Resistance during World War II
Encyclopedia
Resistance movement
s during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. Resistance movements are sometimes also referred to as "the underground".
Among the most notable resistance movements were the Yugoslav Partisans, the Polish Home Army, the Soviet partisans
(at varying periods, each of them could be seen as the largest resistance movement in World War II)), the Forest Brothers
, the French Forces of the Interior
, the Italian CLN, the Norwegian Resistance, the Greek Resistance
and the Dutch Resistance
.
Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting the Axis
invaders, and Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. Although Britain did not suffer the Nazi occupation in World War II, the British made preparations for a British resistance movement, called the Auxiliary Units
, in the event of a German invasion. Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the British SOE
and the American OSS
(the forerunner of the CIA
).
There were also resistance movements fighting against the Allied
invaders. In Italian East Africa
, after the Italian forces were defeated during the East African Campaign
, some Italians participated in a guerrilla war
against the British (1941–1943). The German Nazi resistance movement ("Werwolf
") never amounted to much. On the other hand, the "Forest Brothers
" of Estonia
, Latvia
and Lithuania
included many fighters who fought for the Nazis and 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
, and western Ukraine
. While the Japanese were famous for "fighting to the last man," Japanese holdout
s tended to be individually motivated and there is little indication that there was any organized Japanese resistance after the war.
, people slowly started to get organized, both locally and on a larger scale, especially when Jews
and other groups were starting to be deported and used for the Arbeitseinsatz
(forced labor for the Germans). Organization was dangerous, so much resistance was done 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 get organised undetected. This favoured in particular the Soviet partisan in Eastern Europe
. In the much more densely populated Netherlands
, the Biesbosch
wilderness could be used to go into hiding. In northern Italy
, both the Alps
and the Appennines 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 cooperating to a varying degree. Resistance usually arose spontaneously, but was encouraged and helped mainly from London and Moscow.
unit of the first guerilla organization of the Second World War in Europe, led by Major Henryk Dobrzański
(Hubal) completely destroyed a battalion
of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska. A few days later in an ambush near the village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat, the German authorities formed a special 1,000 man-strong anti-partisan unit of combined SS-Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer
group. Although Dobrzański's unit never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it.
In 1940, Witold Pilecki
, a member of Polish resistance
, presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp, gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. The Home Army approved this plan, provided him with a false identity card, and on 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a street roundup in Warsaw-łapanka, and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. In the camp he organized the underground organization Związek Organizacji Wojskowej
(ZOW).
From October 1940, ZOW sent the first reports about the camp and its genocide
to Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz.
On the night of January 21–22, 1941, in the Soviet-occupied Podolia
n town of Czortków, the Czortków Uprising
started. It was the first Polish uprising and the first anti-Soviet uprising of World War II. Anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, stormed the local Red Army
barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there.
of the Union for Armed Struggle started in Poland Operation N headed by Tadeusz Żenczykowski
. Action was complex of sabotage
, subversion
and black-propaganda
activities carried out by the Polish resistance
against Nazi German
occupation forces
during World War II
Beginning in March 1941, Witold Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance
to the Polish government in exile
and through it, to the British government in London and other Allied governments. These reports were the first relation about Holocaust and principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies.
In February 1941, the Dutch Communist Party
organized a general strike in Amsterdam
and surrounding cities, known as the February strike
, in protest against anti-Jewish measures by the Nazi occupying force and violence by fascist street fighters against Jews. Several hundreds of thousands of people participated in the strike. The strike was put down by the Nazis and some participants were executed.
The first anti-soviet uprising during World War II began on June 22, 1941 (the start-date of Operation Barbarossa
) in Lithuania
.
The Republic of Užice (Ужичка република) was a short-lived liberated Yugoslav territory, the first part of occupied Europe to be liberated. Organized as a military mini-state it existed throughout the autumn of 1941 in the western part of Serbia. The Republic was established by the Partisan resistance movement and its administrative center was in the town of Užice. The government was made of "people's councils" (odbors), and the Communists opened schools and published a newspaper, Borba (meaning "Struggle"). They even managed to run a postal system and around 145 km (90.1 mi) of railway and operated an ammunition factory from the vaults beneath the bank in Užice.
