initially, historians of the defeat tended to focus their attention on contemporaneous accounts. L'Etrange défaite by Marc Bloch was published immediately after the war and translated into English in 1968 as Strange Defeat. It was an influential analysis, pinning the blame on political factions and French society at large. La décadence (1979) by Jean-Baptiste Duroselle also blamed the Third Republic (the French government from 1970-1940) and what he saw as societal decay and decline over those years. Certainly, there was a general sense among the conservative factions of French society that the liberalism of the Belle Époque, and, according to some even the democratic roots of the French Revolution of 1789, had led France astray. The slogan of the National Revolution (Révolution nationale), Work, Family, Fatherland (Travail, Famille, Patrie) was the dominant ideology under the rule of Marshal Phillipe Pétain and the Vichy government. While he did use the energy behind those sentiments, supporters of Pétain (Pétainistes) were not necessarily sympathetic to the National Revolution. Many remembered him more fondly as the WWI "hero of Verdun." The nuance is very complicated and definitions of Resistants and Collaborationists can be — and still are — vehemently debated.

Beginning in the 1980s, scholars began to focus on the military factors that directly contributed to the defeat. Subject expert Julian Jackson's tome, The Fall of France (2003) dismissed the "long-term" factors as not having had time to come into play. As historian and professor Chris Millington stated in his succinct text France in the Second World War, France lost on the battlefield. A recent addition to the mix in the last decade is the publication of The Extreme Right in the French Resistance, by Valerie Deacon, adding further complexity to who resisted and what the Resistance meant to French citizens. The foremost expert, and certainly the most prolific historian on World War II, is French scholar and professor, Henri Michel. He was an instrumental figure in both the Comité d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale External (a committee of experts on WWII), and the Revue d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale (an academic journal published by Presses universitaires de France). The Library holds almost 50 of his publications, many of which focus specifically on the French Resistance and Free France. Extracts from many of his publications are available from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Titles include: La libération de Paris External, La défaite de la France : septembre 1939-juin 1940 External, Histoire de la France libre External, Vichy, année 40 External, Quatre années dures External, and La Seconde guerre mondiale. Les succès de l'axe : septembre 1939-janvier 1943 External.

The bibliography below includes some of the important scholarly works on the topic that are available at the Library of Congress. Academic studies are not the only way that we grapple with France's role during World War II. Fiction writers and graphic artist continue to portray this horrific and dramatic time in their writings and therefore this guide also includes sections on Historical Fiction & Film, and Graphic Novels. Other important materials include Primary Sources, Biographies & Memoirs, and Underground Publications and Newspapers. The guide also parses out the various groups who played an invaluable role in the Resistance and the Liberation of France from the Germans. These groups include: American D-Day Veterans, Women in the Resistance, Free French Africa and the Overseas Territories, Jewish Resistants, Resistance in the Church (both Catholic and Protestant), and Communists in the Resistance.

While scholars have long studied the French Resistance, it also inspired poets and writers. Poets both anonymous and well-known were moved to be spokespersons for the oppressed and persecuted. While Chanson d' automne (1866) by Paul Verlaine became symbolic of the Resistance, the following famous poets lived through, and often participated in the Resistance: François Mauriac, Albert Camus, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, Jean Cassou, Eugène Guillevic, Joseph Kessel, Maurice Druon, Marianne Cohn, and René Char. Louis Aragon was a Communist who remained in the free zone and participated in the Resistance not only with physical actions but with his literary activities. Paul Éluard was one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. His most famous poem of this period is Libérty (1942). Camus, editor of the newspaper Combat , and Mauriac, editor of Le Figaro had strong disagreements that played out in the pages of their publications. Camus was in favor of a full purge of all Nazi collaborators whereas Mauriac argued for a spirit of national reconciliation in the hopes of lessening the animosity between different factions. Their disagreements about the way France would handle the aftermath of the German Occupation illustrates a larger national dilemma of how to keep some sense of unity after such a bitterly divisive period of war. Kessel and Druon composed a poem in May of 1943 that evoked the life of the Maquis in France. The poem, Le Chant des partisans External, was set to a melody they overheard from the song of a young Russian named Anna Marly, would become one of the tragic anthems of the Resistance. It was smuggled into France by Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie (founder of the Liberation Resistance movement in the southern zone) and would be published secretly in France in Les Cahiers de Libération (Sept 1943).

The Song of the Partisans External

Ami, entends-tu
Le vol noir des corbeaux
Sur nos plaines?

Ami, entend-tu
Les cris sourds du pays
Qu'on enchaîne?

Ohé Partisans
Ouvriers et Paysans
C'est l'alarme!

Ce soir l'ennemi
Connaîtra le prix du sang
Et les larmes

Hear full song and lyrics/poem here External.

Relevant LCSHs on the French Resistance and related topics in various genres:

It is important to conduct many searches. For example, World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, French is a broad term which will bring you memoires of all types for this period in France. You will find additional works under France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945--Personal narratives. Also keep in mind that the Resistance was largely a grass-roots movement and therefore very local in nature so some sources will focus on a specific region in France, for example the work, Résister en Bretagne : les combattants volontaires de la Résistance des Côtes-du-Nord (2024).

When searching for individuals, it is recommended that you locate the authoritative name used by the Library's catalogers. For example, to find all forms of the name Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, browse "AUTHORS/CREATORS (Containing)":

While firsthand accounts can be subject to personal bias, they remain one of the most riveting and powerful ways to understand a historical event, and the person who lived through it. There are many memoirs about the Nazi Occupation and the Holocaust in general because it was a time of such acute suffering and incomprehensible brutality. Many who have lived through it have written about their personal experiences during those years — often as a way to remember persons lost to them or persons who helped them to survive. Memoire literally means memory in French. Memoirs are similar to autobiographies, but they are often limited to a specific time period and are not always chronologically structured to cover the entire lifespan of an individual. Biographies are of course accounts of a person's life written by someone else — usually after consulting a vast array of archival materials including the subject's own journals or diaries (if they exist), personal letters, and correspondences. Témoignages are statements made by individuals, often during interviews conducted immediately after an impactful event. After WWII, some such interviews were conducted under the auspices of the Comité d'Historie de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale in Paris. Past interviews, and sometimes interviews conducted by the authors themselves, can also lend important insights. Often these accounts will conflict with one another as time goes on and it is the duty of the biographer to point out these inconsistencies and do their best to put forward as full and objective a portrait as is possible.

"The Resistance did not consist of networks created by the Allies on our soil, but in the spontaneous rising of Frenchmen, the simple, voluntary movement upon which the future of our nation depended."

-The Unknown Warriors, page 132.

Primary sources are documents that originate from the time period under study. All of these sources are invaluable for gaining a full understanding of the history and the many viewpoints and perspectives that create historical record. Factual data, personal narratives, and visits to historical sites and memorials are all important parts of understanding the full historical context. For example, the section in this guide about WWII Memorials lists important battle sites and monuments that you can visit to make the full extent of the events of WWII more palpable. Talking to those who have lived it firsthand is informative and often incredibly humbling. The Library of Congress Veterans History Project has made this possible by collecting, recording and preserving firsthand recollections of U.S. Military veterans who served from WWI through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions. It is vital to compare all of the various sources available and apply critical thinking to create the full landscape of what occurred.

Databases can be one of the best ways to access primary documents as well as relevant journal articles. Many of these sources fall outside of copyright usage laws making them easier to access online through digital open access libraries such as HathiTrust External and Internet Archive External . Using subscription databases will require being in a library or research institution that subscribes to these costly services. Aside from the Library of Congress, in Washington DC the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum External has some important resources on the French Resistance.

