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Facing fascism head on

JOHN ELLISON recalls the momentous role of the French resistance during WWII

LEGENDS: A Maquis detachment in La Tresorerie hamlet near Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, September 14 1944, pic: Donald I Grant, Department of National Defence/CC

ON THE 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the historical importance of French resistance to Nazi occupiers and their Petainist delegates and collaborators, both for France’s own liberation and for its post-war political future, should not be forgotten.  

In Britain the real story has been too much buried out of sight. Certainly it included French people risking their lives to aid Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents and stranded British aircrews, but the wider picture embraced a whole range of resistance activities, driven both by detestation of Nazi occupation, and by hopes for a more radical and democratic France.  

The list of resistance groups across France is long. Within them could be found communists, left socialists, radical Catholics, nationalists (some not obviously “political”), and others highly conservative, as was “noble anachronism” General Charles de Gaulle.  

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