In July 1941 Mieczysław Słowikowski (using the codename "Rygor"—Polish for "Rigor") set up "Agency Africa," one of World War II's most successful intelligence organizations. His Polish allies in these endeavors included Lt. Col. Gwido Langer
and Major Maksymilian Ciężki
. The information gathered by the Agency was used by the Americans and British in planning the amphibious November 1942 Operation Torch
landings in North Africa.
On 13 July 1941, in Italian-occupied Montenegro Montenegrin separatist Sekula Drljević
proclaimed an Independent State of Montenegro under Italian protectorate, upon which a nation-wide rebellion escalated raised by Partisans, Yugoslav Royal officers and various other armed personnel. In quick time, most of Montenegro was liberated, but on 12 August—after a major Italian offensive—the uprising collapsed as units were disintegrating, poor leadership occurred as well as collaboration.
Operation Anthropoid
was a resistance move during World War II to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich
, the Nazi “Protector of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
” and the chief of Nazi's final solution
, by the Czech resistance
in Prague. Over fifteen thousand Czechs were killed in reprisals, with the most infamous incidents being the complete destruction of the towns of Lidice
and Ležáky
.
In September 1942, "The Council to Aid Jews Żegota
" was founded by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz
("Alinka") and made up of Polish Democrat as well as other Catholic activists. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization. Half of the Jews who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota. Most known activist of Żegota was Irena Sendler
head of the children's division who saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto
, providing them false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside the Ghetto.
On the night of 7–8 October 1942, Operation Wieniec
started. It targeted rail infrastructure near Warsaw
. Similar operations aimed at disrupting German transport and communication in occupied Poland occurred in the coming months and years. It targeted railroads, bridges and supply depots, primarily near transport hubs such as Warsaw and Lublin
.
On 25 November, Greek guerrillas with the help of twelve British saboteurs carried out a successful operation which disrupted the German ammunition transportation to the German Africa Corps under Rommel
—the destruction of Gorgopotamos
bridge (Operation Harling
).
On 20 June 1942 took place the most spectacular escape from Auschwitz concentration camp
. Ukrainian Eugeniusz Bendera and three Poles, Kazimierz Piechowski
, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape. The escapees were dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände
, fully armed and in an SS staff car. They drove out the main gate in a stolen Rudolf Hoss automobile Steyr
220 with a smuggled report from Witold Pilecki
about the Holocaust. The Germans never recaptured any of them.
The Zamość Uprising
was an armed uprising of Armia Krajowa
and Bataliony Chłopskie) against the forced expulsion of Poles
from the Zamość
region (Zamość Lands, Zamojszczyzna) under the Nazi Generalplan Ost
. Nazi Germans attempting to remove the local Poles from the Greater Zamosc area (through forced removal, transfer to forced labor camps, or, in rare cases, mass murder) to get it ready for German colonization. It lasted from 1942–1944, and despite heavy casualties suffered by the Underground, the Germans failed.
In early January 1943, the 20,000 strong main operational group of the Yugoslav Partisans, stationed in western Bosnia
, came under ferocious attack by over 150,000 German and Axis troops, supported by about 200 Luftwaffe
aircraft
in what became known as the Battle of the Neretva (the German codename was "Fall Weiss" or "Case White"). The Axis rallied eleven divisions, six German, three Italian, and two divisions of the puppet Independent State of Croatia
(supported by Ustaše
formations) as well as a number of Chetnik
brigades. The goal was to destroy the Partisan HQ and main field hospital (all Partisan wounded and prisoners faced certain execution), but this was thwarted by the diversion and retreat across the Neretva river
, planned by the Partisan supreme command led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito
. The main Partisan force escaped into Serbia
where it immediately took the offensive and succeeded in eliminating the Chetnik movement as a fighting force.
On 19 April 1943, three members of the Belgian resistance
movement were able to stop the Twentieth convoy
, which was the 20th prisoner transport in Belgium
organised by the Germans during World War II
. The exceptional action by members of the Belgian resistance occurred to free Jewish
and gypsy civilians who were being transported by train from the Dossin army base located in Mechelen
, Belgium
to the concentration camp Auschwitz. The XXth train convoy transported 1,631 Jews (men, women and children). Some of the prisoners were able to escape and marked this particular kind of liberation action by the Belgian resistance movement as unique in the European history of the Holocaust.
