The French Resistance is one of the most studied topics in all of French history, perhaps as a way to find some sort of redemption for the dark years of the Nazi Occupation of France and the collaborationist government of Vichy. The Nazi Occupation in general is one of the most complicated and painful chapters in French history and for that reason it has attracted enormous scholarly attention. Initially, historians of the defeat tended to focus their attention on contemporaneous accounts. L'Etrange défaite by Marc Bloch was published immediately after the war and translated into English in 1968 as Strange Defeat. It was an influential analysis, pinning the blame on political factions and French society at large. La décadence (1979) by Jean-Baptiste Duroselle also blamed the Third Republic (the French government from 1970-1940) and what he saw as societal decay and decline over those years. Certainly, there was a general sense among the conservative factions of French society that the liberalism of the Belle Époque, and, according to some even the democratic roots of the French Revolution of 1789, had led France astray. The slogan of the National Revolution (Révolution nationale), Work, Family, Fatherland (Travail, Famille, Patrie) was the dominant ideology under the rule of Marshal Phillipe Pétain and the Vichy government. While he did use the energy behind those sentiments, supporters of Pétain (Pétainistes) were not necessarily sympathetic to the National Revolution. Many remembered him more fondly as the WWI "hero of Verdun." The nuance is very complicated and definitions of Resistants and Collaborationists can be — and still are — vehemently debated.
Beginning in the 1980s, scholars began to focus on the military factors that directly contributed to the defeat. Subject expert Julian Jackson's tome, The Fall of France (2003) dismissed the "long-term" factors as not having had time to come into play. As historian and professor Chris Millington stated in his succinct text France in the Second World War, France lost on the battlefield. A recent addition to the mix in the last decade is the publication of The Extreme Right in the French Resistance, by Valerie Deacon, adding further complexity to who resisted and what the Resistance meant to French citizens. The foremost expert, and certainly the most prolific historian on World War II, is French scholar and professor, Henri Michel. He was an instrumental figure in both the Comité d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale External (a committee of experts on WWII), and the Revue d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale (an academic journal published by Presses universitaires de France). The Library holds almost 50 of his publications, many of which focus specifically on the French Resistance and Free France. Extracts from many of his publications are available from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Titles include: La libération de Paris External, La défaite de la France : septembre 1939-juin 1940 External, Histoire de la France libre External, Vichy, année 40 External, Quatre années dures External, andLa Seconde guerre mondiale. Les succès de l'axe : septembre 1939-janvier 1943 External.
The bibliography below includes some of the important scholarly works on the topic that are available at the Library of Congress. Academic studies are not the only way that we grapple with France's role during World War II. Fiction writers and graphic artist continue to portray this horrific and dramatic time in their writings and therefore this guide also includes sections on , and Graphic Novels. Other important materials include , and Underground Publications and Newspapers. The guide also parses out the various groups who played an invaluable role in the Resistance and the Liberation of France from the Germans. These groups include: American D-Day Veterans, Women in the Resistance, Free French Africa and the Overseas Territories, Jewish Resistants, Resistance in the Church (both Catholic and Protestant), and Communists in the Resistance.
While scholars have long studied the French Resistance, it also inspired poets and writers. Poets both anonymous and well-known were moved to be spokespersons for the oppressed and persecuted. While Chanson d' automne (1866) by Paul Verlaine became symbolic of the Resistance, the following famous poets lived through, and often participated in the Resistance: François Mauriac, Albert Camus, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, Jean Cassou, Eugène Guillevic, Joseph Kessel, Maurice Druon, Marianne Cohn, and René Char. Louis Aragon was a Communist who remained in the free zone and participated in the Resistance not only with physical actions but with his literary activities. Paul Éluard was one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. His most famous poem of this period is Libérty (1942). Camus, editor of the newspaper Combat , and Mauriac, editor of Le Figaro had strong disagreements that played out in the pages of their publications. Camus was in favor of a full purge of all Nazi collaborators whereas Mauriac argued for a spirit of national reconciliation in the hopes of lessening the animosity between different factions. Their disagreements about the way France would handle the aftermath of the German Occupation illustrates a larger national dilemma of how to keep some sense of unity after such a bitterly divisive period of war. Kessel and Druon composed a poem in May of 1943 that evoked the life of the Maquis in France. The poem, Le Chant des partisans External, was set to a melody they overheard from the song of a young Russian named Anna Marly, would become one of the tragic anthems of the Resistance. It was smuggled into France by Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie (founder of the Liberation Resistance movement in the southern zone) and would be published secretly in France in Les Cahiers de Libération (Sept 1943).
The Song of the Partisans External
Ami, entends-tu
Le vol noir des corbeaux
Sur nos plaines?
Ami, entend-tu
Les cris sourds du pays
Qu'on enchaîne?
Ohé Partisans
Ouvriers et Paysans
C'est l'alarme!
Ce soir l'ennemi
Connaîtra le prix du sang
Et les larmes
