The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis

View all 7 comments. Jun 09, Rob Kitchin rated it it was amazing. In Resistance, Matthew Cobb provides a broad social and political history of the French resistance movement in France during the Second World War, drawing on extensive archival and interview research. What his analysis demonstrates is that the Resistance was, in fact, many resistances, made up of hundreds of groups and cells working in broad alliances, cross-cut with deep political schisms, clashes of personalities, differences in opinion, tactics and strategies, and answering to different maste In Resistance, Matthew Cobb provides a broad social and political history of the French resistance movement in France during the Second World War, drawing on extensive archival and interview research.

What his analysis demonstrates is that the Resistance was, in fact, many resistances, made up of hundreds of groups and cells working in broad alliances, cross-cut with deep political schisms, clashes of personalities, differences in opinion, tactics and strategies, and answering to different masters. A real strength of the book is that Cobb manages to, on the one hand, contextualise resistance within wider European and global politics and the war, and within what was happening in France with respect to the Vichy regime and the apparatus of Nazi oppression, and on the other, to provide in-depth discussion of particular individuals and groups, and their motivations, aspirations, actions and fate.

As such, he provides by both breadth and depth, dispassionate contextualisation and poignant intimacy. In addition, rather than simply describing events as with many historical texts, Cobb provides an explanatory framework, seeking to interpret why certain decisions were undertaken, and he does so from a relatively neutral position, detailing how others have interpreted the same events and why his view concurs or differs. If you want a rounded, synoptic introduction to the various Resistance movements in France, this is a great place to start. Nov 13, Faye Powell rated it it was amazing.

The resistants, as the Resistance fighters were called, held various and often conflicting political views but were all committed to the overthrow of the Nazi occupation by whatever means possible.

The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis, by Matthew Cobb

Cobb's heavily researched work details the personal stories of the courageous men and women who risked - and often lost - their lives to defeat the Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy government that the Nazis established. Over 75, Jews were deported from France during the Occupation, with only on The resistants, as the Resistance fighters were called, held various and often conflicting political views but were all committed to the overthrow of the Nazi occupation by whatever means possible.

Over 75, Jews were deported from France during the Occupation, with only one in thirty returning after the war. As the resistants fought in the cities and countryside, de Gaulle, who at the beginning of the war was a relatively minor and unknown general, appointed himself head of the opposition and attempted to control the war effort from England with a view toward his own political future as head of the country post-liberation, even going so far as to order the resistants not to engage in sabotage without his consent.

They pretty much ignored his demands as he, in turn, refused to acknowledge their contributions to the war effort. It's not easy to keep track of the many factions of the Resistance with their often conflicting political agendas. Fortunately, Cobb provides an appendix of acronyms. The actions of the resistants included everything from publishing and distributing underground newspapers to sabotaging vital transportation lines to assassination of German soldiers and French collaborators and betrayers.

The response of the Nazis was immediate and merciless: It is estimated that approximately , people took part in the Resistance and approximately , died. What makes this history of the Resistance so compelling for me is the personalization of the individual resistants in all their human complexities and the vivid descriptions of their day-to-day lives as well as those of the rest of the French population who suffered appalling conditions and deprivations. Full of historical information that is heavily footnoted, the narrative still reads like a fast-paced novel.

The Resistance, Cobb says, has a mythic hold on the French psyche. These were ordinary people who made extraordinary sacrifices, and many of them paid a terrible price. They fought for a variety of reasons, with different means. But the main point is that they did fight, they did not accept what appeared to be the inevitable.

The Resistance | Book by Matthew Cobb | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster AU

And in doing so they discovered things about themselves. May 05, Kim rated it really liked it. This book has really knocked me sideways. Of course we learn about the resistance at school and through films, and my image was of a well-organised and controlled underground group including just about every French man and woman.

In reality it was highly fragmented, highly disorganized and highly political, and only 2 per cent of the French population were involved: The extraordinary waste of life is overwhelming — one in five involved was killed.

