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RESISTANCE IN EUROPE 177

RESISTANCE

IN EUROPE

The brutality of Nazi rule led to the rise of resistance

movements in every occupied country. These local groups

received assistance, wherever possible, from Britain’s

Special Operations Executive (SOE), while the Soviet Union

helped pro-Communist guerrillas in Eastern Europe.

Resistance groups often emerged spontaneously. Their operations

took various forms, from passive opposition, such as that practiced

in Germany by White Rose activists who distributed anti-Nazi

pamphlets, to large-scale military activity. The mountainous terrain

of the Balkans lent itself particularly well to the latter, and Yugoslavia

and Greece experienced years of guerrilla warfare.

Elsewhere, opposition activities ranged from sabotage missions

against military and industrial facilities to espionage and intelligence

gathering. Sometimes local operatives carried out the actions, but

the SOE (see pp.138–139) also inserted agents secretly by boat or

parachute. Capture by the German authorities or collaborators usually

meant torture and death, and successful ventures risked violent

reprisals against the local population. However, such acts of

resistance helped to divert valuable Axis resources from the two

war fronts, as well as depleting the occupiers’ morale. Equally

important, resistance to the Nazi regime asserted human dignity

in the face of oppression.

DEFYING THE OCCUPIERS

Across continental Europe, from Norway to the Balkans, local resistance

fighters chose to risk torture and execution rather than submit passively

to the occupation of their countries by Axis forces. By doing so, they

ensured that Nazi control would never become fully secure.

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4

1

TIMELINE

KEY

Strikes and

industrial action

Detention centers

Allied territory

Axis territory, occupations,

and cobelligerents, Nov 1942

5

1939 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946

6

7

RESISTANCE WRITING

Swaying public opinion was a vital

part of the war effort: Vichy French

authorities used propaganda to

mobilize hostility to the resistance

and the reprisals that they

provoked. In response, resistance

fighters set up underground

newspapers that helped keep

protest alive. In France there

was Libération and Combat

(edited by philosopher Albert

Camus) and in Belgium La

Libre Belgique, while in the

Netherlands there were more

than 1,000 publications.

Combat, May 29, 1944

Black^ Sea

Sicily

Sardinia

Corsica

Ne

ret

va

Warsaw

Radom

Prague

Kladno Będzin

Częstochowa

Tarnów

Sobibor

Trieste

Padua

Bologna

Stari

Báctopolya Timișoara

Šabac

Čačak

Zaječar

Niš

Salonika

Coka

Tirane

Luxembourg

Rome

Naples

Piombino

Brest

Oradour-sur-Glane

Beyssenac

Grenoble

Marseille

Toulouse Vercors

Madrid

Barcelona

Lisbon

London

Copenhagen

Bialystok

Krynks

Petrovgrad

Petrila

Aninoasa

Lupeni

Ketrzyn

Athens

Patras

Sofia

Plovadiv

Kruševac

Topollica

Zasayi Belgrade

Bolzano

Milan

Fossoli

La Spezia

Genoa

Florence

Monte

Battaglia

Turin

Paris

Metz

Strasbourg

Marburg

Amsterdam

The

Hague

Brussels

Lille

Berlin

Stefanau

Oslo

Stavanger

Herning

Silkeborg

Bergen

Orkdal

Kharkov

Moscow

Nowogródek

Kleck

Nieswiez

Treblinka

Munich

Le Havre

Rouen

Arhus

OCCUPIED

FRANCE

DENMARK

POLAND

VICHY

FRANCE

LUXEMBOURG

SWITZERLAND

PO

RT

UG

AL

ALBANIA

NETHERLANDS

Y

U

G

O

SL

AV

IA

BELGIUM

SL

OVAK

IA

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SK

O

M

M

IS

A

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AT

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LA

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ISA

RIA

T

UK

RA

IN

E

N

O

R

W

A

Y^

FINLAND

I

T

A

L

Y

GREECE

FRENCH

NORTH

AFRICA

HUNGARY

SYRIA

S

P

A

I

N

U

N

IT

E

D

BU

LG

AR

IA

R

O

M

A

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IA

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GREATER

GERMANY

T

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TU

RK

EY

SWEDEN

1940

“France has lost a battle, but she has not

lost the war.”

GENERAL CHARLES DE GAULLE, 1940

Pre-war France

Main underground

courier routes

COORDINATING THE FRENCH RESISTANCE

JUNE 1940–OCTOBER 1944

After the fall of France in 1940 (see pp.54–55), the

initial efforts of resistance fighters in the country were

uncoordinated. However, after May 1943, Free French

forces joined with the Army Resistance Organization

to form the National Council of Resistance; Communist

freedom fighters continued to operate independently.

Their combined efforts made a major contribution to

France’s liberation in 1944.

1

Major reprisal

PROTECTING DENMARK’S JEWS

APRIL 1940–MAY 1945

The German occupation of Denmark was less brutal

than elsewhere, but growing economic exploitation

led to civil unrest, strikes, and demonstrations. When

the Nazi authorities sought to impose anti-Semitic

legislation on the country in October 1943, substantial

numbers of people came together to thwart the

move, helping all but some 500 of the nation’s 8,000

Jews to escape to neutral Sweden.

2

Pre-war Denmark

Main operations area for

Danish Resistance groups

Escape route

to Sweden

YUGOSLAVIAN RESISTANCE

APRIL 1941–MAY 1945

With Yugoslavia divided after the 1941 occupation,

resistance crystallized in Serbia. The most effective

fighting units were the pro-Communist Partisans, led

by Josip Broz Tito, who faced nationalist Chetnik

forces as well as the Germans (see pp.202–203). Tito’s

military successes won him Allied support, which was

confirmed when the Partisans were recognized as the

official national liberation movement of Yugoslavia at

the Tehran Conference (see pp.162–163).

3

Pre-war Yugoslavia

Major reprisals against the civilian population

US_176-177_Resistance_in_Europe.indd 177 22/03/19 11:48 AM