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In June 1940, France suffered one of the most humiliating military defeats in its history.
The country was divided, its government surrendered, and millions of people suddenly found themselves living under occupation.
Yet across France, small groups began printing newspapers, gathering intelligence, hiding fugitives, and fighting back.
What started as scattered acts of defiance eventually grew into a nationwide underground movement.
Learn more about the history of the French Resistance on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
On May 5, 1940, the Germans began an invasion of Western Europe, which resulted in the capitulation of France and the routing of the British Expeditionary Force. In a matter of just six weeks, the Germans defeated not one, but two, of the most powerful armies in Europe.
Immediately following the armistice, which ended the fighting, Germany held millions of French soldiers captive. By holding the soldiers as prisoners of war, Germany had leverage to impose whatever it wanted on France.
This allowed Germany to reduce the size of France’s army and demand monetary payments. Germany also ordered that the French deport their Jewish population to concentration camps.
The country was then physically divided. The Germans established an occupation zone encompassing about 3/5 of its territory, covering the coastline as well as the Majority of North and West France.
The area that the Germans did not directly occupy would be run by a puppet regime officially known as the French State, but is more commonly referred to as Vichy France. It is often called Vichy France because the town of Vichy in central France was the seat of government and administrative capital of the regime. I’ve previously done a full episode on Vichy France.
The WWI hero, Marshal Philippe Pétain, was selected to lead the Vichy government. He had complete executive leadership and legislative control over the country, and with this power, he pushed to implement policies aligned with German interests and to provide financial aid despite claiming neutrality.
The government was authoritarian and commonly suppressed civil liberties. Despite this, the regime initially had some levels of popular support as many citizens were happy that it provided stability amid the chaos of war.
Citizens were thrilled to return to their everyday lives and were happy not to face direct German occupation. Additionally, many French citizens were happy to have Pétain in power, as they trusted his judgment and leadership.
However, this support was in no way universal, and those French who lived under direct German occupation didn’t support it at all. Many people resorted to actively resisting the Germans and Vichy State.
General Charles de Gaulle had fled to Britain during the German invasion and had established an exiled government in London, which he called the French National Committee. While in London, he addressed the people of France on the radio, saying that the Free French were resisting the German occupation.
Despite the efforts of De Gaulle, the French Resistance was not a single organization or political movement. It was a shifting collection of clandestine networks, intelligence organizations, and ordinary individuals who opposed German occupation and the Vichy regime between 1940 and 1944. Despite not being a fully unified movement all resistance groups shared the same goal of fighting the Germans and the Vichy regime.
One of the earliest resistance groups was the Musée de l’Homme network, formed by intellectuals and employees associated with the anthropological museum in Paris. Its members gathered intelligence, helped escaped prisoners, and published an underground newspaper called Résistance. German authorities infiltrated and destroyed much of the network in 1941, executing several of its leading members.
One of the main resistance groups in France was known as the Maquis. Primarily operating out of rural areas, the Maquis were eager for vengeance against the Germans and prepared to do anything. Many members of the Maquis were Frenchmen who had refused to be forced laborers in German factories.
Another large portion of the resistance consisted of Communists. On orders from Joseph Stalin, the French Communists remained neutral until Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Communist Party had been banned in 1939 after the pact between the Soviet Union and the Nazis.
In addition to laborers and communists, other groups joined the Maquis. Other prominent factions within the resistance movement included escaped prisoners of war, students and intellectuals, and Jews fleeing from deportation.
Members of the resistance lived under false names and carried forged documents. They changed addresses frequently, avoided familiar cafés, memorized contact points, and learned not to ask unnecessary questions. Meetings were brief and compartmentalized. Many activists knew only a few members of their own organization.
Food, money, clothing, ration cards, and secure rooms were constant concerns. Families of imprisoned or underground members needed support. Agents arriving from Britain required shelter, clothing, and convincing identity papers. Radios had to be concealed, moved, and powered.
Parachute drops from the Allies demanded coordinated ground teams, coded BBC messages, signal fires, and guards. Weapons containers then had to be hidden and distributed without attracting attention.
Trust was essential but dangerous. Some members of the resistance were actually German agents. Others broke under torture if they were captured. Careless behavior could destroy an entire network. Personal rivalries and ideological disputes could become life-threatening under clandestine conditions.
The Maquis gained support after the Allied North African invasion when the Vichy government began to enlist and deport thousands of French workers to serve in the German army.
Many men who evaded mandatory service became guerrilla fighters who lived in the French wilderness and mountains. The fighters would often raid local farms for food, giving them a controversial reputation, as some farmers happily fed them well, while others gave them a bad name.
