During WW2, was France the only country with a structured civilian Resistance?

Question

I've only ever really heard of the French resistance. Was there, for example, a German Resistance? Or a movement in Japan, Italy, or any other Axis countries? Why does the French faction get the most exposure?

Answer 1

The French Resistance had the most exposure because Charles de Gaulle became leader of France after the war. But many countries had organizations against the n***s.

Answer 2

There was Norwegian, Dutch, Belgian, pretty much every occupied country had a resistance movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_h...

There was also a German Resistance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Resi...

Answer 3

I'm not too sure, the Frewnch resistance is perhaps the best known during the war (WW2), im sure other countries had pockets of resistance and networks too.

The French still have a determined sence of resistance to this day, its a cultural thing..  I'd deem alot of respect for a A Nation of people who stand up for they're rights

Answer 4

Every country that was invaded by Germany, Italy and Japan had some sort of active and passive resistance.  The reason you hear more about the French Resistance is because of the vocal capacity of the French to try and restore some pride in their achievments during the war.  Also the independant arm of the French military which did contribute a very large force to the Allied cause helped.  

Finally the French also honoured many foreign fighters, escapees and organisers of the SOE force which assisted the French.

The biggest forces of resitance fighters however where the Soviets, Philippinos, French and many of the Indonesian Natives in Burma, Thailand, and the smaller islands.

hope this helps

Answer 5

Each and every occupied country had an organised Resistance movement, whose sworn duty, was, to kill German soldiers, and, disrupt communications, therefore; hampering the n**i war effort. Brave men and women. Look up the name of Jean Moulin.

Answer 6

The French boast about their resistance to try and take the emphasis away from the fact that their army either turned tail or surrendered

Answer 7

No, there were other countries with resistances.  Anne Frank was not in France but was assisted by the resistance.

Answer 8

Not quite sure what you mean by 'structured', but, yes, other occupied countries had resistances. The reason we hear most about the French is because it was obvious that any invasion of Europe would have to be through France and it was in the allies interest to ensure that there was an active force ready to assist and to disrupt the Germans. For that reason, there was a steady flow of arms and information to the French resistance - remembering, of course, that it was not unified. There were at least two factions, the Communists and the Gaullists. There were resistances in other countries - The Netherlands and Norway come to mind. The former were of great assistance to the British at the time of the Arnhem debacle. The Danish resistance was led by the King who, when all Danish Jews were ordered to wear a yellow Star of David, had one made for his clothes and went out into the streets wearing it.

There was a resistance to Hitler in Germany, but far, far more clandestine and led by men such as Bonhoeffer and Von Staufenberg. Don't forget they tried to blow Hitler up in 1944, only to be defeated by a bag being placed on the wrong side of a table leg.

Answer 9

There was resistance groups set up in every occupied country including the Axis countries, the French probably got more coverage because they the closest country to Britain and they had organized themselves, the most famous group was the Maquis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resi...

Answer 10

No but the French resistance was probably the most extensive and best organised.

In August 1944 they surrounded thousands of German troops in Central France and forced them to negotiate a surrender to the advancing American forces.

There were also resistance organisations in Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia and in Italy after the surrender of September 1943.

There was a German resistance called the White Rose but it was only small and not very effective.

Answer 11

Italian internal resistance was absolutely strong, even massive, and crucial; German resistance didn't get enough help from outside, but they manage to set-up a series of attempt against Hitler life; Rommel himself was forced to commit suicide.

Look for what happen during July 20, 1944 ("Operation Walküre" and "Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg").

Answer 12

No they weren't the only ones.  Czech resistance partizans killed Heydrich.  The Belgians and Dutch resistance movements were very active and courageous (TV series Secret Army) and Story of Anne Frank.  The Polish civilians fought valiantly against overwhelming odds to liberate Warsaw.

I think the French get most exposure only because the D Day landings took place in France, but as I have said, all the occupied nations had resistance movements which all paid a heavy price during this tragic period in history.

Answer 13

The French boast about their resistance. But a lot of it is revisionism and whitewash. Fact is that more French were sympathetic to the n***s than to the resistance. As can be seen that almost three times as many Frenchmen volunteered into the SS than were in the resistance.

    During the Battle of Berlin. Some of the fiercest defenders were the remnants of the SS Charlemagne division who fought to the last against the Red Army. The last person to recieve the Knights Cross was a French SS volunteer by the name of Eugene Vaulot in Berlin. He valiantly singlehandedly stopped 8 tanks, blowing them up with panzerfausts.  He died in the last hours of the battle right outside the Führerbunker.

      Fact is as much as France tries to portray itself as a nation of resisters. Some of the most dedicated and fiercest SS units came from France. Take for example the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane, in which the 2nd SS das Reich cut down 642 civilians. Decimating the whole village. Most of the present were French SS volunteers from Alsace-Mosselan. Which led to the war crime never being punished. Because when they tried to make a prosecution, there were riots in Alsace-Lorraine and Mosselan as well as calls for autonomy from France. France just out of such a brutal war, was not in the mood for a violent guerilla war/civil war simply to prosecute a few French SS volunteers. Hence the massacre against the almost 700 villagers went mostly unpunished to keep the peace and unity of the country.

      Another famous example is the meeting of General Leclerc of the Free French Army with 12 captured French SS soldiers. He trying to upbraid and emberass  them asked them why they as Frenchmen were wearing German uniforms. One of them,..perhaps unwisely, replied. Why General Leclerc was wearing an American uniform (the Free French wore modified US army uniforms). And why Leclerc was fighting for the English who had raped and pillaged France for centuries, whereas the Germans and French were bloodbrothers descended from the same tribe. Leclerc emberassed at being unable to give an answer to that, immediately had them executed instead to try and save face.

       Hence you could say France had a strucutred civilian resistance. However France had a much larger and popular collaborationist movement.

        But to return to the main part of your question. Almost every country had a civilian resistance. Same England had n**i sympathist civilians. Simply said each side had a minority of political activists of their war enemies. Russia had 100,000 volunteers who fought for Germany. Germany had civilians who tried to smuggle out Jews. All a big circle. There will always be people on either side who believe the other side is right. Whether it's resistance against the n***s in n**i occupied nations, or sympathists for the n***s in Allied countries.

Answer 14

Yugoslavia was liberated by Tito & his partizans - Communist Resistance.  

There were resistant movements in Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Bylorussia & across the occupied East.  

The reason the west has heard little of them is because they were behind the iron curtain.

In fact - wherever there were n***s there was a resistance.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_...

Answer 15

Though the French resistance gets the most publicity the Poles should get more with Operation Tempest/Storm as they basically started a war in Warsaw before the Soviet Union liberated it. The Soviets though chose not to support them and let the hardfought uprising get defeated so they could control Poland rather than the Poles claiming they liberated their own country and we owe the Soviets nothing. Also alot of British forces were soldiers from defeated countries (Poland, France, Norway, Czechs). There wasnt a real resistance in Axis countries because when those countries were captured the war was over (Italy was an exception people were tired of Mussolini and they killed him theirselves thus they were happy they were done with war).

Perhaps one of the main reasons though is that the eastern european resistance is more known in the Eastern European world while we are associated with Western Europe and the Allies rather than the Soviet Union and the communist Bloc. Thus we hear about France because we liberated them and our culture is close.

Answer 16

There was some sort of French resistance, but i don't know much about it.

Answer 17

I think Norway had some what of a resistance to the n***s,but I know that for sure that France had a lot of frommage.