The French Resistance
(Translated by Jane Marie Todd) This is a well researched book on the French Resistance. The author deals in-depth with the social, political and military foundations and reveals the fragmented nature of the many groups,
- Author
- Olivier Wieviorka
- Publisher
- Belknap Press
- Price
- approx. £30
- ISBN
- 9780674731226
- Published
- 2016
The French Resistance by Olivier Wieviorka (Translated by Jane Marie Todd)
This deeply researched history explores the social, political and military strands of the Resistance and the fragmented groups, objectives and leaders that animated it. Wieviorka rejects the notion that the movement was a creation of de Gaulle’s Free French in London, portraying it instead as a home-grown response to occupation.
Following the 1940 surrender there were no plans or blueprints. Volunteers from across the political divide formed their own networks and réseaux, often rooted in families or workplaces. The book traces how their activities evolved from clandestine printing, underground newspapers, aiding Allied escapers and tapping telephone exchanges into sabotage, armed action and direct intervention. Though rarely able to fight set-piece battles, these lightly armed bands supplied vital intelligence, tied down enemy troops and spread havoc in support of D-Day.
Wieviorka highlights early sacrifices, including the farm worker executed on 24 June 1940 for cutting lines to the German headquarters in Rouen and the first Free French agent dropped into Brittany that December, betrayed by his wireless operator and shot after a brief court martial. His verdict is emphatic: the Resistance may have lacked ideal tools, but it used what it had and has nothing to fear from history.
ISBN 9780674731226. Belknap Press. Approx. £30 (US $39.95)