HISTOIRE DE LA RESISTANCE

The first major synthesis of the history of the French Resistance during the Second World War.

During the Second World War, French men and women who refused to accept defeat fought Nazi Germany and the collaborationist regime of Vichy, some of them as early as June, 1940. It was a struggle that took several forms: a civil strategy that centered on circulation of the clandestine press and the organisation of strikes or demonstrations, and a military strategy concentrating on intelligence, sabotage, and the exfiltration of allied soldiers trapped in France. Initially, the primary concern of General de Gaulle, who called for resistance in his famous exhortation of June 18, 1940, was the organization of the Free French forces (FFL) in London. But by 1942, the situation had evolved; Germany's 6th army was stuck at Stalingrad, finally surrendering at the beginning of 1943 in what would become the turning point of the war. Measuring the growing potential of the Resistance in France, de Gaulle sought to bring its various forces together both to increase its effectiveness and to demonstrate to his skeptical Allies that the French were united behind his iconic symbol, the Cross of Lorraine. Hence began the last phase of the Resistance, in preparation for D-Day and the Liberation. For the first time, Olivier Wieviorka takes on the subject as a whole, from the creation of the first networks to the exact role of the Resistance in the Liberation. Deconstructing the various organisations, he recounts and analyzes the conflicts among leaders and thoroughly examines the several mysteries and polemics that have endured since 1945. The result is impressive. This is a book that is at once complete and accessible to a broad public, a lively account of rigorous synthesis, one that will soon be established as a reference work on the subject. A member of the Institut universitaire de France and university professor at the Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan, Olivier Wieviorka is a well-known specialist on the Second World War and has written several books about it, including the widely acclaimed Histoire du Débarquement.