The French Resistance

by Olivier Wieviorka, Jane Marie Todd (Translator)

"Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and will not go out." As Charles de Gaulle ended his radio address to the French nation in June 1940, listeners must have felt a surge of patriotism tinged with uncertainty. Who would keep the flame burning through dark years of occupation? At what cost?

Olivier Wieviorka presents a comprehensive history of the French Resistance, synthesizing its social, political, and military aspects to offer fresh insights into its operation. Detailing the Resistance from the inside out, he reveals not one organization but many interlocking groups often at odds over goals, methods, and leadership. He debunks lingering myths, including the idea that the Resistance sprang up in response to the exhortations of de Gaulle's Free French government-in-exile. The Resistance was homegrown, arising from the soil of French civil society. Resisters had to improvise in the fight against the Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy regime. They had no blueprint to follow, but resisters from all walks of life and across the political spectrum formed networks, organizing activities from printing newspapers to rescuing downed airmen to sabotage. Although the Resistance was never strong enough to fight the Germans openly, it provided the Allies invaluable intelligence, sowed havoc behind enemy lines on D-Day, and played a key role in Paris's liberation.

Wieviorka shatters the conventional image of a united resistance with no interest in political power. But setting the record straight does not tarnish the legacy of its fighters, who braved Nazism without blinking.

Genres: History, War, 20th Century, World War II, France, Nonfiction, European History

592 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2013

About the author

Olivier Wieviorka is professor of history at the École normale supérieure de Paris-Saclay. His books in English include The French Resistance

Reviews

[Jeremy P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une somme à digérer: au delà du travail (et de ce que j’en retiens) d’historien, précis et généreux sur les dates et les noms, il est plus qu’intéressant de se pencher sur les dynamiques qui ont sous tendu les relations parfois difficiles entre mouvements sur le territoire avec la France Libre à Londres (et ses réseaux sur le territoire) et les Communistes.

La volonté de leadership de chacun d’entre eux, leurs alliés respectifs, leur organisation et leur rapport (parfois ambiguë) au gouvernement Petain sont étudiés, de même que leur stratégie politique de sortie de guerre (l’échec des mouvements à se transformer en partis par exemple).

Les outils de résistance (propagande, renseignement, attentats), les difficultés (pression de l’occupant, arrestation, dénonciation), les personnages charismatiques (J Moulin et d’autres), les oubliés de l’histoire (Giraud par exemple), se bousculent dans cet ouvrage passionnant et synthétique.

Néanmoins, il manque un ou deux schémas expliquant qui est dans quel mouvement/ réseau (pas toujours simple).

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are plenty of books on the French Resistance.
The book above by Oliver Wievioka and two others ("Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance" by Robert Gildea and "A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship and Survival in World War Two" by Caroline Moorehead) provide a very good overview....

[History Today]

At 6pm on 18 June 1940, a relatively unknown French two-star general, Charles de Gaulle, composed himself in front of a microphone at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London and began a speech. Lasting less than six minutes, his words were an impassioned rejection of the armistice with Nazi Germany, which had been announced the day before by Marshal Pétain, prime minister and soon to be head of state of the collaborationist Vichy regime. Bristling with intent, de Gaulle was adamant that the Fall of France was just one battle and not the whole war, which he predicted would become a world war. Broadcast at 10pm, the speech was not obviously political. Rather it was a call to arms, aimed at the French military.

Few French people responded to de Gaulle’s plea, principally because it was difficult not to accept Pétain’s logic that Nazi Germany had won. Indeed, most saw de Gaulle as irrelevant, preferring to embrace Pétain as the saviour figure whose authoritarian antisemitic regime, based in the central spa town of Vichy, enjoyed mass support in autumn 1940.

However, after the Second World War, de Gaulle’s speech of 18 June 1940 became enshrined in French history as the starting point of the French Resistance, which led directly to the Liberation four years later. This founding narrative allowed French people to forget the humiliation of Nazi Occupation and rebuild national self-esteem.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Martin Evans is Professor of Modern European History at Sussex University

[Juan Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un pays fier de lui, bastion de liberté, référence culturelle depuis de nombreux siècles, tombe en quelques semaines face à l'Allemagne de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Comment vont se sentir les Français ?

Dans ce livre, l'histoire de la résistance pendant cette période d'occupation. Il est triste de constater que sans l’intervention des États-Unis et du Royaume-Uni, ils n’y seraient probablement pas parvenus.

Est-ce pour cela que les Français sont si mécontents ? Ils semblent parfois détester ceux qui les ont sauvés.

[Michael Barrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was expecting much more from this book. Very uneven in content and perhaps suffers in translation. A little difficult to keep track of all the acronyms. Nonetheless contains much pertinent and well researched information.

[Benoît Chauvineau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livre passionnant !! La pédagogie de l'auteur permet au lecteur d'assimiler les nombreuses thématiques soulevées sans le perdre malgré les nombreux personnages et les différentes organisations. Il ne glorifie pas la Résistance mais pose un regard juste sur la période.

[Nischlouss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wievorka éclaire de son analyse objective et scrupuleuse les pages les plus sombres de notre histoire nationale. Et c'est une vraie réussite.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many acronyms, too many names, too little analysis.

[Joe Blow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing

This should gave been a classic, but there are too many flashbacks, repetitions and untranslated words that are not English. It needs a strong editorial revision to make it the readable book that will be informative and valuable.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the history of the French Resistance, but I found the author's writing style awkward and the way he jumped from group to group a little unorganized. And there were many, many different groups resisting for different reasons, and alliances and loyalties changed over time.