Resources at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

• France Pendant la Guerre 1939–1945: Résistance et Journaux de Vichy (Voices from Wartime France 1939–1945: Clandestine Resistance and Vichy Newspapers) Provides access to the British Library’s collection of resistance, clandestine and collaborationist newspapers and other periodicals that were smuggled to Britain during Germany’s occupation of France.
• Jewish Underground Resistance: David Diamant Collection David Diamant is the pseudonym of David Erlich, a Jewish communist and committed member of the underground resistance during World War II. This collection consists of original documents collected by Diamant over a period of approximately 30 years, dealing primarily with the Jewish segment of the French underground resistance; many of the documents originate with communist groups, and some deal with Polish groups. Most of the documents are in French, while some are in Yiddish. NB: The Museum’s archives hold additional collections of materials collected by David Diamant.
• National Socialism, Holocaust, Resistance, and Exile 1933–1945 Includes 450,000 pages of primary and secondary sources from the Nazi period, speeches, SS and Gestapo reports, and organizational handbooks for the Nazi party and civil servants.
• Patriotes aux Armes! (Patriots to Arms!): The Underground Resistance in France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy, 1939–1945 Consists of newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides and other types of publications created by resistance groups in France, Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Consists largely of French-language materials.

A select bibliography of primary sources, biographies and memoirs in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, French
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France--Biography
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--France--Personal narratives

After the Fall of France to Hitler's forces in 1940, small underground groups began to form that advocated for resistance against the German Occupiers. These small groups would eventually evolve into a larger network of skilled Resistants who worked together — though in a loose configuration — to sabotage the smooth operations of the German forces. They did this through many means, including guerilla harassment, aid to Allied forces, and sharing of intelligence, but one of the most important means of resistance was the underground press. At great risk to themselves, groups of like-minded individuals joined forces to plan, write, and distribute these clandestine publications. Some of the early publications were simple broadsides, some were even hand-copied, though more sophisticated publications were typed or mimeographed. The content varied, and while the main purpose was to raise awareness and support for the growing Resistance, many also sought to convey relevant news and local affairs that were not supplied by the German propaganda publications. These publications gave the newly formed Resistance a shape, an identity and a way to communicate their mission. It gave them a voice to react against the Nazi propaganda and the Vichy authorities. They began humbly with a few hundred copies, but by the end of 1944 some papers claimed to have as many as 60,000 readers.

These underground papers were not limited to France, but were printed and distributed in all the occupied countries including Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands as well as other countries in Europe — including Germany itself (see,Tarnschriften External). Creating the content of these papers was just one aspect of publication. Also of critical importance were paper supplies and materials such as ink and typewriters. These were not only extremely hard to come by due to shortages and routine confiscations, but would also cause suspicion by Germans if located. In many cases discovery would lead to immediate arrest unless a plausible excuse could be readily supplied.

As these Resistance periodicals proliferated, so did the German efforts to suppress them. Thousands of Resistants were arrested and many of them executed upon discovery. Writers, photographers and printers were all taking grave risks. Photographers had to be extremely discreet. Often women — who did not arouse suspicion when carrying their large handbags — would poke holes in their bags, hide a camera, and take photos surreptitiously. As the Germans became more desperate toward the end of the War, brutal methods were employed to force those captured to divulge information incriminating others involved. These events provide some of the most brutal stories of German torture methods and some of the most courageous stories of Resistants who managed to withhold information — sometimes by killing themselves. Perhaps the most dangerous task was distribution. Not only were Germans on the lookout, but other French citizens who were either sympathetic to the Germans, fearful of failing to report "suspicious activity," or were active informants for the Nazis, would report these individuals (sometimes receiving a handsome reward). The most well-known Resistance publication is probably Combat, due to its famous editor, Albert Camus. While Combat began in 1940, it was not until 1944 that Camus' views had evolved in such a way as to enable him to commit to writing articles advocating for full-on resistance to German forces. Aside from Combat, other important Resistance publications included: Défense de la France, Libération, Liberté, Libre France, Pantagruel and Résistance. There were also many Communist Resistance papers, the most well-known being L'Humanité.

Newspapers were not the only format for Resistance publications. The Silence of the Sea, by Jean Bruller (pseudonym Vercors), remains the quintessential book of the French Resistance. The story is about the understated but firm refusal of a family to yield to the pressure of the German Occupation. The saga behind its publication gives a window into the underground publishing that occurred during the Nazi Occupation, and the risks involved. As Harry Stone explains in his book Writing in the Shadow: Resistance Publications in Occupied Europe, Bruller wanted to find a way to publish his short work, Le Silence de la Mer, and envisioned a way to establish an independent means of publishing clandestine material. Determined to be financially independent from either Resistance groups or the Free French government in London, he relied on a crew of personal friends and connections who were able to supply him with the necessary materials, including paper and a printer who ran a small enough operation not to draw attention of the Gestapo. A man named Claude Oudeville agreed to do the job. A childhood friend helped handle the binding, and in short order his underground publishing house, Les Éditions de Minuit (The Midnight Press) came into being. By 1942, he had 350 copies of his work, which he distributed primarily in the southern zone.

The best site for online access to these publications is the Bibliothèque nationale de France's digital library, Gallica External :

Newspapers of the Resistance External : Newspapers composed and distributed clandestinely during the period of the Occupation, with the aim of countering official propaganda and awakening the patriotic feeling of the populations. These digitized collections are freely available from Gallica's website and they are organized into a variety of subcategories to make searching easier. The last two categories (Political Groups and Clandestine Magazines) are coming soon. The categories and links are as follows: Titles External , Movements and Organizations External , Geographic Region External , Political Group External (à venir) and Clandestine Magazines External (à venir).

Another important collection is, La France pendant la guerre 1939-1945: Résistance et journaux de Vichy (Voices from Wartime France 1939-1945: Clandestine Resistance and Vichy Newspapers). This is available from many databases if you are affiliated with an academic institution. The Library of Congress has this information available on microfilm as listed below in the bibliography.

A curated list of underground publications available at the Library of Congress is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France--Periodicals
France--History--German occupation, 1940-1944--Sources
Paris (France)--Newspapers

France during the years of World War II has long attracted the attention of writers and film directors eager to wrestle with the complicated and dark themes that dominate the Nazi Occupation. The forces that tore France apart —some internal, some external — make for an intense backdrop and a variety of compelling themes and characters. Obviously, the excitement and risk involved in the Resistance movement is a topic that draws many readers eager to hear about the underground network as well as the isolated resistors who worked alone in both big and small ways to thwart the Germans. But, how did individuals from all walks of life cope with the sudden occupation of their country — the takeover of life as they knew it? Set during this time, the popular series Un village français External was so popular that it was only later turned into a book. Multiple seasons explore how businessmen, Communists, housewives, teachers, policemen, and Jews (both French and foreign-born), navigate the new and ever-changing landscape dominated by the Germans. As the years pass in this long-running show, the sinister horror of the Nazi plan became more apparent. Food and supplies grow increasingly scarce. The need to survive compromises the actions of even the strongest characters, while others die for their convictions. Following the storyline of these characters as they try to make sense of their circumstances makes for compelling, if excruciating, reading (or viewing). The courageous efforts of some characters are moving and inspiring, while the morally corrupt decisions made by others can only be viewed with disgust. Like much of French fiction, these novels have a strong basis in reality. Spies, double agents, and forbidden love stories fill the pages, as do the unspeakable injustice and brutality that characterize the so-called "Dark Years" of France. As France itself grapples with this era in its history, writers continue to seek a way to interpret, and perhaps reconcile, the events of the Nazi Occupation of France.

A select bibliography of popular historical fiction in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

World War, 1939-1945--France--Fiction
France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945--Fiction
World War, 1939-1945--France--Juvenile fiction

Below the bibliography of historical fiction, there is a list of films on the French Resistance, including a few series that are available on most streaming platforms. Cinema can be one of the most effective ways to immerse oneself in the time period and fully experience the difficulties and circumstances of those who lived through these years. More film suggestions External.

The immense storytelling power of the graphic novel has been proven by best-selling works such as Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis series about her childhood in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. And given the popularity of graphic novels and bande dessinée in France, it is not surprising to see French writers and illustrators draw from themes and events of the French Resistance from a variety of different vantage points. Young children are often the chosen heroes in these works. Abandoned due to the Nazi roundup of their Jewish parents, they are often forced to take on roles beyond their years, and form deep friendships as a result. Protagonists have difficulty knowing who to trust, and suffer from chronic fear and confusion. Many of the stories are based on historical fact, and portray the nuance and deceit that characterized this period.