In October 1943, the rescue of the Danish Jews
meant that nearly all of the Danish Jews were saved from KZ camps by the Danish resistance
. This action is considered one of the bravest and most significant displays of public defiance against the Nazis. However, the action was largely due to the personal intervention of German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
, who both leaked news of the intended round up of the Jews to both the Danish opposition and Jewish groups and negotiated with the Swedes to ensure Danish Jews would be accepted in Sweden.
On 26 March 1943 in Warsaw
, Operation Arsenal
was conducted by the Szare Szeregi
(Gray Ranks) Polish Underground formation and led to the release of arrested troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy"
. In an attack on the prison van
Bytnar and 24 other prisoners were set free.
The Battle of Sutjeska from 15 May-16 June 1943 was a joint attack of the Axis forces that once again attempted to destroy the main Yugoslav Partisan force, near the Sutjeska
river in southeastern Bosnia. The Axis rallied 127,000 troops for the offensive, including German, Italian
, NDH
, Bulgaria
n and Cossack
units, as well as over 300 airplanes (under German operational command), against 18,000 soldiers of the primary Yugoslav Partisans operational group organised in 16 brigades.
Facing almost exclusively German troops in the final encirclement, the Yugoslav Partisans finally succeeded in breaking out across the Sutjeska river through the lines of the German 118th Jäger Division, 104th Jäger Division and 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division in the northwestern direction, towards eastern Bosnia. Three brigades and the central hospital with over 2,000 wounded remained surrounded and, following Hitler's instructions, German commander-in-chief General Alexander Löhr
ordered and carried out their annihilation, including the wounded and unarmed medical personnel. In addition, Partisan troops suffered from severe lack of food and medical supplies, and many were struck down by typhoid. However, the failure of the offensive marked a turning point for Yugoslavia during World War II.
Operation Heads started—action of the serial assassinations Nazi personnel sentenced to death by the Special Courts
for crimes against Polish citizens in occupied Poland. The Resistance fighters of Polish Home Army
's unit Agat
kill Franz Bürkl
during Operation Bürkl
in 1943, and Franz Kutschera
during Operation Kutschera
in 1944. Both men were high-ranking Nazi German SS and secret police officers responsible for murder and brutal interrogation of thousands of Polish Jews and Polish resistance fighters and supporters.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
lasted from 19 April-16 May, and cost the Nazi forces 17 dead and 93 wounded.
From November 1943, Operation Most III
started. The Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket
. In effect, some 50 kg (110.2 lb) of the most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported to Brindisi
by a Royal Air Force
Douglas Dakota aircraft. In late July 1944, the V-2 parts were delivered to London
.
On 11 February 1944, the Resistance fighters of Polish Home Army
's unit Agat
executed Franz Kutschera
, SS
and Reich
's Police Chief in Warsaw
in action known as Operation Kutschera
.
In the spring of 1944, a plan was laid out by the Allies to kidnap General Müller, whose harsh repressive measures had earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Crete
". The operation was led by Major Patrick Leigh Fermor
, together with Captain W. Stanley Moss
, Greek SOE
agents and Cretan resistance fighters
. However, Müller left the island before the plan could be carried out. Undeterred, Fermor decided to abduct General Heinrich Kreipe
instead.
On the night of 26 April, General Kreipe left his headquarters in Archanes
and headed without escort to his well-guarded residence, "Villa Ariadni", approximately 50 in 6 in (15.39 m)25 km outside Heraklion
. Major Fermor and Captain Moss, dressed as German military policemen, waited for him 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) before his residence. They asked the driver to stop and asked for their papers. As soon as the car stopped, Fermor quickly opened Kreipe's door, rushed in and threatened him with his gun while Moss took the driver's seat. After driving some distance the British left the car, with suitable decoy material being planted that suggesting an escape off the island had been made by submarine
, and with the General began a cross-country march. Hunted by German patrols, the group moved across the mountains to reach the southern side of the island, where a British Motor Launch
(ML 842, commanded by Brian Coleman) was to pick them up. Eventually, on 14 May 1944, they were picked up (from Peristeres beach near Rhodakino) and transferred to Egypt.
