Resistance During World War II

Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, resistance movements were sometimes also referred to as The Underground.

The resistance movements in World War II can be broken down into two primary politically polarized camps: the internationalist and usually Communist Party-led anti-fascist resistance that existed in nearly every country in the world; and the various fascist/anti-communist nationalist resistance groups in Nazi- or Soviet-occupied countries that opposed the foreign fascists and the communists, often switching sides depending on the vicissitudes of the war and which side of the ever-moving military front lines they found themselves on.

Among the most notable resistance movements were the Polish Resistance (including the Polish Home Army, Leśni, People’s Army, and the greater Polish Underground State); the Yugoslav Partisans, the Soviet partisans, the Chinese resistance, the Italian ''Resistenza'' (led mainly by the Italian CLN); the Jewish Resistance in various Nazi-occupied territories; the Greek Resistance, the French Resistance, the Belgian Resistance, the Norwegian Resistance, the Danish Resistance, the Czech resistance, the Albanian resistance, the Dutch Resistance (especially the "LO" (national hiding organisation)) and the politically persecuted opposition in Germany itself (there were 16 main resistance groups and at least 27 failed attempts to assassinate Hitler with many more planned): in short, across German-occupied Europe.

Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting or undermining the Axis invaders, and Nazi Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. Although Britain was not occupied during the war, the British made complex preparations for a British resistance movement. The main organisation was created by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka MI6) and is now known as Section VII. In addition there was a short-term secret commando force called the Auxiliary Units. Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency).

There were also resistance movements fighting against Allied invaders. In Italian East Africa, after the Italian were defeated during the East African Campaign, some Italian soldiers and settlers participated in a guerrilla war against the Allies from 1941 to 1943. Though the Werwolf Nazi German resistance movement never amounted to much, the German Volkssturm played an extensive role in the Battle of Berlin. The "Forest Brothers" of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania included many fighters who operated against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States into the 1960s. During or after the war, similar anti-Soviet resistance rose up in places like Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Chechnya.

While historians and governments of some European countries have attempted to portray resistance to Nazi occupation as widespread among their populations, only a small minority of people participated in organized resistance, estimated at one to three percent of the population of countries in western Europe. In eastern Europe where Nazi rule was more oppressive, a larger percentage of people were in organized resistance movements, for example, an estimated 10-15 percent of the Polish population. Passive resistance by non-cooperation with the occupiers was much more common.

Organization

After the first shock following the Blitzkrieg, people slowly started organizing, both locally and on a larger scale, especially when Jews and other groups began to be deported and used as ''Arbeitseinsatz'' (forced labor for the Germans). Organization was dangerous, so most resistance actions was performed by individuals. The possibilities depended much on the terrain; where there were large tracts of uninhabited land, especially hills and forests, resistance could more easily organise undetected; this favoured in particular Soviet partisans in Eastern Europe. In the more densely populated countries such as the Netherlands, the Biesbosch wilderness was used. In northern Italy, both the Alps and the Apennines offered shelter to partisan brigades, though many groups operated directly inside the major cities.

There were many different types of groups, ranging in activity from humanitarian aid to armed resistance, and sometimes cooperated in varying degrees. Resistance usually arose spontaneously, but was encouraged and helped from London and Moscow.

Size

The five largest resistance movements in Europe were the Dutch, the French, the Polish, the Soviet, and the Yugoslav; overall their size can be seen as comparable, particularly in the years 1941–1944.

A number of sources note that the Polish Home Army was the largest resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe. Norman Davies writes that the "Armia Krajowa (Home Army), the AK,... could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance rganizations" Gregor Dallas writes that the "Home Army (Armia Krajowa or AK) in late 1943 numbered around 400,000, making it the largest resistance organization in Europe."Gregor Dallas, ''1945: The War That Never Ended'', Yale University Press, 2005,
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/ref> Mark Wyman writes that the "Armia Krajowa was considered the largest underground resistance unit in wartime Europe." However, the numbers of Soviet partisans were very similar to those of the Polish resistance, as were the numbers of Yugoslav Partisans. For the French Resistance, François Marcot ventured an estimate of 200,000 activists and a further 300,000 with substantial involvement in Resistance operations. For the Resistance in Italy, Giovanni di Capua estimates that, by August 1944, the number of partisans reached around 100,000, and it escalated to more than 250,000 with the final insurrection in April 1945.

Forms of resistance

Various forms of resistance were:
* Non-violent
** Sabotage – the ''Arbeitseinsatz'' ("Work Contribution") forced locals to work for the Germans, but work was often done slowly or intentionally badly
** Strikes and demonstrations
** Based on existing organizations, such as the churches, students, communists and doctors (professional resistance)
* Armed
** raids on distribution offices to get food coupons or various documents such as '' Ausweise'' or on birth registry offices to get rid of information about Jews and others to whom the Nazis paid special attention
** temporary liberation of areas, such as in Yugoslavia, Paris, and northern Italy, occasionally in cooperation with the Allied forces
** uprisings such as in Warsaw in 1943 and 1944, and in extermination camps such as in Sobibor in 1943 and Auschwitz in 1944
** continuing battle and guerrilla warfare, such as the partisans in the USSR and Yugoslavia and the Maquis in France
* Espionage, including sending reports of military importance (e.g. troop movements, weather reports etc.)
* Illegal press to counter Nazi propaganda
* Anti-Nazi propaganda including movies for example anti-Nazi color film ''Calling Mr. Smith'' (1943) about current Nazi crimes in German-occupied Poland.
* Covert listening to BBC
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