Il etait une fois en France, for example, tells the story of Joseph Joanovici, a Romanian Jew who made his fortune in scrap metal and became a Nazi collaborator and profiteer during the Occupation. However, he also secretly used his wealth to aid the French Resistance and free his fellow Jews from the Nazis. Thus, we see how there were often two sides to this complicated time in history. The Resistance was not just a network of well-organized young rebels, but was also a term for citizens who resisted the Nazi Occupation in small ways, often dangerous, to establish a small degree of agency and refusal by whatever means were at their disposal. Nous n'irons pas voir Auschwitz (We are Not Going to See Auschwitz), by Jérémie Dres, takes the reader forward into the future by exploring the next generation's reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust (Shoah) as his character, a young Parisian, seeks to understand the history of his Polish heritage in the context of his family's homeland in modern-day Poland.

A select bibliography of popular graphic novels in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945--Comic books, strips, etc.
Nazis--France--Comic books, strips, etc.
Jews--France--Paris--Comic books, strips, etc.
World War, 1939-1945--France--Comic books, strips, etc.
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France--Comic books, strips, etc.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--France--Comic books, strips, etc.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of the "D-Day" Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches on June 6th, 1944. It marked the turning point in WWII where the Allied forces began to have the advantage over the Axis powers, and within the year, Germany would surrender. It also emboldened members of the Resistance in France to act more overtly in sabotaging the German war efforts and boosted the morale of the French at a pivotal moment. Allied troops on D-Day are estimated at 150,000 and the American casualties are numbered at 6,000. June 6, 2024 is the 80th anniversary of this operation and provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the individuals who bravely put themselves in harm's way to defeat the German Army.

For those French citizens who had lived under Nazi Occupation for four years, the Allied Invasion of Normandy was a sign of hope and relief. Many began tuning into Radio London to track the progress of the Allied troops. Rumors and expectations abounded, but the general mood became one of optimism and there was a surge in the spirits of the French nation. Although liberating Paris was not an Allied priority, the French Resistance instigated an uprising on August 19th that forced the issue. A battle ensued from August 19th-25th and the Germans were forced to surrender the city. By the end of August the Liberation of Paris  External caused celebrations in the streets. There was a mix of chaos and excitement as tank after tank rolled down the streets and shots were fired. On August 26th there was an enormous triumphal parade along the Champs-Élysées, and Charles de Gaulle gave an inspiring speech. Parisian civilians flooded the streets with make-shift French flags — often that had been made at home from old sheets and fabric dye. There was a sense of euphoria and elation that day, but the coming months would consist of some degree of confusion and continued battles to ensure liberation throughout France. It was during these months that many average citizens joined in with resistance activities and the common cause of French independence became a unifying factor — at least for the moment.

The Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did, and felt during their service. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, VHP published a D-Day blog series that touched on many aspects of the D-Day experience and highlights hidden facets of D-Day that are represented in the VHP'S collections. These blogs tell the personal stories of those who made D-Day a success for the Allied Forces. Some were storming the beaches, others were directing the landings or even parachuting in after June 6th to continue the fight on the ground, pushing the Germans further back. Another way to access the trove of information about this momentous event is the interactive Story Map, "D-Day Journeys: Personal Geographies of D-Day," which chronicles the individual journeys of four D-Day veterans. A Story Map uses text, images, primary sources, maps and oral history interviews for a truly immersive experience for the user. Listening to the first-person testimony of someone who was present at an event of such historical significance is not just incredibly moving, but is also a way to honor the sacrifices made to secure our freedom. The VHP has made it their mission to record and preserve these precious and remarkable stories so that future citizens and researchers have access to the experiences of our past heroes.

The Library is also fortunate to have custody of World War II Sketches by Victor A. Lundy. As the Library's research guide states, noted architect Victor Alfred Lundy was born in 1923 in New York City. He served in the U.S. 26th Infantry Division during World War II. In 1942, Lundy was 19, studying to be an architect in New York City. Excited about rebuilding Europe post-war, he and other college men enlisted in the Army Special Training Program (ASTP). His visual diaries comprised of 159 pencil drawings in 8 sketchbooks bring to life his wartime experience.

The sketches cover May to November 1944, with some gaps where sketchbooks were lost. The eight surviving sketchbooks are spiral bound and 3 x 5 inches—small enough to fit in a breast pocket. Lundy used black Hardtmuth leads (a drawing pencil) and sketched quickly. "For me, drawing is sort of synonymous with thinking."

After the conclusion of World War II, Lundy completed a degree in architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Winning the prestigious Rotch Traveling Scholarship allowed him to travel abroad. In 1954, Lundy opened an architectural firm in Sarasota, Florida. In 1967, the American Institute of Architects named him a Fellow--one of its highest honors. Lundy moved to Houston, Texas, in the 1970s. Among the notable buildings designed by this master artist-architect are churches with soaring roof lines, the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka.

Lundy has donated his architectural archive to the Library of Congress, including these World War II sketchbooks presented in 2009.

Below is a curated list of resources related to D-Day held in the Library of Congress.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

The Invasion of Normandy, also referred to as "Operation Overlord," occurred on June 6th, 1944. Along with the earlier battles of El Alamein in North Africa and Stalingrad in Russia, D-Day is often argued to be the turning point in the Second World War. After crossing over the choppy waves of the English channel, the Allied Forces were tasked with liberating the beaches of Normandy and the surrounding towns, thus initiating the liberation of France itself from the Nazi Occupation. The weather presented near impossible conditions and the courage required to push forward are the reasons why so many still long to pay respects and learn about these heroic efforts by Allied Soldiers. There are a good number of battle sites, museums, memorials and cemeteries honoring those who fought in WWII in France, but of all the sites in this region, perhaps none have such a strong impact upon visitors as the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It officially opened on July 18th, 1956 and now serves as the final resting place for 9,388 US soldiers. Technically on American soil, since the French gifted this land to the US after the War, it offers a commanding overlook of Omaha Beach. It also hosts the grave sites of Robert and Preston Niland, and can be seen in the opening and closing scenes of the epic WWII film, Saving Private Ryan (a film inspired by the stories of the Niland brothers). It is laid out in the form of a Latin cross with a chapel located at the intersection of the arms. The bronze statue Âme de la jeunesse Américaine, or "Spirit of American Youth Rising From the Waves" is pictured further down on this page. To locate specific individual memorials one can use the Omaha Beach Memorial External site which lists soldiers and provides their photographs.

For those interested in America's role in France during the war there are several well-regarded and historically accurate books and films on the topic. Popular books include Band of Brothers and D-Day, June 6, 1944 : the Climactic Battle of World War II, both written by Stephen Ambrose, Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben MacIntyre, and Omaha Beach, by Joseph Balkoski (author of several other WWII books). The film mentioned above, Saving Private Ryan, directed by Stephen Spielberg (1998), is one of the most beloved classics. Other epic films include The Longest Day, based on Cornelius Ryan's 1959 non-fiction book of the same name, Band of Brothers, a series created by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks (2001) and based on Stephen Ambrose's 1992 book of the same name, Ike-Countdown to D-Day (2004), and Storming Juno (2010), which tells the story of the Allied invasion through Canadian eyes.

It is important to keep in mind that cemeteries and memorials for WWI are also scattered across the "Western Front," including the Somme American Cemetery and Memorial External, located in the region of Picardie in Northern France. This guide is limited to the sites of WWII. Many visitors try to pay their respects as close to June 6th, D-day, as possible. On anniversary years such as 2024, the 80th anniversary of D-Day External, there are often a large number of veterans, many of whom are more than willing to share their harrowing stories of courage. Other special commemorative activities are planned by the French government to honor their American, British and Canadian Allies. The French Tourism Board has compiled a guide to the area sites External.

Normandy Museums and Sites

The five Normandy beaches are Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. For those who are interested in visiting either the landing beaches, museums, memorials or the many battle sites, here are some of the most popular for American travelers.

Musée du Débarquement: Arromanches External — The D-Day Museum in Arromanches, created in the aftermath of the Second World War, was the first museum to commemorate the Landings. As early as 1945, local councils in the area of the Landings were meeting regularly to coordinate the necessary reconstruction: the Prefect of Normandy was presented with their proposals for urban and regional planning and development, signal monuments and commemorative plaques, and the organization of anniversary ceremonies. The D-Day Commemoration Committee, founded in 1945, was tasked with the commemoration of 6 June 1945. Arromanches-les-Bains External itself is a particularly delightful town and a very good base from which to visit various other sites. The museum has been renovated and reopened in honor of the 80th anniversary in June 2024 External.