The Maquis engaged in subversive activities. This included printing and distributing underground newspapers. They also worked to sabotage telecommunication networks, destroy key infrastructure, create false documents for Jews, and provide intelligence to the Allies
In the summer of 1942, Germany increased the number of Jews being deported from France, victimizing thousands. French citizens witnessed the roundups leading up to the deportations which opened many citizens’ eyes to the atrocities being committed under Nazi rule.
The 1942 deportations aligned with the increased unification of the resistance. As frustrations grew, authorities began to crack down on resistance efforts. To do this, they implemented collective punishments.
When collective punishments were administered, a statement was read that described the severity of the crime. To reflect the seriousness of the crime, a certain number of people would be shot. As punishment for the French resistance, it is estimated that the Vichy Regime shot 30,000 civilians to dissuade others from joining the resistance.
One of the worst instances of collective punishment was a massacre committed by German troops known as the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre. 642 Civilians were killed, and their entire village was destroyed because of their support of the resistance.
One of the most notable aspects of the Maquis was their assassinations against German soldiers and officers. Many of the assassination missions were carried out by the Communist faction of the Maquis. Known as the Francs Tireurs et Partisans, the Communists had a reputation for being ferocious and technical.
Unfortunately for the Communists, their assassinations often led to violent repercussions by the Germans, who murdered innocent civilians under their policies of collective punishment.
In addition to direct resistance activities against the Germans and the Vichy government, the Maquis also provided support to the Allies. When they found downed Allied pilots, the Maquis helped rescue, hide, and treat their wounds.
In 1942, De Gaulle continued in his mission to unify a French resistance. He sent Jean Moulin as an emissary to unite the Resistance Fighters into a single group he called the Forces Françaises Combattantes.
Despite finding some success in uniting the resistance, there was still considerable distrust. There was justifiable fear that there were spies amongst their ranks. The Vichy government offered a sizable reward to anyone willing to spy on the resistance and provide information.
Though it was slow to grow, by 1943 Vichy repression was getting worse, and more people were willing to unite under a single banner. This allowed different political parties to unite, which solidified De Gaulle’s leadership of the Free France movement.
Also around 1943, de Gaulle moved the French government-in-exile to Algiers. This was done as a political tool, as Algeria was considered French soil, as it was an integrated part of France at the time.
Being in Algeria also gave De Gaulle two advantages. One, he was able to operate more freely from the Allies, giving France some autonomy in the war. Two, it offered him a strategic position from which to command the military forces of the Free French movement to help liberate mainland Europe.
Before D-Day, there were efforts to fully unite all the resistance movements in preparation for the invasion. This was known as the French Forces of the Interior, or FFI. This was formally created in February 1944. The group included roughly 41,000 members.
The movement was organized into several groups. the first group was composed of communists. While they were late to the fight, they had a reputation or being the most brutal.
The Second group was the Armée Secrète. This group was the largest non-communist group and primarily focused on sabotage and gathering intelligence. They had the strongest connections with the De Gaulle Free French movement.
The final group was the Organization de Résistance de l’Armée. This faction was made up of former French military officers who brought their military training to the resistance.
During D-Day, the resistance was large enough to play an important role in the invasion. They supplied the Allies with intelligence and helped sabotage and harass the Nazi forces.
As the Allies pushed into France, local resistance groups reclaimed their town halls and other local government buildings from the Vichy regime. Once a region was reclaimed, De Gaulle would send in delegates into the region to ensure a quick and orderly transfer of power.
The most important region to take back was Paris. On August 19, resistance groups in Paris launched an insurrection against the German occupiers. By August 25, the Free French Units had entered the city, and the high-ranking Vichy officials had retreated east with the Germans.
With Paris reclaimed, the resistance and other members of the Exile government held a victory parade and established a provisional government. The government was formally recognized in October 1944 and had unchallenged authority.
Exact figures vary by definition, but tens of thousands of resistance members were killed in combat, executed, tortured to death, or died in deportation. Thousands more were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps.
After the war, France developed a powerful national story that portrayed the country as fundamentally resistant.
This narrative, sometimes called Résistancialisme, emphasized the continuity of the Republic, the illegitimacy of Vichy, and the unity of the French people behind de Gaulle and the Resistance. It helped restore national pride after catastrophic defeat and occupation.
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Both Gaullists and communists promoted versions of the myth. Gaullists depicted de Gaulle as the embodiment of legitimate France. Communists called themselves the “party of the 75,000 executed,” an exaggerated claim intended to emphasize communist sacrifice.
The myth contained important truths, but it also obscured uncomfortable realities. Vichy had enjoyed genuine support, especially during the early occupation. French institutions participated in persecution and deportation.
The resistance involved only a minority of Frenchmen, and its factions had not always been united. Many French citizens had remained passive, accommodated the occupiers, and only shifted loyalties as the war changed.
Nonetheless, there is a central truth about the French resistance: a determined minority of French refused to accept defeat, persevered, and preserved the idea of a free France until the war was won.