Just reading a book about Klaus Barbie and found the whole French resistance politics, infighting, betrayal etc rather interesting.
Anybody have any recommendations for books on the resistance movement as a whole ?

For a very readable insight into France under the dastardly Boche I can recommend

<< OCCUPATION >> by Ian Ousby

Amazon.com: Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944 (9780312181482): Ian Ousby: Books

Having spent quite a bit of time over there one way or another I have often wondered how the locals had behaved back in 40-45 in whatever bit I happened to be in..... mostly in Western France/Vendee but recently Montpellier where I happened to be for Remembrance Sunday last year.

What << Occupation >> brought to the fore for me was :
>the physical division of France between German Occupied zone and Vichy ....
>the mechanics of passing across that line....
> the importance of the Rat Lines set up for downed aircrew.....
> the myth perpetrated by De Gaulle on entering Paris in 1944 - 'France has liberated herself'

Amazon review - ( American)

A history of how the French people dealt with the humiliating defeat administered by the Germans in 1940, the occupation that followed, and the end of the Third Republic. Ousby, who has taught history at universities in Britain and the US, first explains why French army and air force seemed so outmatched by the Germans: Although many in number, the troops were poorly led by aged generals who relied on obsolete WW I tactics stressing defense over the offensive. The French forces were no match for a Nazi blitzkrieg featuring massed tanks, armored vehicles, Stuka dive bombers, and swift moving infantry. The government had no choice but to accept humiliating terms of surrender. Harsh reparations were imposed on France, Hitlers revenge for the Treaty of Versailles. General Ptain, the hero of Verdun in WW I, a figurehead father image, was installed in the puppet Vichy government that strictly followed Nazi orders. The Germans plundered Frances food, drink, and art; the French were reduced by drastic rationing to a nation in perpetual need. The feared Gestapo was much in evidence, and Vichy stooges cooperated with the Nazis in rounding up Jews, communists, and dissidents. The rsistants grew in number, and the Germans responded by executing more and more French citizens. A French civil war between Vichy loyalists and underground patriots broke out, adding to the suffering. The rsistants suffered high casualties; their charismatic leader Jean Moulin eventually paid with his life. After the German surrender the nation was transfixed by anger, frustration, and shame. The French focused their violent fury on a variety of individuals and groups viewed as having betrayed France. The haughty, immensely self-assured Charles de Gaulle, head of Free French forces, quickly stepped into the power vacuum left by the war, setting France on a new and increasingly controversial course. A well-written, carefully researched, often fascinating story of the long and little known French ordeal.

if I remember right, Ousby also references a book by Robert Gildea called ' Marianne in Chains' - Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Gildea: Books

- which is available in Kindle if you have one.


The usual suspects ( and they will be along shortly) who love to sneer at the ' Cheese eating surrender monkeys ' etc should take a bit of time to read either of these.....and reflect on this -

In addition to those tortured, shot or disappeared into Kz's like Belsen by the occupiers under their 'Nacht Und Nebel ' policy , a million French men between 18 and 40 were compulsoriy shipped to the Reich to work as 'GastArbeiten' between 1941 and 1944......

In Belsen, there is a memorial wall with inscriptions in 15 languages , commemorating those of all nationalities who died there...the one in French reads:

' Sacred to the memory of the 30,000 French citizens who died in this place. Their only crime was to love their country'

Anyone who chose to be a resistant risked not only their own lives, but those of their entire family and those of their neighbours as well.......

For a fictional treatment of how it might've gone down over here if SeeLowe had taken place - check out 'SS GB' by Len Deighton.....sobering perspective....

Many French resistance fighters found themselves here:

Testimonials about resistance, deportation and memory | STRUTHOF

Its about half an hour south of Strasbourg, with wire, towers and some huts still in good condition. Inside one of the huts is a big display about the resistance.

In Lorraine (west side of the Vosges mountains) there was a lot of resistance activity resulting in many town being razed, whereas Alsace (east side of the Vosges mountains) seems to have fared ok.

"The men from St Die" is a book written in French and German (I think it was a uni project), that describes in personal accounts the whole towns men (St Die des Vosges) being sent to built the south part of Frankfurt airport (the bit that became the US airbase).

Edit:
Die Männer von Saint-Die; Les hommes de Saint-Die: Amazon.de: Annette Schavan, KZ-Gedenkstätte Mannheim-Sandhofen;Association des déportés de Mannheim-Saint-Dié. Bearb.: Klasse 12/13 d. integrierten Gesamtschule Mannheim-Herzogenried;Association des

The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France: Amazon.co.uk: Ewen Southby-Tailyour, Andre Hue: 9780141015804: Books

Is an interesting read.
Not French-bashing but having lived in Normandy, Brittany etc I have researched resistance work, I needed to know what efforts were made. It is my view that there is a rather limited amount to tell. Fragmented stories, alot of rather sickening glorification of minor acts, very fragmented pockets of resistance with little cohesion, some intelligence gathering and reporting using resources delivered by the British and US and often driven by Allied agents.

To be fair to the French etc without massed organised armies, with German taking retribution etc...there wasn't a huge amount they could have done except sacrifice themselves even more. Again, to be fair the most effective Resistance agents would have been those who knew what the Allies plans may be and what they could do to help, not all had that kind of logic or information available to them.

If you research the events, after a while I find too much is made of:

1. Networks helping downed airmen.. I feel that was the least people could have done. There were risks certainly...did the bomber pilot refuse to fly because of risk? Euurope was at (total) war!