Omaha Beach External — Ground zero for American D-Day history, one can see the sculpture by French artist Anilore Banon External, "Les Braves".

Pointe du Hoc External — Cliff overlooking the English Channel that is located between Utah and Omaha beaches. Troops were dispatched here to prevent German artillery stationed there from firing on the landing forces at both Omaha and Utah Beaches. One of the most breathtaking sites along the Normandy coast. Close proximity to both the D-Day Landing Museum External and the Overlord Museum External as well as the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Pointe du Hoc also has its own visitor center and one can view and walk among the preserved bunkers and gun emplacements.

Caen Normandy Memorial Museum External — Built on top of a former underground headquarters of a German General and opened in 1986. This museum, one of the largest in the world, covers the entire saga of WWII including D-Day.

Musée-Mémorial de la Bataille de Normandy: Bayeux External — An exhibition of the military operations carried out for the Battle of Normandy during the summer of 1944. Inaugurated in 1981, the museum is located in the heart of one of the strategic locations of the Battle of Normandy: the city of Bayeux, the first city liberated in continental France on June 7, 1944. At the heart of the city's "memory center," called Liberty Alley, the museum is located very close to the War Reporters Memorial Garden and the British military cemetery. One might also wish to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry External, which tells the story leading up to the Normand Conquest of England in 1066 External led by none other than William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy).

D-Day Experience: Carentan External — A unique audio-visual presentation and a simulated ride in a C-47 transport aircraft makes this museum stand out from the rest. It also exhibits a collection of mementoes, uniforms and equipment used by both American and German airborne forces that fought in the area. Formerly known as Dead Man's Corner Museum.

Musée du Débarquement Utah Beach: Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Plage de la Madeleine External — Utah Beach was the first beach to be stormed by the Allies on the morning of 6 June 1944. It was chosen to establish a beachhead in the Cotentin region in order to capture the town of Cherbourg and its deep water port. At the end of the day, more than 23,000 American soldiers landed to fight a titanic battle and liberate France. The Utah Beach Landing Museum preserves the memory of these men. Opened in 1962 by the mayor of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, it houses a collection of military equipment, arms, photographs and artifacts of the landing. Built on the very spot where American troops landed on 6 June 1944, the museum tells the story of D-Day in ten sequences, from its preparation to its successful conclusion.

Musée Mémorial Omaha: St. Laurent-sur-Mer External — The museum is located on Omaha Beach itself, where the American naval landing called Bloody Omaha took place on June 6. The 1400m² Omaha Beach Memorial Museum was founded in memory of all those young men who died in 1944 and whose memory we are duty bound to keep so that future generations may never forget at what cost our freedom came. It contains a selection of uniforms, vehicles, personal objects and weapons. Many reconstitutions of American and German service life transport you into the heart of the D-day story, permitting a look into the daily lives of those who landed to liberate us and to whom we owe our profound respect. Superb archival photographs and explanatory notes on the landing at Omaha. Thematic signs depicting all the phases of the period of the occupation until the landing. During the visit, a film featuring American veteran’s testimonies will guide you through the story of the D-day landing on Omaha and Point du Hoc.

Musée de la Libération: Cherbourg External — Located in Fort du Route 177 meters above sea level overlooking Cherbourg. The museum covers both military and civilian life in Cherbourg, from living under German occupation up until liberation on the 25th June 1944. Cherbourg’s port was the first to be captured in Normandy and was used to supply the Allies in Europe with 25,000 tons of equipment unloaded every day. The museum's website itself is currently under construction, but information can be found on travel and tourism links.

Women had a unique ability to serve as Resistants, in some part due to views among many Nazis that women were harmless and non-threatening. This misconception among the Germans meant that women were by default granted much greater latitude in moving around — and when apprehended were much more likely to convince officers or soldiers of their innocence. Often overlooked, they served as consummate spies. Often speeding along by bicycle, women devised all manner of ways to hide items in their purses and baskets. They used baby carriages as a sort of camouflage to transport goods. French women were unrivaled in their aplomb at casually chatting with German officers while sneaking Resistance materials to their next destination. Women were invaluable as messengers and couriers; they carried everything from arms and ammunition to intelligence and Resistance propaganda. They also rescued airmen shot down by German forces, and operated what were called "escape lines" that served to usher US and British servicemen into safety. They gathered military intelligence (some of these women even worked with Madames in brothels that were frequented by German soldiers and where information could be gathered secretly), decoded messages, managed underground publications, ran guns, provided support for strikers, and carried out sabotage of German communications. They worked in organizational capacities as typists and counterfeiters, and proved themselves brave and extraordinarily wily. Simply put, they undermined the Germans in a variety of ways at all levels.

“En 1940, il n'y avait plus d'hommes. C'étaient des femmes qui ont démarré la Résistance.” 

-Germaine Tillion, quoted in Femmes de la Résistance: 1940-1945, Jean-Paul Lefebvre-Filleau

Recent scholarship has finally brought women Resistants out from the shadows. Women were often slower than men to write about their experiences, but as decades went on, and in some cases archives opened, more of these stories came to light. There is a section in this guide about memoirs, and many are listed below, including those of the well-known Resistants Lucie Aubrac and Marie Madeleine Fourcade. Another valuable source of material are the témoignages — statements made by individuals during interviews conducted immediately after the War. Some such interviews were under the auspices of the Comité d'Historie de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale in Paris. Many of these sources can be found at the Bibliothèque nationale de France or the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand in Paris. As mentioned above, because many women were active in escape lines, some accounts of these women and their activities can be found in reports from those U.S. servicemen, which are available in the National Archives, Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland. There are firsthand accounts of downed American airmen who were assisted by Resistants. Many of these accounts talk about being fed, given medical attention and shelter, and even being shepherded to a safehouse. For safety reasons, these women did not usually give their real names, thus they will forever remain anonymous.

As Margaret L. Rossiter notes in her study, Women in the Resistance, some women that have gained attention for their heroic acts managed to preform them while nonchalantly preforming their day jobs. Jeanne Berthomier, who was a civil servant in the Ministry of Public Works in Paris, managed to deliver top-secret information typed on tissue paper to the Alliance chief, Marie Madeleine Fourcade. Mme Paule Letty-Mouroux used her position as a secretary at the Marine de Toulon in order to report the repair status of Axis ships. Mme Marguerite Claeys collected information from agents who posed as customers at the company she owned with her husband— all without his knowledge. Simone Michel Lévy used her job in the Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone Service (PTT) to obtain intelligence about the Germans that she managed to send to London under the code name of Emma. These women all took enormous risks and many of them were eventually caught and arrested by the German police. Simone herself was captured and deported to Ravensbrück where she continued to sabotage the Germans by organizing work stoppages of her inmates. The Germans sentenced her to death and she was hanged in April of 1945. She was later awarded the Cross of the Liberation and portrayed on a postage stamp that honored Resistants (Women in the Resistance, p.115). Women from a variety of countries, including Britain and the US, served in the French Resistance. Isabel Townsend Pell (photo, left) was an American socialite who joined the French Resistance during World War II — one of the few women who was part of the Maquis — purportedly due to her good aim. Going by a code name of Fredericka, she was commonly known as "the girl with the blond mèche" (mèche de cheveux means lock of hair). She was imprisoned twice during the war, and subsequently decorated with the Legion of Honor for her service. The stories of these women and countless others stand as testaments to the fact that no matter what role you have or where you find yourself, there is often a way to contribute to a larger cause. Although many of these women's names will never be known, their skill and passion contributed to the liberation of France.

Eighty years after their Liberation, France continues to commemorate French Resistance fighters and Allied veterans from WWII. May 27th is known as National Resistance Day in France. It commemorate the first meeting of the National Resistance Council (CNR) which occurred on that date in 1943. On May 27th, 2024, in the presence of the family of Alice Arteil, a secondary school in Le Mayet-de Montagne, was renamed in honor of French Resistant Alice Arteil External. Arteil was one of the only women to command her own Resistance group. Her knowledge of the mountainous and woody terrain was invaluable for the rescue missions and the general activities of the group. Her natural leadership ability and temerity earned her the respect of all whom she worked with, and she was honored with the Croix de Guerre on Sept 30th, 1944 in Lamarche-sur-Saône in the commune of Côte d’Or (Eastern France).