1. El Meta Secreto (Spanish Edition)!
2. The Resistance.
3. The Digital Dead (The Forge of Mars series Book 2)?
4. The French Fight Against the Nazis;

And yet This book has really knocked me sideways. Jun 06, Ellie Midwood rated it it was amazing Shelves: The photographs were also a very nice addition to the narration and helped me better visualize everything that was taking place. Separate stories told by or about different participants were also incredibly fascinating. What I also highly appreciated about this book is that it was purely historical, presenting the facts and historical accounts for a reader to judge for themselves who was the hero, who was the villain, and who was a simple opportunist. This was too stolid a retelling for my tastes.

It focused more on the political situation surrounding the French Resistance than the acts of resistance. That might float someone else's boat, but it left me wanting a bit cold. Even when Mr Cobb described the action, it was dull and lacked any tension. This would be a better book if it was written less as a lecture and more as a series of stories. I realised it's a factual book, but that doesn't mean it has to be dull.

Basic things like shorter se This was too stolid a retelling for my tastes. Basic things like shorter sentences and using active instead of passive voice would make a huge difference. I also bumped up against a couple of inaccuracies that jarred for me. Basic things like the author stating the Battle of Britain had not yet begun by 31 July and wrongly referring to D-Day as Operation Overload instead of Overlord, not once but twice.

It made me wonder what else was incorrect. Mr Cobb's habit of repeatedly calling the German army "Nazi soldiers" at the same time as explicitly stating that the rank and file were generally not Nazis, just soldiers following orders also bothered me. It's not a bad book, but it's not as interesting as a book about this fascinating slice of history should be. The rest of the space is taken up with the glossary, bibliography, further reading, notes and a list of people and what happened to them.

It made the book seem very slow going. Aug 06, Anne-Marie rated it it was ok Shelves: This is clearly a well researched book, and I don't want my rating to detract from it. However, for me it was just too in depth in terms of the political situation of France during WW2. I found it very hard to keep track of who was who and what side they were on, which dulled my interest in the subject quite quickly. If you're in to the detail of this kind of thing it would be a fantastic read I'm sure. Sep 27, Kate Taylor rated it it was amazing. I loved this book.

Filled with first hand accounts, it captures the intrigue and danger of being a part of the French Resistance, whilst also describing in detail what life was like for people under Occupation.

• The Emperors New Clothes?
• Lizzy sisters Sunrise..
• White Tiger Lover (Encanto Bay, Where Magic Happen Book 1).
• French Resistance;
• Going to the Olympics!

Incredibly moving in places, some of the stories of people's including teenagers bravery blew my mind. A must for anyone who has any interest in World War II. Well l never expected this Across the rest of occupied France the resistants were the truly brave individuals of what is fast becoming folklore. This book explores both sides in depth and opened a wholly unknown to me at least , page of WW2 history. Jan 21, Melissa Michelle rated it really liked it. It was a fascinating read on how the French chose to fight against the Nazis when the Vichy government appallingly chose to collaborate with the Nazis.

Ordinary citizens chose to stand up against the vast injustice inflicted on so many people!

The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis

Jun 03, R. F Brown rated it really liked it. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Anybody familiar with the film, 'The Man who shot Liberty Valance,' will remember that famous quip. It could equally apply to the French Resistance. Charting their history from France's humiliating defeat at the hands of the German in a six week campaign that stunned the world we learn of the total paralysis that struck France, a nation unable to comprehend the disaster that befell it.

As antipathy is replaced by defiance, we learn of the Resi When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Marine Corps, which suffered more than 27, casualties. Of some 18, Japanese soldiers defending the island, survived. German prisoners captured at Friedrichsfeld march through a town in Germany after the crossing of the Rhine River by the U. Prisoners line block 61 of Buchenwald concentration camp in April The construction of Buchenwald started July 15, , and the camp was liberated by U. George Patton's troops on April 11, Between , and , people were imprisoned in the camp.

About 56, died, including 11, Jews. Roosevelt's funeral procession goes down Connecticut Avenue on its way to the White House. Truman takes the oath of office on April 12, , as he becomes the 33rd president of the United States.



Standing beside him are his wife, Bess, and daughter Margaret. The bodies of Benito Mussolini, left, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, second from left, hang from the roof of a gasoline station after they were shot by anti-Fascist forces while attempting to escape to Switzerland on April 28, Russian soldiers wave their flag, made from tablecloths, over the ruins of the Reichstag in Berlin on April 30, That day, as the Soviets were within blocks of his bunker at the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.

