Our trip in Europe continues. We’re in southern France now, heading north in three or four days.
Earlier this week we had breakfast in Gordes, a spectacularly beautiful hill town in (I think) the Cotes de Ventoux area of Provence. We went there early, and had coffee and croissants on the tiny balcony of the local “Cercle Republicaine”. Inside the Cercle’s main room there– a bar-cum-coffee-bar– local townspeople sat and talked vociferously about politics and (of course) France’s meteroic rise in the international football stakes.
Afterwards, we walked around the town’s ramparts. At one point we came to the crowded cemetery. One whole portion of had been enclosed by a low wall and looked particularly clean and well-swept. It contained the bodies of a dozen local people who had died in the course of resistance activities against Germany’s WW-2-era military occupation of France. It was very moving. There was a man and his new bride, killed within days of each other. There were two brothers, killed the same night. Several of the (newly refurbished) information plates on the headstones said simply “fusille par les allemands” (“shot by the Germans”).
In the center of the town there was also a war memorial on which the names of these anti-occupatiion heroes had been chiseled.
In Iraq or Palestine, 60-plus years after these people’s (eventual) liberation from foreign military rule, do you think each hero of the resistance will be remembered with similar loving attention? I should imagine so.
16 thoughts on “Memories of the French Resistance”
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The reality of the those dark years is a lot more sordid than these public memorials would let on. It is an interesting comparative case though in that France is the only large Western power to suffer foreign occupation in recent times. Here’s a documentary I recently came across, highly recommended.
“do you think each hero of the resistance will be remembered with similar loving attention? ”
Helena, did members of the French resistance detonate truck bombs in crowded markets? Did they kill 10 times as many ‘collaborators’ as Nazis? I think they’ll be remembered as lovingly as people remember Timothy McVeigh (who also considered himself a ‘resistance fighter’.)
Unlike the FR (or the US founding fathers), Iraq’s ‘resistance'[sic/singular] has no leadership in exile, no coherent chain of command, nor any declared political program. Its main similarity to the french is the use of tactics that violate the rules of war set forth in the Hague convention of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1947.
It is an interesting comparative case though in that France is the only large Western power to suffer foreign occupation in recent times.
Germany and Japan are still occupied by foreign invaders. “Resistance groups” like the Nazi ‘Wehrwolf’ (who bombed factories in the Ruhr and Silesia) aren’t remembered so fondly.
Oh Gordes. Just by where I grew up :).
Been coming to this blog incidently, searching for the aftercourse of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in an attempt to understand, evaluate, remember. And know.
Although the many ways french resistance and so-called iraqi resistance differs, still remains the reason that when you kill one mother, you make one family search after you for life.
Resistant in Iraq exist because there was an invasion at first. That this resistance is distorted and amplified by criminal organisations is only the consequence of resent.
About what brougt all the excuses for such actions, ‘terrorism’, my father used to say me that terrorism is the poor’s weapon. The sole way to counter terrorism is not to feed it.
But of course, you know it. That needed once more to be said.
At least in echo to your great rants (from what I just read).
as lovingly as people remember Timothy McVeigh
” The report said that neo-Nazi groups like the National Alliance, whose founder, William Pierce, wrote “The Turner Diaries,” the novel that was the inspiration and blueprint for Timothy J. McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, sought to enroll followers in the Army to get training for a race war.”
“We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/washington/07recruit.html?ex=1309924800&en=18e0e7dce2b8c8d3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Nobody can complain about memory of these “heroes” not being remembered with “loving attention”, 60th anniversary of whose barbaric deed falls around two weeks from now…
Each nation had its heroes may be like these “heroes” while they were trying to swim to safety.” Sixteen Jews were killed, many shot while swimming to shore.
About what brougt all the excuses for such actions, ‘terrorism’, my father used to say me that terrorism is the poor’s weapon. The sole way to counter terrorism is not to feed it.
Terrorism is being sponsored and fed by Iran and Saudia Arabia, which are not exactly poor. They maybe cowards that prefer to fund proxies to terrorize the West, but they have plenty of dollars for weaponry. Again, the reason for terrorism in the case of Al Qaeda, Hizbollah, and most of our modern afflictions is the ability to hide the causant to avoid retribution.
Zarkawi was just lionized by Osama, and the London bomber video settle the score on isolated incident vs. Al Qaeda planned and trained.
The best documentary ever made on the French resistance and the occupation is “Le chagrin et la pitié” directed by Max Ophuls in 1969.
There has been many many other countries occupied during WWII, both Europeans and non European; Poland isn’t a small country or is it ? The Germans then were probably occupying more than half of Europe.
Helena,
In Iraq or Palestine, 60-plus years after these people’s (eventual) liberation from foreign military rule
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld praised the country’s progress, saying “The sweep of human history is for freedom. We’ve seen it in [El Salvador], we’ve seen it in Afghanistan and I believe we’ll see it in Iraq.”
Davis,
but they have plenty of dollars for weaponry.