Women Resistants honored in the Panthéon External monument in Paris include: Germaine Tillion, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Joséphine Baker, and Mélinée Manouchian (along with her famous husband, Missak). Jean Moulin is also buried there. Other women honored in the Panthéon include scientist Marie Curie and Holocaust survivor and feminist activist Simone Veil.

A select bibliography of books about women in the Resistance in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

World War, 1939-1945--Women--France
World War, 1939-1945--Women--France--Biography
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France
World War, 1939-1945--Secret service--France

Notable Female Resistantes

• Berty Albrecht was passionate about family planning and better working conditions for women, and founded the feminist journal Le Problème Sexuel. During the war, she joined with Henri Frenay to develop the movement Combat. Her previous publishing experience helped her spearhead the publication of the clandestine newspaper Combat , named after the movement of the same name. At its height the circulation reached several hundred thousand. She was captured and tortured three times and assumed to have committed suicide.
• Alice Arteil External was one of the only women who commanded her own unit in the Resistance. She was part of the Maquis known as the Franc-Tireurs using the code name "Sylva." She used her expertise in local terrain to assist in the various missions and earned the Croix de Guerre on September 30th, 1944.
• Lucie Aubrac was a founder of the movement Libération-Sud. She wrote an account of her experience in the Resistance called, Outwitting the Gestapo (1993). She is famous for convincing the Germans to release her beloved husband, Raymond, from prison by using her second pregnancy as a pretext for him to be released to marry her (though they were already married). After that he managed to escape.
• Renée Bedarida was a Resistance fighter who worked with the Lyonnais group Témoignage Chrétien (Christian Witness). After the war, she wrote two books about the movement and its leader, Father Pierre Chaillet. 
• Célia Bertin was recruited to help Allied aviators hidden in Occupied Paris because of her ability to speak English. In 1993 she published a study of women during this period, Femmes sous l’Occupation.
• Françoise de Boissieu married her husband early during the Occupation and they focused on working with the movement Combat, founded by Henri Frenay and Berty Albrecht. After the birth of her daughter Muriel, de Boissieu left the baby with her parents and continued to fight with the Resistance.
• Jeanne Chanton was arrested and sent to a work camp in Germany during WWI. She worked with Resistance groups, including Front National Universitaire, but was never arrested.
• Claire Chevrillon, code name Christian Clouet. Chevrillon came from a family of assimilated Jews. After the increasingly harsh laws were imposed on Jewish citizens, she joined the resistance most notably encoding and decoding messages between the Free French in London and de Gaulle's Paris delegation. She spent four months in prison after being betrayed and wrote her memoirs entitled, Code Name Christiane Clouet: A Woman in the French Resistance.
• Marie- Madeleine Fourcade one of the most famous female resistants and the only woman to be made chef de résistance. She led one of the largest resistance networks, Alliance, which supplied more crucial intelligence to British and American Allied forces than any other. She was captured by the Nazis twice and managed to escape both times. She and her husband, a Free French fighter, Hubert Fourcade, helped return General de Gaulle to power in 1958. She published her memoirs, Noah's Ark and was chairwoman of the Resistance Action Committee.
• Annie Kriegel joined a Communist Resistance group at age fifteen because no other groups would admit a member so young.
• Pippa Latour Doyle moved to England from her native South Africa in 1941 to join the war effort. She was recruited into the UK’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) to spy for the Allies in France due to her fluency in French. A “knitting spy,” she hid her information within a knitting kit by knotting codes onto silk. She received the Legion of Honour in 2014.
• Lise Lesèvre welcomed and trained young men who, like her two sons, joined the Maquis. She was brutally tortured by Klaus Barbie, the so-called “Butcher of Lyon,” after being captured with clandestine documents.
• Danielle Mitterrand the wife of France’s former president, joined the Resistance as a teenager and met her future husband while helping to care for wounded Resistance fighters.
• Madeleine Riffaud was a French journalist and poet, born in Arvillers in 1924. She first began to work for the French Forces of the Interior under codename “Rainer” (reflecting her admiration for poet Rainer Maria Rilke) at just 18 years old. She contributed to the capture of eighty Wehrmacht soldiers from a German supply train, and shot a German officer to death in broad daylight in 1944. She also served as a war correspondent in Algeria and Southeast Asia. After being captured by the Gestapo, Riffaud was transferred to the Fresnes prison where she was tortured and set to be executed, but escaped death via release in a prisoner exchange. She died on November 7, 2024 at the age of 100. A sketch of Madeleine Riffaud by Pablo Picasso External in 1945 was included in a publication of her poems.
• Evelyne Sullerot was on vacation with her family when the Occupation began. They relocated to Compiègne, where she and her younger siblings aided the Resistance. Her father ran a psychiatric clinic that hid Jews and other persecuted individuals.
• Suzanne Vallon fled France after her Resistance activity was discovered and ended up in North Africa on active duty. She also accompanied Allied troops as they went north after being freed from Germany.
• Sonia Vagliano-Eloy joined de Gaulle’s Free French and trained in London. After D-Day, she was sent to France with her female colleagues to oversee refugee camps. She worked with the survivors of Buchenwald.

In June of 1940 France's military had collapsed under German forces. Philippe Pétain signed an armistice and relocated his new government to Vichy in the southern half of a France that was now divided into occupied northern and unoccupied southern zones. General Charles de Gaulle unequivocally objected to this armistice and immediately escaped to London where he called for the French to resist the German occupation. This was the beginning of de Gaulle's Free France or, Françaises Libres. De Gaulle's Resistance movement (which was not — initially — coordinated with the grass-roots resistance that was happening in Metropolitan France) had a slow start but would eventually become a critical component of the Allied victory. De Gaulle himself, although often at odds with Allied leaders, would indeed become the ruler of a Free France, but his victory would not have been possible without the support of Allied forces. What is not commonly discussed in this narrative of WWII France and the French Resistance is the role and the contributions from France's overseas territories External — particularly French Equatorial Africa and French West Africa. The French colonial empire was of enormous significance in the battles as well as the strategies that made up WWII. Starting in 1940 campaigns in North Africa were ongoing and the first Allied victory there was pivotal to the overall Allied victory. By May of 1943 German and Italian forces had surrendered and the Battle for North Africa was over.

Throughout the War, the fights that played out in these countries were complex and had entirely different stakes and circumstances from the War that played out in Metropolitan France. The ever-changing political landscape made for shifting alliances in all of the territories as pro-Vichy forces vied for power and the Gaullist Free French forces sought to liberate these territories from what they viewed as a Quisling state. Allegiances in the colonies shifted, and just as in Metropolitan France, many French citizens overseas were first loyal to Vichy only to shift loyalty to De Gaulle as the War wore on. Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa (Afrique équatoriale française, or AEF) — which included Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad — had joined the Free French. The headquarters were in Brazzaville, capital city of the Congo. Meanwhile, loyal to Vichy were: the North African countries under French control (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia — often called the Maghreb), French West Africa or Afrique-Occidentale française, AOF (Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey, and Niger), Syria and Indochina. This was a very complicated war, and there were instances when French citizens were indeed face-to-face on opposing sides of a battle.

