The Resistance (1939-1945) in a few documentaries (1)

The French Resistance during the early years of World War II was not one, but many. From the Debacle with the defeat of the Metropolitan Army of France in 1940 to the Liberation in 1944, from the early embryonic organizations to the difficult unification under the aegis of General de Gaulle, the enclosed documentary by Patrick Rotman restores this heterogeneity by intertwining the destinies of some thirty men and women, leaders and foot soldiers of the army of shadows.

Composed of testimonies, often poignant, from resistance fighters:

- such as archive footage where Christian Pineau (socialist union leader and resistance member) who recounts having shaved Jean Moulin (the first designated President of the National Council of the Resistance), horribly tortured, at Montluc prison;

- rare images of occupied France, little-known documents (letters, reports, files of infiltrated agents...) and remarkable animated reconstructions of key episodes from a first tense meeting between Henri Frenay (Gaulist resistance fighter who always thought that Moulin was a communist) and Moulin to the Barbès metro bombing !n 1941 (the first deadly act of resistance against German occupation troops).

This fresco, as dense as it's fascinating, explores three facets of the same story: that of clandestine movements and networks, that of their relationship with French public opinion, and that of the repression orchestrated by the occupier and the Vichy regime.

[media=https://youtu.be/Uzp-JKQ3UyM]

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Yulianna · 26-30, F

🇺🇦 you must always be prepared to fight for your country...

KiwiBird · 36-40, F

@Yulianna "Slava Ukraini"

peterlee · M

But there was also a much darker side. The collaborators, of which there were many. There were also concentration camps. Though it was not admitted until the nineteen nineties. Nothing is ever quite what it seems.

GeretJan

@peterlee It's like saints. One can claim that someone was a saint and she was really a spy too. No, modern times have eroded their true meaning thus also. I'm sorry to say that the majority of Brits can't imagine how it was being occupied by a really hars foreign entity. The almost starvation diet, the black market, the constant fear that around the corner there will someone who will denounce you unjustly, the roundups going on to gather the correct number of labourers for German factories, etc. No, on the whole there was much more than just collaboration going on and that doesn't even amount to anything that can offset some truly heroic deeds of resistance.

peterlee · M

@GeretJan The same ambiguity existed in Spain throughout much of the twentieth century. The Spanish of course have higher values, family and leisure that pulls them through.

The Spanish civil war was complex. Certainly not black and white, the Republican goodies, against the Franco nasties.
Think of the seven Motril martyrs. Lynched by the Republican mob, four thousand strong. Their crime, celebrating the Mass after it had been banned by the Republican government.

GeretJan

@peterlee One needs to keep ones focus on the Resistance issue during World War II. Passed the Nazi invasion of Stalin's empire even the communists gathered around the fire of doing something against the occupier. Of course, internal conflict was still going on. On both sides of the Cold War that would come in any event because there were forces that corrupted at times this overall movement towards succesful Resistance. One only needs to think back to The Englandspiel, the murder of Polish General Sikorski, etc. However, even that can't offset the deeds done by true heroes when it really mattered.

therighttothink50 · 56-60, M

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3xDt3FDC4c]

tenente · 36-40, M

is this where the saying "you're only 6 missed meals away from a revolution" came from?

GeretJan

@tenente I'm sure that you were spared the harm and suffering that was caused by war and occupation. Count yourself lucky that there were people once who were indeed better.

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