The war in Europe was officially over. Soldiers rush an injured U. Marine from a battlefield during the Battle of Okinawa in June The battle, the bloodiest of the war in the Pacific, raged for nearly three months and heightened U. A photograph on display at the Bradbury Science Museum shows the first instant of the first atomic bomb test, on July 16, , at 5: The Potsdam Declaration, announced 10 days later, called for Japan's unconditional surrender, threatening "prompt and utter destruction.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, that day killed an estimated , people. A patient suffering severe radiation burns lies in the Hiroshima Red Cross hospital in August Many of those who survived the initial blast on August 6 died of severe radiation-related injuries and illnesses. A dense column of smoke rises more than 60, feet into the air over Nagasaki, the result of an atomic bomb dropped on August 9, An estimated 60, to 70, were killed in the Nagasaki blast.

Six days later, a little after noon local time on August 15, Emperor Hirohito's announcement that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast on radio. A jubilant American sailor kisses a nurse in New York's Times Square on August 14, , as he celebrates the news that Japan has surrendered. Because of the time difference between the two nations, the surrender occurred August 15 in Japan.

Overseeing the surrender is U. Douglas McArthur right, back to camera. This Friday, Europe will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, the moment when the "Thousand-Year" German Reich was finally extinguished, after the continent had endured 12 years, four months and eight days of Nazi mayhem, perversity, destruction and death. Americans will remember the heroic sacrifices of our troops, from Anzio and Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge, and once again we will congratulate ourselves for the crucial role we played in the liberation of Paris in summer What almost no one in America will recall is the crucial role the French Resistance played in the liberation of France, or the gratitude Dwight Eisenhower expressed, over and over again, for the vital contribution these French men and women made to the success of the Allies at Normandy.

The dismissiveness of Americans never ceases to exasperate me. Yet having for years immersed myself in the details of the French Resistance movement -- and the extraordinary heroism of one French family in particular -- the answer to that smug question is clear. But the cost of their courage to the rest of their family was so great that they did not talk about what they had done during the war for more than half a century.

It is this kind of heroism that Dwight Eisenhower pays tribute in his memoir, "Crusade in Europe. Now of course it is true that France capitulated with spectacular speed in the face of the German invasion in May A French minister of state declared "Better to be a Nazi province. The Vichy government then engaged in massive collaboration with the Germans.

Indeed, there was enthusiastic French participation in the "final solution," including the arrest of 4, Jewish children in Paris in summer -- even though the Germans had not asked the French to arrest anyone younger than But most Frenchmen were neither collaborators nor resisters; they just kept their heads down and tried to get enough to eat, which was extremely difficult in Paris, where citizens suffered with near-starvation rations.

For them, both collaboration and resistance were unwelcome, even threatening activities. For many if not most Europeans, the collaborator was a wild-eyed fanatic who tried to get your son to join the Waffen SS Americans reflexively believe that had Germany occupied the United States, nearly all of us would have joined an armed resistance to the Nazis.

That's what I thought, too, when I was But that reflects a hopelessly naive view, both of what the world looked like to most people after the Nazis had conquered Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and France, and of what it actually meant to take up arms against an occupying power. Robert Paxton is the dean of American historians of the occupation of France.

No one has done more than he has to expose the depth of French collaboration with the Nazis. But in his classic book, "Vichy France," Paxton also writes "an American reader who honestly recreates the way the world looked from France in cannot assume that he or she would easily have found the path to a hero's role.

In order to be able to print and distribute illegal newspapers, one had to steal strictly controlled printing paper and machines and to forge or steal ration cards, banknotes, residence permits and identity cards. To fight the enemy the resisters needed to seize arms from military garrisons or from rival resisters.

All this required the talents of a burglar, a forger and a thief. The French Resistance undertook nearly 1, acts of sabotage in the hours after the Normandy invasion began, and the damage they inflicted on railroads and other communications played a crucial role in preventing German reinforcements from arriving quickly in Northern France. And every time a German troop train was sabotaged, a nearby French village was likely to suffer horrendous retaliation -- like the town of Tulle, where a hundred men where seized at random and massacred three days after the Normandy invasion, or the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where citizens, including children, were killed the day after that.