In the fall of 1940, Free France, with support from Chad, Cameroon, Moyen-Congo, French Equatorial Africa, and Oubangi-Chari took part in an attempt to capture an important naval base in Dakar from Vichy control. While that effort was ultimately unsuccessful, it shifted political expectations, and two years later, in late 1942, the Anglo-American victory in Northern Africa resulted in an almost compete defection of Vichy troops to the side of the Free French. Meanwhile in the French Caribbean, the island of Martinique was taken over by Vichy forces and a young Frantz Fanon External experienced first hand the "unmasked racism" of the occupiers. It took him numerous attempts to enlist in the Free French, but in 1943 he was able to join an Allied convoy and make it to North Africa, though eventually was transferred from Algeria to fight in France. His experience after the war further cemented his distrust of his colonial government and Fanon went on to become one of the most widely-read writers and poets on Post-Colonial Studies and the Pan-African movement. His friend and mentor, Aimé Césaires External — also from Martinique — is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Négritude, a literary and ideological movement that spoke of African solidarity and rejected French colonial policy. Another notable figure and theoretician of the Négritude External movement was the Senegalese poet and former Resistant Léopold Sédar Senghor. Before he became the first president of Senegal in 1960, he was caught up in the Second World War. In 1939 he enlisted as a private in the French Forces (3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment), then a year later he was taken prisoner by the Germans and held in Poitier, France. He was released for medical reasons and joined in the Resistance for the duration of the Nazi Occupation, making a living as a teacher, writer, and leading intellectual. In 1960, when Senegal gained independence from France, he began his political career. Not only is the role that France's territories played in the war overlooked, but the effect that that service had on the colonies themselves is only now being critically examined. As the Algerian War of Independence and the independence of Senegal illustrate, the rhetoric of a "Free France" opened up looming and uncomfortable questions about the morality of France's colonial empire. France's leaders, and the leading intellectuals of the day, would begin to address these questions, and while their disagreements would play out in bloody wars for independence in the latter half of the 20th century, they also gave birth to the flourishing genre of Post-Colonial Literature.

Poème liminaire

À L.-G. Damas

Vous Tirailleurs Sénégalais, mes frères noirs à la main

chaude sous la glace et la mort

Qui pourra vous chanter si ce n’est votre frère d’armes,

votre frère de sang ?

Je ne laisserai pas la parole aux ministres, et pas aux généraux

Je ne laisserai pas – non ! - les louanges de mépris vous

enterrer furtivement.

Vous n’êtes pas des pauvres aux poches vides sans honneur

Mais je déchirerai les rires banania sur tous les murs de France.”

~ Léopold Senghor

The Collected Poetry by Léopold Sédar Senghor, translated by Melvin Dixon p. 309

Liminary Poem

To L.-G. Damas

You Senegalese Soldier, my black brothers with warm

hands under ice and death

Who can praise you if not your brother-in-arms, your

brother in blood?

I shall not let the words of government ministers nor

generals,

No! I shall not let words of scornful praise secretly bury

you.

Your are not empty-pocket poor men without honor

But I will tear off the banania grins from all the walls of France.

~ Léopold Senghor

The Collected Poetry by Léopold Sédar Senghor, translated by Melvin Dixon p.39

While many of the specifics are hard to come by as records are not as thorough as could be desired, there is evidence that men from the French colonies were also active in the Resistance Movement in Metropolitan France — very far away from their native countries. One of the first recorded incidents involving French colonial troops took place in 1940 in the city of Chartres located to the southwest of Paris. Jean Moulin, the prefect of Chartres (and soon to be iconic hero in the French Resistance) at the time of the German invasion, was one of the only government officials not to flee the city. He and a small group of troops from Senegal stood firm against the German invaders marking one of the first moments of direct opposition to the Germans. They were brutally and savagely defeated. As detailed in Jean Moulin, 1899-1943 : the French Resistance and the Republic, after the defeat, the Germans attempted to coerce Moulin into signing a document stating that the casualties suffered at the German's hands (eight women and children) had in fact been killed by these Senegalese soldiers. Moulin refused to sign the document, which led to his beating and non-fatal shooting (as a form of torture). Moulin was locked up and held as a prisoner. He was unable to prevent the brutal shooting of all 180 Senegalese at the hands of the Germans (Clinton, p. 90). This was just a preview of what would become the standard German response when faced with opposition from France.

Perhaps the most fearless fighters in the French Resistance were young men (only a small number were women) who opted to oppose the Occupation by forming groups in the mountains and wilderness of France. Especially after the Germans instigated forced labor, many men fled to these rural areas to devote their lives to fighting the Nazis in any way possible. On the island of Corsica in September of 1943, more than 10,000 Maquis, heavily reinforced by French troops from North Africa, staged an armed revolt against the Germans. As a result of their courageous fighting the Axis powers were routed, and on October 3rd the island of Corsica became the first part of France to be liberated. The Resistance and Liberation of Corsica External was a significant setback for Germany and strategic step in securing the Mediterranean.

The most famous instance of colonial soldiers serving in the Resistance is probably their participation in the famous Vercors Uprising External in July of 1944. These Maquis of Vercors, equipped with air-dropped U. S. Army combat gear and supplies, and including soldiers from the West African colonial troop, the Tirailleurs Sénégalais External , were victims of their own courage. Due to mixed signals coming from de Gaulle and Eisenhower on the specifics of when supplies would be delivered, the eager men launched the famous if unsuccessful attack — just shy of the Liberation of Paris. One French citizen of Algerian decent, Kamel Mouellef, has spent his free time over the years in the French archives trying to piece together these forgotten Resistance fighters. He co-authored a beautiful graphic novel on the topic with Olivier Jouvray called, Résistants Oubliérs with the help of graphic artist Baptiste Payen (Glénat, 2015).

In fact, there is a long history of soldiers from the French colonies fighting for France. It was actually back in 1857, long before WWII, that the French created the Tirailleurs Sénégalais External. French actor and producer Omar Sy External, the son of Senegalese immigrants, recently brought this history to the screen in the highly-acclaimed and profoundly moving French film directed by Mathieu Vadepied and starring Omar Sy, Alassane Diong, and Jonas Bloquet, Tirailleurs External (Rifleman), adapted for the anglophone audience as Father & Soldier. Vadepied was inspired by the death of Abdoulaye Ndiaye External , the last of the Tirailleurs, who died in 1998 at age 104, one day before he was to receive the award of the Légion d'honneur from President Jacques Chirac. Sadly, the recognition of these African troops was all but non-existent following the War. De Gaulle, who was keenly aware of the lack of unity in his homeland of France, was eager to downplay the role of the Tirailleurs and create the optics of a more stereotypical and homogenous white French army — purportedly even sending African troops directly to demobilizing centers rather than allowing them to partake in the homecoming celebrations in France. This grave disservice came after grossly unjust treatment during the war — in particular by the Germans themselves who saw Black soldiers as utterly expendable.

A select bibliography of books about French territories in WWII and in the French Resistance in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

France. Armée--Colonial forces--History--20th century
France. Armeé. Tirailleurs sénégalais--History
France--Colonies--Africa
World War, 1939-1945--Africa, French-speaking Equatorial

When studying the events of WWII there is often a sense of bewilderment as to how this could happen and how, in particular, so many people could so passively allow the atrocities of the Holocaust to occur. As David G. Marwell, Director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage points out, powerlessness is often mistaken for passivity. Jews at this time were faced with inconceivable choices and had even fewer options. The exhibition Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust External, details the many fierce Resistance groups led by Jews and also gives historical context to the German Occupation in a variety of European countries. One point worth noting is that many Jews in Europe did not immediately suspect the diabolical plans of Adolf Hitler. Initial laws that attempted to isolate Jews, or even force them to wear the yellow star, did not always seem as sinister without the benefit of hindsight. It was part of a very deliberate plan that Hitler used to lull people into a sense of comfort or complacency before his brutal and unimaginable plan was widely understood among the general population.

What constitutes resistance? While the French Resistance as such is understood to be an organized force (becoming more organized as the years went on, under the active leadership of General Charles de Gaulle, and finally with additional Allied support), resistants (with a lower-case "R") existed independently and autonomously all over Europe. Jewish Resistants stand out from others in that they had an added urgency to their fight against the Nazis. As Anny Latour points out in her book, The Jewish Resistance in France (1940-1944), the Jewish Resistance was fighting not only for physical survival, but for the survival of Judaism. The origins of the Jewish Resistance were also somewhat different from the Resistance as a whole. The networks originated from Jewish social services and groups of various political leanings that existed before the German Occupation. Many of the underground networks had their basis in these organizations as they were essentially forced to go underground. Many focused on rescue missions and in particular, saving Jewish children. But there were also thousands of armed combatants (Partisans) and "master counterfeiters" who forged false identity papers and stamps which saved countless lives. Much of the Jewish armed resistance took place in Eastern Europe and in ghettos such as the famous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising External in Poland. It also formed in the camps themselves, especially after 1943 when the Nazi goals of the Final Solution became evident (see Killing Centers External).