Yes you right they have a lot of money to waste on weaponry which never used by them and they never have skilled personal to use them as they hired you in 1991 and paid you a lot of the Petro-dollar to defend them.
Last April the Guardian slatted that Saudis singed US$71Billion of weaponry deal with UK,
The Guardian reports that Britain has been in secret discussions with Saudi Arabia over a major arms deal that includes the Eurofighter Typhoon, and is said to be worth up to GBP 40 billion (USD $71 billion, EUR 59 billion). Talks are said to be stalling, however, after Riyadh asked for three “tricky” favors.”, and there is talk of more from US,
“It is not a secret nowadays the Al-Saud support for terrorism and extremism nevertheless the British for 71 billion $ and some extra oil are ready to ignore the problem.”
Tell us Davis if the west “US, UK” supply the weaponry to Saudis and you are the expert in anti-terrorist guy seating their why then your administration sale them weaponry if they knew that Al-Saud support for terrorism and extremism groups?
More history of Weaponry selling to Saudis and this history
That’s what I keep saying this Al-Saud the Wahabi Regime supported by you ” Franklin D. Roosevel Agreement” for “cheep” FREE oil Davis its all about.
“Britain’s largest export contract is with Saudi Arabia. The government-to-government agreement known as Al Yamamah dates back to the 1980s and has resulted in more than £40bn worth of sales. Prime contractor BAE has supplied the kingdom with dozens of Tornados and Hawk training jets under the deal, as well as training and services. More than 5,000 of its staff are stationed in Saudi.”
Speaking of WWII and French morals, deportations have resumed in France. Deja Vu all over again. I guess the Paris Intifada did backfire:
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-793522@51-755939,0.html
Abdallah Boujraf, un jeune lycéen marocain de 19 ans vivant en France depuis l’âge de 14 ans, a été reconduit dans son pays, vendredi 7 juillet.
La préfecture de police de Paris a indiqué qu’Abdallah Boujraf, qui vient d’obtenir son CAP de peinture et souhaitait poursuivre vers un BEP, n’entrait pas dans les critères de régularisation de la circulaire Sarkozy du 13 juin à l’adresse des seules familles d’enfants scolarisés dépourvues de papiers. La porte-parole de la préfecture a ajouté que le jeune homme, interpellé le 30 juin et placé en garde à vue, était soupçonné d’avoir agressé un sans-domicile fixe.
One wonders if the French Resistance might have achieved more had they allowed themselves to target women and children as a matter of course.
Perhaps it’s time we accept that such morals are merely another western extravagance, and openly support (rather than tacitly) a Sunni victory by any means necessary.
BELOW IS A GOOD READING NOT SOMETHING TO FORGET. ASK YOUR HISTORY TEACHER-WHY IT”S NEVER MENTIONED. I JUST READ IT– What is in this area that the British, Russians, Americans want?–Is it just for the hunt and killings? Keep reading how bad the Nazie were—balony!
**********************************************
It was impossible not to wonder whether any of those attacking us could be the same men as those I was with back in early 1988. And how, when Moscow had got such a bloody nose in Afghanistan, losing more than 15,000 men in what is seen as Russia’s Vietnam (and a defeat that had played a crucial role in the collapse of communism), had the British ended up taking on the same enemy?
It’s not as if we don’t have a history. When the paras moved into Camp Price just outside Gereshk in May and their commander had his first meeting with local officials, it took the Afghans just 10 minutes to bring up the battle of Maiwand. One of the worst defeats ever suffered by the British Army in which more than 1,000 men were slaughtered by the side of the Helmand River, the battle may have happened in 1880 but Afghans in Helmand talk about it as if it were yesterday and all claim that their forefathers were there.
If any further reminder were needed that one gets involved in Afghanistan at one’s peril, the Kabul headquarters of the Nato-led peacekeeping force is on the site of the old British cantonment. Its entire strength fled from here in January 1842 after a tribal revolt against the British-imposed ruler.
Of the 16,000 soldiers, wives, children and camp followers who left, only one got away; the rest were massacred or taken prisoner by Ghilzai tribesmen. Only Dr William Brydon was deliberately left alive to tell the tale and warn people back home of the consequences of getting involved in Afghanistan.
In a country that has ended up as a graveyard for so many thousands of British soldiers, why don’t we learn from history?
This time the politicians tell us that we have gone to make peace, not war — to “secure the area so that development can take place and extend the reach of the Karzai government”. But we are woefully underequipped for either: already six British soldiers have lost their lives within 24 days, victims once more of the Ghilzai Pashtuns.
BELOW IS A GOOD READING NOT SOMETHING TO FORGET. ASK YOUR HISTORY TEACHER-WHY IT”S NEVER MENTIONED. I JUST READ IT– What is in this area that the British, Russians, Americans want?–Is it just for the hunt and killings? Keep reading how bad the Nazie were—balony!
