Academic Review 2024

72 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD 8 .

To what extent was the passive resistance decisive during the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944? By Alexandre Bertrand The Third Reich’s humiliating invasion in May 1940 left France in a state of “sideration” (Albertelli, Blanc, & Douzou, 2019). The powerlessness of France to counter the German offensive resulted in a ‘paralysis of national will’ (Blumenson, 1977), whereby all sense of national pride and desire to fight had been obliterated. This sentiment of defeatism, combined with the force of Germany’s Wehrmacht , ensured that a militarised resistance was unthinkable (Albertelli, Blanc, & Douzou, 2019). Additionally, the harsh terms of the armistice of June 1940 left the French population, in both the Occupied Zone (under German control), and the Unoccupied Zone (under the Vichy administration), firmly focused on the task of survival.

Introduction

The traditional post-liberation view of the Resistance attributes success entirely to the military resistance. Embraced by the leader of the Free French forces, Charles de Gaulle, the more tangible nature of militarised resistance allowed broader historical enquiry reveals that the role of Resistance was not limited to de Gaulle’s ‘military, national and male’ (Gidea, 2015) resistance ‘myth’ (Gidea, 2015). While ‘functional, instrumental and largely successful’ (Kedward, 2022) in reuniting a bitterly divided France, this narrative ignored the important role of non-military actions (Kedward, 2022). for a glorified telling of the French response to German control. Yet,

Recent historical works, however, have highlighted the importance of the lesser known role of passive resistance. Long relegated to the footnotes of history, passive resistance challenged ‘by nonviolent means the awesome power of the German occupation’ (Blumenson, 1977), and included the production of clandestine newspapers and radio transmissions, as well as other forms of non-physical resistance. While it is challenging to pinpoint the beginning of passive resistance activities, Blumenson asserts that the earliest forms emerged almost immediately after the establishment of the German and Vichy administrations.