Academic Review 2024

73 ACADEMIC REVIEW 2024

The passive resistance was ideologically significant as it inspired hope among the French. For Gidea (Gidea, 2015) and Kochanski (Kochanski, 2022), the passive resistance was decisive as it generated an awareness notably through the clandestine press, which shook France ‘out of its defeatism and resignation’ (Gidea, 2015). By exposing another reality, Krivopissko argues that the clandestine press alerted the French to the dangers of German propaganda (Krivopissko & Willard, 1986). He also highlights the influence of the clandestine press in transforming the population’s mindset by fostering hope (Krivopissko & Willard, 1986). The first issue of one the most recognised clandestine newspapers, Libération , illustrates Gidea’s view: ‘This newspaper will familiarise you with truths that your government, under orders from Germany, is obliged to hide from you.’ In doing so, Libération explicitly stated that source La Lutte Clandestine en France (2019) , by Albertelli, Blanc, and Douzou, provided a detailed and contemporary insight, which challenges the idolatrous perception of the Resistance, while highlighting the role of passive resistance. This book echoed Marcel Ophül’s documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) , which challenged my perception of the Resistance. Furthermore, in considering the challenge in finding sufficient evidence, due to the clandestine nature of movements which ‘erased the traces of their actions’ (Albertelli, Blanc, & Douzou, 2019), this investigation will explore the passive resistance in the form of printed newspapers and radio, which present the most accessible sources. such as Kochanski’s Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-45 (2022), provided a recent and comprehensive account of Resistance movements. Her detailed descriptions of the social influence of the clandestine press and radio proved useful in evaluating the ideological and military decisiveness of the passive resistance. Additionally, the French “ ...it challenges the traditional post-liberation view of the French Resistance. ”

This subject is worthy of study as it challenges the traditional post-liberation view of the French Resistance. This essay will explore the impact of the passive resistance in France during the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. I will argue that the passive resistance was, overall, decisive during the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. To consider the decisiveness of the passive resistance, this investigation will explore its ideological, political, and military impacts. The first section will focus on the ideological significance of the passive resistance by highlighting its role in creating awareness and disseminating resistance information, whilst acknowledging that its ideological role may be overstated. The second section will argue for the political decisiveness of passive resistance which enabled the emergence of diverse political movements and their subsequent unification. The final section will identify the military decisiveness of passive resistance as it served as a training ground for militarised resistance. The methodology when answering this question, consisted of both primary and secondary sources in English and French. Primary sources including Jacques Debû-Bridel’s La Résistance Intellectuelle (1970), provided a perceptive insight into the importance of ideology in changing French attitudes, through a compilation of primary sources. Secondary sources

The passive resistance was ideologically significant The first criterion for the decisiveness of the passive resistance is its ideological impact on the French population. Following the liquidation of France on 10th July 1940, the French press in the occupied zone was swiftly muzzled by the “obstinate” (Krivopissko & Willard, 1986) control of the Propaganda-Abteilung Frankreich (Department of Propaganda in France). Hitler, according to resistance leader, Debû-Bridel, did not want just the body of France, he wanted, ‘the soul, the spirit of the nation’ (Debu-Bridel, 1970), which would not only tolerate but comply with Nazi ideology. Through passive resistance, small groups of French men and women, the most famous known as the Groupe du Musée de l’Homme , refused defeat, and from the outset of the occupation, set out to change

public sentiment, disseminate Resistance ideals, and inspire defiance through counterpropaganda (Albertelli, Blanc, & Douzou, 2019).