![]() ![]() French women consorting with German soldiers angered many French men, though often the women had to do so to acquire food for themselves and their families. Regulations, censorship, propaganda and nightly curfews all played a role in establishing an atmosphere of fear and repression. ![]() Beyond these hardships and dislocations, the occupation became increasingly unbearable. The labour shortage was worsened by the large number of French prisoners of war held in Germany. Labour shortages also plagued the French economy because hundreds of thousands of French workers were requisitioned and transferred to Germany for compulsory labour under the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO). Prices soared, leading to widespread food shortages and malnutrition, particularly among children, the elderly, and members of the working class engaged in physical labour. Due to the overvaluation of German currency, the occupiers were able to make seemingly fair and honest requisitions and purchases while operating a system of organized plunder. The artificial exchange rate of the Reichsmark versus the franc had been established as one mark to twenty francs. This amounted to about 20 million German Reichsmarks per day, a sum that, in May 1940, was approximately equivalent to four hundred million French francs. One of the conditions of the armistice was forcing the French to pay for their own occupation. Although most civilians remained neutral, both the occupation of French territory and German policy inspired the formation of paramilitary groups dedicated to both active and passive resistance. ![]() Identity document of French Resistance fighter Lucien Pélissouįollowing the Battle of France and the second French-German armistice, the lives of the French continued normally at first, but soon the German occupation authorities and the Vichy régime began to employ increasingly brutal and intimidating tactics to ensure the submission of the French population. ![]() The town was later awarded the Ordre de la Libération. įurther information: zone occupée and German military administration in occupied France during World War II The cemetery and memorial in Vassieux-en-Vercors where, in July 1944, German Wehrmacht forces executed more than 200 persons, including women and children, in reprisal for the Maquis's armed resistance. Although the amalgamation of the FFI was sometimes fraught with political difficulties, it was ultimately successful, and allowed France to rebuild the fourth-largest army in the European theatre (1.2 million men) by VE Day in May 1945. By October 1944, the FFI had grown to 400,000 members. There were around 100,000 fighters in June 1944. Īfter the Allied landings in Normandy and Provence, the paramilitary components of the Resistance received formal organization, forming a hierarchy of operational units known as the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). The actions of the Resistance contrasted with the collaborationism of the Vichy régime. The Resistance's work was politically and morally important to France during and after the German occupation. The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed sabotage acts on electrical power grids, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. Members provided military intelligence on German defences known as the Atlantic Wall, and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle for the Allies' invasion of Provence on 15 August. The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. The number of French people participating in the organized resistance is estimated at from one to three percent of the total population. The Resistance's men and women came from many different parts of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics (including clergy), Protestants, Jews, Muslims, liberals, anarchists, communists, and some fascists. They also provided first-hand intelligence information, and escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind Axis enemy lines. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis in rural areas) who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. The French Resistance ( French: La Résistance) was a collection of organizations that fought the Nazi occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime in France during the Second World War. Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.Polish resistance movement in World War II ( Polish Underground State)Īssembly for the National Liberation of Serbia.Political dissidence in the Empire of Japan.Pope Pius XII and the German Resistance.Resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. ![]()
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