In April–May 1944, the SS
launched the daring airborne Raid on Drvar aimed at capturing Marshal Josip Broz Tito
, the commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav Partisans, as well as disrupting their leadership and command structure. The Partisan headquarters were in the hills near Drvar
, Bosnia
at the time. The representatives of the Allies
, Britain
's Randolph Churchill
and Evelyn Waugh
, were also present.
Elite German SS parachute commando units fought their way to Tito's cave
headquarters and exchanged heavy gunfire resulting in numerous casualties on both sides. Interestingly, Chetniks
under Draža Mihailović
also flocked to the firefight in their own attempt to capture Tito. By the time German forces had penetrated to the cave, however, Tito had already fled the scene. He had a train waiting for him that took him to the town of Jajce
. It would appear that Tito and his staff were well prepared for emergencies. The commandos were only able to retrieve Tito’s marshal's uniform, which was later displayed in Vienna
. After fierce fighting in and around the village cemetery, the Germans were able to link up with mountain troops. By that time, Tito, his British guests and Partisan survivors were fêted aboard the Royal Navy
destroyer
and her captain Lt. Carson, RN.
An intricate series of resistance operations were launched in France prior to, and during, Operation Overlord
.
On June 5, 1944, the BBC
broadcast a group of unusual sentences, which the Germans knew were code words—possibly for the invasion of Normandy. The BBC would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages, of which only a few were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's
poem , "Chanson d'automne
", "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre-assigned missions. All over France resistance groups had been coordinated, and various groups throughout the country increased their sabotage. Communications were cut, trains derailed, roads, water towers and ammunition depots destroyed and German garrisons were attacked. Some relayed info about German defensive positions on the beaches of Normandy to American and British commanders by radio, just prior to 6 June. Victory did not come easily; in June and July, in the Vercors plateau
a newly reinforced maquis group fought more than 10,000 German soldiers (no Waffen-SS) under General Karl Pflaum and was defeated, with 840 casualties (639 fighters and 201 civilians). Following Tulle Murders
, Major Otto Diekmann's Waffen-SS company wiped out the village of Oradour-sur-Glane
on 10 June. The resistance also assisted the later Allied invasion in the south of France (Operation Dragoon
).
They started insurrections in cities as Paris
when allied forces came close.
Operation Tempest
launched in Poland in 1944 would lead to several major actions by Armia Krajowa
, most notable of them being the Warsaw Uprising
that took place in between August 1 and October 2, and failed due to the Soviet refusal, due to differences in ideology, to help; another one was Operation Ostra Brama: the Armia Krajowa
or Home Army turned the weapons given to them by the Nazi Germans (in hope that they would fight the incoming Soviets) against the nazi Germans—in the end the Home Army together with the Soviet troops took over the Greater Vilnius
area to the dismay of the Lithuania
ns.
On 25 June 1944, the Battle of Osuchy
started—one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany
in occupied Poland during World War II
, continuation of the Zamosc Uprising
. During Operation Most III
, in 1944, the Polish Home Army or Armia Krajowa
provided the British with the parts of the V-2 rocket.
Norwegian sabotages
of the German nuclear program drew to a close after three years on 20 February 1944, with the saboteur bombing of the ferry SF Hydro
. The ferry was to carry railway cars with heavy water
drums from the Vemork
hydroelectric plant, where they were produced, across Lake Tinnsjø so they could be shipped to Germany. Its sinking effectively ended Nazi nuclear ambitions. The series of raids on the plant was later dubbed by the British SOE
as the most successful act of sabotage in all of World War II, and was used as a basis for the US war movie The Heroes of Telemark
.
As an initiation of their uprising, Slovakian rebels
entered Banská Bystrica on the morning of 30 August 1944, the second day of the rebellion, and made it their headquarters. By 10 September, the insurgents gained control of large areas of central and eastern Slovakia. That included two captured airfields, and as a result of the two-week-old insurgency, the Soviet Air Force were able to begin flying in equipment to Slovakian and Soviet partisans.
There were also many brave men and women who resisted the Japanese occupation of their Homeland and Western colonies during World War II. You can look them up in the list of names of organization below.