2. France places too much glory on taking receipt of weapons, funding etc from Britain. As if just holding some guns and a radio in a wine cellar was the most heroic a man can be. Britain provided a huge amount of material and braved the skies to deliver it. In Next Moon they are always asking for more money, more materials, more fags etc etc etc etc. Making promises he himself barely believes of their progress on the ground, in fighting and recruiting. Then possibly using the excuse of having to wait for a supply drop (of yet more guns etc which would not be used) before they can do anything else. I think they 'lose' some of it as well here and there, certainly spend the money and basically sit around alot in remote farmhouses on the payroll of the UK. Willingly wasting resources. While in the end their greatest ability was to simply observe German movements and assets etc such as railways for bombing later on.

3. Stories are badly researched and contain unknown amounts of 'added glory' as French would rather believe that a small scale gun battle in a field was in fact a brave and glorious 'battle.' Little is mentioned about double-agents and double dealing, theft, in-fighting, Communism v other Resistance groups.

4. Some parts of stories like New Moon are frankly rather pathetic. "It rained again. Made going out to the village hard. We must ask London for more money to buy more X...probably should have done some fitness training but just got drunk on Calvados instead as usual..."

5. All facts are seen in the light of the 'look, the war is over, let us be happy, we won part of our own freedom, De Gaulle is great etc' rather than accepting that huge errors were made, most people were too scared and in shock to take any form of resistance at all and accepted German rules as they did French laws etc before that and afterwards, some people did bad or cowardly things. Yet many stories just talk about the bravery and glory etc etc etc Which is fine...but I prefer a balanced and thoroughly accurate view and I have found it hard to arrive at.

Tis just my view.

Originally Posted by Alsacien

Many French resistance fighters found themselves here:

Testimonials about resistance, deportation and memory | STRUTHOF

Its about half an hour south of Strasbourg, with wire, towers and some huts still in good condition. Inside one of the huts is a big display about the resistance.

In Lorraine (west side of the Vosges mountains) there was a lot of resistance activity resulting in many town being razed, whereas Alsace (east side of the Vosges mountains) seems to have fared ok.

"The men from St Die" is a book written in French and German (I think it was a uni project), that describes in personal accounts the whole towns men (St Die des Vosges) being sent to built the south part of Frankfurt airport (the bit that became the US airbase).

Edit:
Die Männer von Saint-Die; Les hommes de Saint-Die: Amazon.de: Annette Schavan, KZ-Gedenkstätte Mannheim-Sandhofen;Association des déportés de Mannheim-Saint-Dié. Bearb.: Klasse 12/13 d. integrierten Gesamtschule Mannheim-Herzogenried;Association des

Wasn't there alot of SAS action in this area? (I know St Dié etc very well thru work by the way v pictoresque.) As I refer to the areas which benefitted from having Allied agents getting things going and giving direct support from Britain...I tend to think there was alot of action in this area as agents were present to drive activity. So...more of conflict/war fighting than resistance. They were pretty much signed up by Allied agents and fought in that way. Not just walking out of their houses and thinking 'I'll blow up a Tiger tank today. Vive la France.' Not disputing their hard work...just saying its not the kind of resistance they coordinated themselves. Others came to do it for them and needed locals to help fight.
Also of course it was a good place for them to hide out due to the terrain there. Very mountainous and access is difficult. Would some have been criminals who were happy to be on the run as well? People who prefer to be outside the system. If they get locked up, it is where they'd be anyway.

I'm not being negative...this is the kind of stuff which is hard to find out.

Have a read of this book. It exposes the cosy relationship between the occupied and the occupier in wartime France. It is a gripping, well written story of a truly a shamefull period in French history:

A Train in Winter: A Story of Resistance, Friendship and Survival by Caroline Moorehead: review - Telegraph

Sorry, I do not have an ISBN for the book.

Interesting stuff gents.

Like Mr D, I'm interested in finding out what really went on, underneath the post victory "glorification". I'm not saying resistance fighters werent brave, but you cant get round the fact that French auxiliaries, government officials/gendarmes etc were instrumental in doing the germans dirty work for them. Or that different resistance groups sometimes betrayed others, so they could step into the gap left behind.
equally though there must have been large numbers of people treading a fine line down the middle just trying to survive.

Dont forget the shamefull way the French Communist party helped the Nazis by organizing strikes, desertion of troops, work slowdowns of vitally needed armaments since Moscow and Berlin were fuck buddies in 39-41.

Only after Barbarossa did the French reds suddenly become resistants concerned about France.

The legacy of Petain, Vichy and all that is very much still around.....ten years ago I did a course run by an external company which was entitled 'Negotiating with the French'
.....quite handy overview of the mindset and usual working methods of your opposite number, Jean-Marie...

One of the things they taught then ( dunno if still the case) was that use of the word 'Collaboration' was lilkely to cause a sudden screeching halt to proceedings, confusion, Angst und Weltschmerz - and therefore best avoided....

The Ousby book goes into detail - but if I recall correct, the proportion of French citizens who volunteered to serve in some form of Reich auxillary ( whether Waffen SS Courland Divn, the Milice or whatever ) over those who were recognised as resistants was approximately 3 - 1 ......

Overall, in my view, pretty much 'guilty as charged' - but perhaps understandable - and would the picture here have been that much different?

We'd like to think so.......Richard Ingrams didn't.

Young Brave and Beautiful / Tania Szabö is an interesting read it is about an SOE agent so not strictly resistance but she is quite involved with them over her life.