Unofficial partnership formed between officially recognized groups and individuals who were forced to remain anonymous. Some groups had one identity as an above-board organization, but performed secret activity under the radar of the Nazis. Religious groups helped one another — both Catholic and Protestant groups were heavily involved with these missions. The OSE (Children's Aid Society), Amitié Chrétienne, and the Jewish Underground in Lyon are a few such organizations that focused on saving Jewish children. The French Israelite Scout Movement, (Éclaireurs Israélites de France External, EIF) saved thousands of Jews during WWII. Often Jewish children would be relocated to safe spaces, intermixed with French children and raised as such. There are accounts of many such children who never understood what it was to be Jewish, having spent formative years with names that had been changed to sound traditionally French, and going to Sunday School. These measures were often the best way to keep them safe.

The Federation of Jewish Societies of France (Federation des Societes Juives de France External, FSJF) is another organization that adapted to the conditions and needs of WWII. Established during WWI, it was originally an organization meant to help mediate conflicts between Jews who had immigrated to France and the French Jews already living there. After the Fall of France, they moved to the southern "unoccupied zone" and went underground. They proceeded to provide tens of thousands of Jews with forged identity papers and funded Jewish youth organizations that worked to smuggle Jewish children into Switzerland. The FSJF helped institute the Jewish Defense Committee in August of 1942, which encompassed all Jewish underground organizations. As an issue of Jeune Combat, a clandestine publication started by young Jewish Communists in 1943 proclaims, "Hiding behind registration, new deportations and new massacres are being planned. Everybody, join the resisters, form groups for resistance and combat. This is our cry in the face of our families' assassins!" (Daring to Resist, 63). What is clear is that far from passive, the Jewish people of France fought in a wide variety of ways to resist the Nazis and to preserve their heritage. 

A select bibliography of books about Jews in the Resistance in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--France.

The 2024 documentary film directed by Paula Apsell, a NOVA Senior Executive Producer Emerita, Resistance: They Fought Back External tells the largely unknown and incredibly courageous story of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

Officially, the Catholic Church, under the guidance of Pope Pius XII External (elected Pope in 1939) strove to be relatively neutral. While he appointed prominent Jews to a variety of posts, in keeping with standard Church diplomacy, he avoided making overtly political comments about Germany's actions. A slew of books have argued about his guidance, but many French men and women were ultimately guided by their own consciences. One of the best works on this topic in recent history, La résistance spirituelle, 1941-1944: les cahiers clandestins du Témoignage chrétien, compiles the writings of some of the fiercest human rights advocates from the Catholic Church and underscores the commitment to Christian principles of many French Catholics during WWII. Those who felt compelled to help in the relief effort and in aiding Jews (especially children) often did so in both legal and non-legal ways regardless of the dictates from above. There were also many people of faith (particularly advocates of France's National Revolution that emphasized the role of the Catholic Church) who unfortunately viewed foreign Jews as well as Communists and other "foreign refugees" as insidious elements that were best removed from French society for the sake of the "moral order."

France has a long and complicated history of conflict between the Catholicism of the early French nation and the Protestant minority that has existed within French borders throughout the centuries. Historically, the Protestants had been alternately persecuted and tolerated depending on the ruler. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes External was signed by King Henry IV, which granted toleration and some degree of civil rights for these French Calvinists, or Huguenots as they were called in France. Then in 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes by signing the Edict of Fontainebleau, External which prohibited Protestant worship and outlawed the immigration of Protestants to France. The French Revolution of 1789 broke with all religion (violently confiscating most Catholic lands) and established a secular republic, however French policies towards religion continued to vacillate over the years and Catholicism retained a strong influence among many of the French. In the years leading up to WWII, France was in the midst of the so-called "National Revolution" that sought to bring back the more conservative values of travail, famille, et patrie (work, family, and fatherland). This dovetailed in a sinister way when anti-semitic and xenophobic Nazi propaganda began demonizing Jews. Some Catholics also still held anti-Judaism beliefs that may have subconsciously caused the propaganda to resonate.

However, as the Nazi occupation of France dragged on, and particularly following the 1942 roundups (Les Rafles External) of foreign Jews carried out in Paris and the Occupied North as well as the Free Zone, many spiritual leaders and their devout followers rose above their religious differences to fight what was increasingly viewed as an offense against humanity. Southern cities like Lyon were seen as safer locations for Jews, especially foreign born Jews who were particularly vulnerable.

Groups such as Amitié Chrétienne (founded in 1941 in Lyon) were formed to help Jewish victims in clandestine and overt ways. Resistant Germaine Ribière, External a devout Catholic, was instrumental in providing false identity cards to Jewish children during the infamous Night of Vénissieux. George Garel was also involved with the "children of Vénissieux" and eventually became responsible for the "Garel circuit." In the summer of 1942, in the city of Lyon, Garel learned of a number of foreign-born Jews who had been arrested and held for the "crime" of coming to France after 1936. Through a series of connections, Garel was tasked with the unbearable job of deciding the fate of these children. Tremendously shaken by that night, he went on to dedicate himself to removing Jewish children and integrating them into any non-Jewish environment he could provide. Along with others, Garel, Ribière, and the Resistant Abbé Glasberg saved over 1,000 Jewish children. This was not only dangerous work, but very complicated and required the aid and secrecy of a great many contacts in different places. Efforts were continually made to conceal all activity and to be sure that if some documentation was found it was meaningless to the authorities. For example, one person might hold the list of children's real names and another the list of assumed names. At other times, numbers would be inverted or codes used. At any moment fear of discovery was looming. While Amitié Chrétienne was officially outlawed in 1943, its members continued to operate independently, making cases for exemptions to deportations by presenting documentation and birth certificates and working with officers from the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants). The OSE was established in 1912 to help with the child victims of the pogroms in Russia but became very active, especially under the leadership of women — and very often women of faith who felt morally compelled to do everything they could to save Jewish children. In 1939 Madeleine Barot (along with members from Protestant youth groups) created the Protestant group CIMADE (Comité inter-mouvements auprès des évacués) to assist those who had been displaced due to the War — initially many were from the regions of Alsace and Lorraine (which had been reclaimed by the Germans immediately after their initially victory). After 1942, CIMADE worked increasingly in helping to find homes for displaced Jews, working closely — and often surreptitiously — with local Protestant parishes to find safe havens in Switzerland and Spain. The efforts of the individuals behind these organizations — whether Catholic, Protestant or Jewish — succeeded in rescuing Jews who had been interned in camps such as Gurs External. The number of Church groups External and clergy members who worked to help Jews in France are too many to name, but the effects of their efforts remain.

One of the most heartening stories of a community effort to provide safe harbor to those in need took place in the French commune of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon External (Haute-Loire department in south-central France). This region was primarily inhabited by French Protestants since the 17th century. Having suffered religious persecution themselves, many of them were sympathetic to the persecution of the Jews under Nazi occupation. Le Chambon External and smaller villages in the region supplied safe havens for more than 5,000 refugees fleeing from the Gestapo — Resisters, Communists, but mostly Jews. Led by Pastor André Trocmé of the Reformed Church of France, his wife Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis, the village was able to serve as a refuge for not only Jews but others seeking asylum, including members of the Resistance. As Caroline Moorehead details in her book, Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France, the parishes and inhabitants of these villages put themselves at great risk to follow their convictions that human decency must prevail.

As Renée Bédarida has written in his short piece The Catholic Hierarchy in France during the War and the Persecution of the Jews External, priests, monks, nuns and laypersons by the thousands began to help the Jews and defy the Pétain government. No fewer than six bishops and archbishops wrote sermons to be read to their followers: Monseigneur Saliège, Archbishop of Toulouse, Monseigneur Théas, Bishop of Montauban, Monseigneur Delay, Bishop of Marseilles, Cardinal Gerlier, archbishop of Lyon, Monseigneur Vanstenberghe of Bayonee, and Monseigneur Moussaron, archbishop of Albi. The acts of these men helped tremendously to change the tide in public opinion, generate sympathy, and foment Resistance on the part of the everyday French population.