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
s during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. Resistance movements are sometimes also referred to as "the underground".
Among the most notable resistance movements were the Yugoslav Partisans, the Polish Home Army, the Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....
(at varying periods, each of them could be seen as the largest resistance movement in World War II)), the Forest Brothers
Forest Brothers
The Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
, the French Forces of the Interior
French Forces of the Interior
The French Forces of the Interior refers to French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation...
, the Italian CLN, the Norwegian Resistance, the Greek Resistance
Greek Resistance
The Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...
and the Dutch Resistance
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
.
Many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
invaders, and Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi movement. Although Britain did not suffer the Nazi occupation in World War II, the British made preparations for a British resistance movement, called the Auxiliary Units
Auxiliary Units
The Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained, highly secret units created by the United Kingdom government during the Second World War, with the aim of resisting the expected occupation of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany, after a planned invasion codenamed Operation Sea Lion...
, in the event of a German invasion. Various organizations were also formed to establish foreign resistance cells or support existing resistance movements, like the British SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
and the American OSS
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
(the forerunner of the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
).
There were also resistance movements fighting against the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
invaders. In Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...
, after the Italian forces were defeated during the East African Campaign
East African Campaign (World War II)
The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in East Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941....
, some Italians participated in a guerrilla war
Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia
The Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was as an armed struggle fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Italian East Africa, following the Italian defeat during the East African Campaign of World War II.-History:...
against the British (1941–1943). The German Nazi resistance movement ("Werwolf
Werwolf
Werwolf was the name given to a Nazi plan, which began development in 1944, to create a commando force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself. Werwolf remained entirely ineffectual as a combat force, however, and in practical terms, its value as...
") never amounted to much. On the other hand, the "Forest Brothers
Forest Brothers
The Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
" of Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
included many fighters who fought for the Nazis and 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
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and western Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. While the Japanese were famous for "fighting to the last man," Japanese holdout
Japanese holdout
Japanese holdouts or stragglers were Japanese soldiers in the Pacific Theatre who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan that marked the end of World War II, either adamantly doubted the veracity of the formal surrender due to strong dogmatic or militaristic principles, or were not aware of it...
s tended to be individually motivated and there is little indication that there was any organized Japanese resistance after the war.
Organization
After the first shock following the BlitzkriegBlitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
, people slowly started to get organized, both locally and on a larger scale, especially when Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and other groups were starting to be deported and used for the Arbeitseinsatz
Arbeitseinsatz
Arbeitseinsatz was forced labour during World War II when German men were called up for military service and German authorities rounded up labourers, some from Germany but more from the occupied territories, to fill in the vacancies...
(forced labor for the Germans). Organization was dangerous, so much resistance was done 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 get organised undetected. This favoured in particular the Soviet partisan in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. In the much more densely populated Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, the Biesbosch
Biesbosch
De Biesbosch , is one of the largest national parks of the Netherlands and one of the last freshwater tide areas in Europe. The Biesbosch consists of a rather large network of rivers and smaller and larger creeks with islands. The vegetation is mostly willow forests, although wet grasslands and...
wilderness could be used to go into hiding. In northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
, both the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
and the Appennines 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
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
to armed resistance, and sometimes cooperating to a varying degree. Resistance usually arose spontaneously, but was encouraged and helped mainly from London and Moscow.
Forms of resistance
Various forms of resistance were:- Non-violent
- SabotageSabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
– the ArbeitseinsatzArbeitseinsatzArbeitseinsatz was forced labour during World War II when German men were called up for military service and German authorities rounded up labourers, some from Germany but more from the occupied territories, to fill in the vacancies...