**********************************************
It was impossible not to wonder whether any of those attacking us could be the same men as those I was with back in early 1988. And how, when Moscow had got such a bloody nose in Afghanistan, losing more than 15,000 men in what is seen as Russia’s Vietnam (and a defeat that had played a crucial role in the collapse of communism), had the British ended up taking on the same enemy?
It’s not as if we don’t have a history. When the paras moved into Camp Price just outside Gereshk in May and their commander had his first meeting with local officials, it took the Afghans just 10 minutes to bring up the battle of Maiwand. One of the worst defeats ever suffered by the British Army in which more than 1,000 men were slaughtered by the side of the Helmand River, the battle may have happened in 1880 but Afghans in Helmand talk about it as if it were yesterday and all claim that their forefathers were there.
If any further reminder were needed that one gets involved in Afghanistan at one’s peril, the Kabul headquarters of the Nato-led peacekeeping force is on the site of the old British cantonment. Its entire strength fled from here in January 1842 after a tribal revolt against the British-imposed ruler.
Of the 16,000 soldiers, wives, children and camp followers who left, only one got away; the rest were massacred or taken prisoner by Ghilzai tribesmen. Only Dr William Brydon was deliberately left alive to tell the tale and warn people back home of the consequences of getting involved in Afghanistan.
In a country that has ended up as a graveyard for so many thousands of British soldiers, why don’t we learn from history?
This time the politicians tell us that we have gone to make peace, not war — to “secure the area so that development can take place and extend the reach of the Karzai government”. But we are woefully underequipped for either: already six British soldiers have lost their lives within 24 days, victims once more of the Ghilzai Pashtuns.
Realisticly the Wehrmacht were very different occupiers to the Marine Corps under different circumstances. As a professional and highly disciplined army (despite control by political extremists), they instinctively co-opted their French neighbours as much as possible. Contrasting with the disasterous and short-lived Nazi political machine, the German army has historicly been regarded as obedient to prevailing regulations and not at all trigger-happy.
Unlike what the Neocon Coalition armies have done in Iraq, French infrastructure wasn’t wantonly destroyed on invasion and what indirect damage did come from combat did not further compound over a decades cripling sanctions and was quickly repaired by the French and their invader. Very soon post occupation, journals of the time show you could walk the streets and there was relatively reliable water, power, and shops,hospital services etc, albeit with increasing rationing as Germany gradualy lost the war.
The military commanders and puppet Vichy government supported the countries infrastrusture to harness it as a functional nation within a new German Empire. They wanted to control the country and its people not just harvest its minerals, or use it as an outpost on alien soil. Unlike the US coalition in Iraq, the Nazis did not consider using France post occupation as a domestic justification for the indefinite use of war powers politicly. They hardly needed to, as the Nazi adminstration was far less calculating and cautious in its use of military power, and the war continued elsewhere on two fronts against (hopelessly larger) foes. France was more a jewel in the Nazi’s imperial crown.
Also France luckily did not have such a grossly alien culture and history to its invaders as Iraq has to US troops. To the average German soldier, the French populace seemed nothing like sub-human “hajiis” (though many german troops saw slavonic peoples that way), but more like poor if pretty cousins. If locals simply failed to resist or to harbor the resistance then their daily lives were safe from everything except allied bombs and the terrorists (resistance). The one exception was generally unpopular minority groups, such as gays, quakers, communists and jews, who as a result of Nazi philosophy were rounded up and taken to labor or concerntration camps for abuse, slave labor torture and/or extermination.
As an aesthetic and cowardly non-minority type, I’m sure I could thrive much better in an orderly occupied WW2 France than in Iraq today except of course for inside the green zone or other “lillypad” bases. I wonder what WW2 Iraqis and other arabs thought of Rommels army compared to the allies, did they believe we were the good guys then?
The Nazis were also much better at using propaganda to suggest they and the French had common enemies (the ones being rounded up). I’m afraid (resistance and atrocities against minorities notwithstanding) WW2 Germans would win a popularity contest with occupied France over DS2 Neocons in Iraq at least prior to the turn of fortunes in the war and liberation. Alien race, culture, religion, history and years of atrocities against the majority are the problem with IRAQ’s occupiers popularity. Maybe my assessment is wrong though, maybe the now free Iraqi people should hold a democratic referendum on whether US coalition forces should stay or go immediately? Maybe offer Saddam’s administration (not the pre sanction one) as the only alternative, surely then the US would win? Oh no of course, the Iraqi’s blow each other up, so we have to run their democracy for them. Looks like there really is no alternative for them. Because the Iraqi resistance can never win against such a huge and advanced foe, but is contained to feed and sharpen the Neocon machine. If they can cripple and occupy Iraq, who can hope to resist them anywhere?
Speaking of WWII and French morals, deportations have resumed in France. Deja Vu all over again. I guess the Paris Intifada did backfire:
Yes.. this is the result of Sarkosi’s new immigration laws. That same Sarkosi which the US right wing loves so much. That same Sarkosi whom Hamurabi was praising for his approach concerning discrimination. You always have to make a distinction between Sarkosi’s words concerning the need for affirmative action and between his actions.