A select bibliography of books about the role of the Church during the Resistance and World War II in both French and English is further down the page. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--France--Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
World War, 1939-1945--Religious aspects--Catholic Church

Although De Gaulle was seriously distrustful of French Communists and saw them as a threat to his vision for France, he was uncharacteristically diplomatic in his dealings with them. It is widely agreed that once they joined the Resistance in earnest, they proved to be some of the most formidable foes to Fascism and the Third Reich. The role of French Communists in the Resistance is one of the most difficult to research because there is a lack of primary source material. Many studies exist that analyze the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Parti Communiste Français (PCF). For example, Alfred Rieber's work Stalin and the French Communist Party External extrapolates on causes for the failure of the PCF to capitalize on the powerful position they held during the War years due to their remarkably effective work in the Resistance. And there are a number of general histories about Communism in Europe, but very few studies that focus solely on French Communists in the Resistance during WWII.

At the start of WWII, most Communists felt ambivalent because the two forces involved were viewed as imperial and capitalistic powers. For as long as the Soviet Union and Germany had a non-aggression pact, French Communists were half-hearted in their efforts at resistance. They may have blocked roads or worked to thwart or harass the Germans, but they avoided the bloodshed that they would engage in as the War went on. They were also aloof with respect to the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of Free France (from London). One reason that communists had such a high level of clandestine organization is because the Communist Party had been banned in 1939 and had more experience with working underground. Some leaders had been avoiding the French authorities for more than a decade before the War began and thus had established a known network of safehouses. They also had experience using encryption techniques in telegraphing messages and creating false passports.

The PCF maintained a large clandestine press that chronicled their successes and proved a valuable and influential force in the Resistance. L' Humanité is the most well-known and prolific Communist underground publication (numbering 317 issues during the Occupation), but regional papers such as La Marseillaise (in Marseilles) and La Patriote (in Lyon) were also in operation. According to Jean Mottin in Histoire Politique de la Presse, 1944-49, even with the difficulties of publishing, by 1944 the Communists controlled over 30 daily papers, publishing over 20,000 copies each and accounting for 25 percent of the French press. (Histoire Politique de la Presse, p.31) Much of their expertise was due to lessons learned by those liaising with the Comintern and Moscow. The Comintern also dictated early policy, and many have pointed to a certain subservience of the PCF to Moscow. Notably, the French Communist Party was also the only resistance organization in France that gave a special role to women and women's issues. And while the PCF managed to retain their independence through careful jockeying with de Gaulle, they did join the armed force of the French Resistance, the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior) toward the end of the War — though they retained de-facto autonomy in many areas.

Starting with the French Revolution of 1789, subsequent Revolutions in the 19th century, and of course, the Paris Commune of 1871, France has had a strong current of socialism, communism and even the beginnings of feminism agitating under the surface of its power structures. François-Noël Babeuf, best known as, Gracchus Babeuf, one of the most well-known political agitators of the Post-Revolutionary years starting in 1794, began a journal (Le tribun du peuple External) which many scholars have identified as having proto-communist ideas. Laura Mason's book, The Last Revolutionaries: The Conspiracy Trial of Gracchus Babeuf and the Equals, states that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels called him the "first modern communist". According to some scholars, communism and socialism in France, and particularly its popularity among the French Left has been somewhat glorified in historical narratives. In R.W. Johnson's The Long March of the French Left, he discusses the "lost revolution" of 1944, and the fate of Communists in the post-war years. In the years immediately following the War, power dynamics were complicated as individuals with diverse political goals and opinions were begrudgingly required to work together. The additional ordeal of trying to parse out collaborators and punish them, as well as recognize those who had been so grievously wronged created yet more tension, and among some there was legitimate concern about the possibility of a civil war in France. Even though that never came close to happening, it was a specter that haunted de Gaulle and other leaders, causing them to gravitate to more unifying policies and generally take a measured response in doling out ramifications. Some critics say this caused them to downplay not only the number of French collaborationists, but also the role of Communists in the Resistance.

When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the Communist Party in France was at liberty to engage fully in Resistance activity — and they proved to be some of the most aggressive and lethal adversaries to the Nazi occupiers. Having superior access to arms, strong organizational skills and networks, and a ruthless pragmatism, the Communists were skilled at assassinations, ambushes, sabotage, spying and even terrorism. They were effective because even when the German reprisals were brutal they rationalized that they gained new recruits, or at the very least, gained more sympathy for the cause. Pierre Georges External, nom de guerre "Colonel Fabien," along with several other Resistance members shot the German naval officer Alfons Moser on August 21st, 1941 at the Barbès-Rochechouart metro station in Paris. This was the first assassination during the Occupation and would bring harsh reprisals from the Germans. A "Code of Hostages" was introduced as a reaction, stating that any Frenchmen who were in German custody could be considered hostages. As other assassinations followed, Germans announced that for every German killed, 50 Frenchmen would be executed. Some Communists expressed conflicting feelings about killing other comrades and members of the working class, but anti-Fascism won out. As for the reaction of other Resistants, they were often critical of the bold methods the Communists used, precisely because the German reprisals often involved the execution of innocent French citizens from the general population. Indeed, by the time of the Liberation, Germans killed an estimated 30,000 innocent French men and women under this pretext.

In the spring of 1942 the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans External formed as a new paramilitary branch (Francs-Tireurs means "free shooters" or snipers). Commonly known as the FTP they were a merger of three communist militant groups: Organisation Spéciale, formed in 1940 to protect communist leaders; the group of young Communists, the first to attack German soldiers; and the fighters of the Main-d’Oeuvre Immigrée. The FTP was effective and energetic and they gained a huge wave of new recruits after the unpopular Service du Travail Obligatoire was instituted by the Germans, which required Frenchmen to go to Germany and serve forced labor in factories. Many non-Communists decided to join at this point as a way to avoid labor in Germany as well as to fight their Nazi occupiers. The FTP was instrumental in assisting with both the Normandy Invasion and the Liberation of Paris. In the case of the former, they were able to delay German troops from the south of France from reaching the Normandy coast where they had been called in as reinforcements. Before the Liberation of Paris they orchestrated a major uprising that was instrumental in securing Allied victory. Henri Rol-Tanguy, one of the most revered French Resistance fighters, was head of the FFI in Île de France during the Liberation of Paris. After five days of fighting he was contacted by German General Dietrich von Choltitz, and on August 25th 1944 he and Free French general Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque accepted the surrender of the German forces.

A curated list of publications about Communism and Communists in France available at the Library of Congress is further down the page. Available online via Gallica: L'Humanité External. Available online via Gallica: Les Cahiers du Communisme External. Available online via Gallica: France nouvelle External. To search for more titles, use the Library's online catalog for books on this topic using the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSHs) below.

Communism--France
Parti communiste français
Communism--France--Periodicals

There is a huge array of resources available online about the French Resistance. Many institutions, including libraries and organizations in France, have digitized materials and documents that are open to the public online. There are also many essays and book reviews that are open access. The online resource links below are divided into three sections. The first section, General Online Resources, includes many of the organizations that specialize in research or on the French Resistance in particular (for example, the Bibliothèque national de France has a digital library, Gallica that has digitized many of the Resistance newspapers. The second section, Online Articles and Essays contains freely available essays about the French Resistance, or related subtopics. Lastly, there is a section on resources held at the Library of Congress. You may also find more online sources at the bottom of each special topics page (for example, Women in the Resistance or Free French Africa).

The Library's 4 Corners of the World Blog is a primary source for posts created by expert staff in the division. This section of the guide focuses on social media featuring the country of France and related topics.

European Reading Room staff help users navigate the Library’s vast European collections. The Division’s specialists promote discoverability by providing reference materials, guides, bibliographies, and other studies. Staff recommends new collection materials to best serve researchers, the library community, and federal agencies. The European Reading Room is located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, in the Southeast Pavilion, entry is via the Hispanic Reading Room. A reader card is required for access to all reading rooms.

• Map of the Jefferson Building and the location of the European Reading Room
• Location: Thomas Jefferson Building, Southeast Pavilion, LJ-249, 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, D.C. 20540-4830
• Hours: 8:30 am-5 pm, Monday-Friday
• Contact us with your questions via: Ask-a-Librarian form or telephone: 202-707-4515 or email: [email protected]

The Library holds a variety of materials on French history and culture, all of which can be located through the Library of Congress Online Catalog or the Library of Congress Digital Collections.

The Library of Congress Online Catalog is a great place to begin your research since it provides bibliographic descriptions for the vast majority of collection items available at the Library.

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