("Work Contribution") forced locals to work for the Germans, but work was often done slowly or intentionally badly - StrikesStrike actionStrike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
and demonstrationsDemonstration (people)A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as... - Based on existing organizations, such as the churches, students, communists and doctors (professional resistance)
- Sabotage
- Armed
- raids on distribution offices to get food coupons or various documents such as AusweiseIdentity documentAn identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
or on birth registry offices to get rid of information about JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and others the Nazis paid special attention to - temporary liberation of areas, such as in YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and northern ItalyNorthern ItalyNorthern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
, occasionally in cooperation with the Allied forcesAllies of World War IIThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states... - uprisings such as in WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1943 and 1944, and in extermination camps such as in SobiborSobibórSobibór is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Włodawa, within Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies close to the Bug River, which forms the border with Belarus and Ukraine. Sobibór is approximately south-east of Włodawa and east of the regional capital...
in 1943 and Auschwitz in 1944 - continuing battle and guerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
, such as the partisans in the USSR and Yugoslavia and the Maquis in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- raids on distribution offices to get food coupons or various documents such as Ausweise
- EspionageEspionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, including sending reports of military importance (e.g., troop movements, weather reports etc.) - Illegal press to counter the Nazi propagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
- Covert listening to BBC broadcasts for news bulletins and coded messages
- Political resistance to prepare for the reorganization after the war
- Helping people to go into hiding (e.g., to escape the Arbeitseinsatz or deportationDeportationDeportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
)—this was one of the main activities in the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, due to the large number of Jews and the high level of administration, which made it easy for the Germans to identify Jews. - Helping Allied military personnel caught behind AxisAxis PowersThe Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
lines - Helping POWs with illegal supplies, breakouts, communication, etc.
- Forgery of documents
1940
In March 1940, a partisanPartisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
unit of the first guerilla organization of the Second World War in Europe, led by Major Henryk Dobrzański
Henryk Dobrzanski
Major Henryk Dobrzański aka "Hubal" was a Polish soldier, sportsman and partisan. He was the first guerrilla commander of the Second World War in Europe.-Early life and career:...
(Hubal) completely destroyed a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska. A few days later in an ambush near the village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat, the German authorities formed a special 1,000 man-strong anti-partisan unit of combined SS-Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer
Panzer
A Panzer is a German language word that, when used as a noun, means "tank". When it is used as an adjective, it means either tank or "armoured" .- Etymology :...
group. Although Dobrzański's unit never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it.
In 1940, Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
, a member of Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
, presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp, gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. The Home Army approved this plan, provided him with a false identity card, and on 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a street roundup in Warsaw-łapanka, and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. In the camp he organized the underground organization Związek Organizacji Wojskowej
Zwiazek Organizacji Wojskowej
Związek Organizacji Wojskowej was an underground resistance organization formed by Witold Pilecki at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940.-Beginning:...
(ZOW).
From October 1940, ZOW sent the first reports about the camp and its genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
to Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz.
On the night of January 21–22, 1941, in the Soviet-occupied Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
n town of Czortków, the Czortków Uprising
Czortków Uprising
The Czortków Uprising was a failed attempt by anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, to storm the local Red Army barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there. It occurred during the night of January 21–22, 1940, in the Soviet-occupied...
started. It was the first Polish uprising and the first anti-Soviet uprising of World War II. Anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, stormed the local Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there.
1941
From April 1941, Bureau of Information and PropagandaBureau of Information and Propaganda
The Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Headquarters of Związek Walki Zbrojnej, later of Armia Krajowa - in short: BIP) a conspiracy department created in spring 1940 during the German occupation of Poland, inside the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, then of the Supreme Command of Armia Krajowa...
of the Union for Armed Struggle started in Poland Operation N headed by Tadeusz Żenczykowski
Tadeusz Zenczykowski
Tadeusz Żenczykowski pseudonym Kania, Kowalik, Zawadzki , took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, immediately after the war a member of anti-communist conspiracy in Poland, since 1945 an emigration journalist...
. Action was complex of sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
, subversion
Subversion (politics)
Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order, its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy; examples of such structures include the State. In this context, a "subversive" is sometimes called a "traitor" with respect to the government in-power. A subversive is...
and black-propaganda
Black propaganda
Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass or misrepresent the enemy...
activities carried out by the Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
against Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation forces
Occupation of Poland
Occupation of Poland may refer to:* Partitions of Poland * The German Government General of Warsaw and the Austrian Military Government of Lublin during World War I* Occupation of Poland during World War II...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Beginning in March 1941, Witold Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
to the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
and through it, to the British government in London and other Allied governments. These reports were the first relation about Holocaust and principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies.
