Résistance, La, France

Résistance, La, France After 1940, individual groups began to form which were dedicated to the active sabotage of the German occupying forces in the north, and the Vichy government in the south. In opposition to the right-wing Pétain government, resistance groups such as the Libération-Sud and the more intellectual Franc-Tireur tended to be more overtly left wing. The most important group was Combat, led by Captain Pierre Frenay, which was made up largely of professionals in Lyons and the south-east. In the north, organizations such as the trade-union-based Libération-Nord emerged, though the dominant force came to be the Front National, especially after the French Communist Party had abandoned its official neutral stance in June 1941 following Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union.

The Résistance became especially effective in early 1943, as a result, first, of the organizational efforts of de Gaulle's deputy, Jean Moulin, who succeeded in co-ordinating the most important groups through the Conseil National de la Résistance (National Resistance Council). Second, it was able to recruit men who wanted to avoid the compulsory labour service of Frenchmen in Germany, introduced in February 1943. It was at that time that the Maquis became a potent force of the resistance movement. Named after the term from Corsican folklore, prendre le maquis (‘taking to the bush’), it consisted of those people of the résistance whose names were on German blacklists and who had to go into hiding. Hence, it existed mainly in the inaccessible terrains of the Alps and the mountainous Massif Central. There were considerable tensions between Communist and non-Communist sections of the Maquis, but both became active in the fight against the occupying forces following the Allied landings at D-Day and in southern France in 1944. In all, up to 300,000 people (around 2 per cent of the population) participated in the résistance. The significance of the résistance lies not only in the heroic sacrifices of many of those who took part, but also in the sense of dignity which its actions bestowed upon the French nation both during and after World War II.