French+Resistance

The French Resistance was made up of groups of anti-German protesters who wanted to help the Allies win, helping fight against the Nazi German Occupation of France during WWII. Members in the resistance groups helped supply the allied forces with intelligence reports, via wireless transmission or sent in underground newspapers. As they sent these messages they disrupted German communication and destroyed their supplies. All movements started in the north. It started off slowly but rocketed in June of 1941. It was at that time that all communist groups formed an alliance. By November 11, 1941, Germans occupied all of France.

When the French surrendered in 1940 they were left without pride -- they thought they were stronger than the Germans. Surrender was considered failure and they had to redeem themselves. France had gone into shock. The Vichy government (which was governed by the French but was Communist) began to collaborate with Germany. The Vichy regime adopted a policy of persecution of Jews at that time. Although Jews only made up about 1% of the French population, they constituted 15 to 20% of the French Resistance.

Since the members in the alliance had their underground newspaper and could gain knowledge of the Germans, the British could plan accordingly. The French Resistance played a key role in the Allies advancing quickly across France following the well-known invasion of Normandy and the lesser known invasion of Provence. After the arrival of Allies in Normandy and Provence, the Resistance became more organized. By the end of 1944, 100,000 people had joined the resistance against Germany. This included many other foreigners including Czechs & Slovaks, Spanish, Luxembourgers, Hungarians, Polish, and Italians.