In February 1941, the Dutch Communist Party
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a Dutch communist political party. The CPN is one of the predecessors of the GreenLeft.- Foundation :...
organized a general strike in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and surrounding cities, known as the February strike
February strike
The 1941 February Strike, also known as 'The Strike of February 1941', was a general strike organized during World War II in the Netherlands against the anti-Jewish measures and activities of the Nazis. Its direct causes were the pogroms held by the Germans in the Jewish neighbourhood of Amsterdam....
, in protest against anti-Jewish measures by the Nazi occupying force and violence by fascist street fighters against Jews. Several hundreds of thousands of people participated in the strike. The strike was put down by the Nazis and some participants were executed.
The first anti-soviet uprising during World War II began on June 22, 1941 (the start-date of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
) in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
.
The Republic of Užice (Ужичка република) was a short-lived liberated Yugoslav territory, the first part of occupied Europe to be liberated. Organized as a military mini-state it existed throughout the autumn of 1941 in the western part of Serbia. The Republic was established by the Partisan resistance movement and its administrative center was in the town of Užice. The government was made of "people's councils" (odbors), and the Communists opened schools and published a newspaper, Borba (meaning "Struggle"). They even managed to run a postal system and around 145 km (90.1 mi) of railway and operated an ammunition factory from the vaults beneath the bank in Užice.
In July 1941 Mieczysław Słowikowski (using the codename "Rygor"—Polish for "Rigor") set up "Agency Africa," one of World War II's most successful intelligence organizations. His Polish allies in these endeavors included Lt. Col. Gwido Langer
Gwido Langer
Lt. Col. Karol Gwido Langer was chief of the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau from at least mid-1931.-Life:...
and Major Maksymilian Ciężki
Maksymilian Ciezki
Maksymilian Ciężki was the head of the German section of the Polish Cipher Bureau in the 1930s, during which time the Bureau decrypted German Enigma messages....
. The information gathered by the Agency was used by the Americans and British in planning the amphibious November 1942 Operation Torch
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....
landings in North Africa.
On 13 July 1941, in Italian-occupied Montenegro Montenegrin separatist Sekula Drljević
Sekula Drljevic
Sekula Drljević, also transcribed as Sekule Drljević , was a WWII Montenegrin Nazi-fascist collaborator....
proclaimed an Independent State of Montenegro under Italian protectorate, upon which a nation-wide rebellion escalated raised by Partisans, Yugoslav Royal officers and various other armed personnel. In quick time, most of Montenegro was liberated, but on 12 August—after a major Italian offensive—the uprising collapsed as units were disintegrating, poor leadership occurred as well as collaboration.
Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the targeted killing of top German SS leader Reinhard Heydrich. He was the chief of the Reich Main Security Office , the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and a chief planner of the Final Solution, the Nazi German programme for the genocide of the...
was a resistance move during World War II to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
, the Nazi “Protector of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
” and the chief of Nazi's final solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
, by the Czech resistance
Czech resistance to Nazi occupation
Czech resistance to German Nazi occupation during World War II is a scarcely documented subject, by and large a result of little formal resistance and an effective German policy that deterred acts of resistance or annihilated organizations of resistance...
in Prague. Over fifteen thousand Czechs were killed in reprisals, with the most infamous incidents being the complete destruction of the towns of Lidice
Lidice
Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic just northwest of Prague. It is built on the site of a previous village of the same name which, as part of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was on orders from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal...
and Ležáky
Ležáky
Ležáky was a village in Czechoslovakia. In 1942 it was razed to the ground by Nazis during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.Ležáky was a settlement inhabited by poor stone-cutters and little cottagers...
.
1942
The Luxembourgian general strike of 1942 was a pacific resistance movement organised within a short time period to protest against a directive that incorporated the Luxembourg youth into the Wehrmacht. A national general strike, originating mainly in Wiltz, paralysed the country and forced the occupying German authorities to respond violently by sentencing 21 strikers to death.In September 1942, "The Council to Aid Jews Żegota
Zegota
"Żegota" , also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee", was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews , an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945....
" was founded by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded the wartime Polish organization Żegota, set up to assist Poland's Jews in escaping the Holocaust...
and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz
Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz
Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz code name “Alinka"” or “Alicja”, was a leading figure in Warsaw's underground resistance movement throughout the years of German occupation during World War II in Poland...
("Alinka") and made up of Polish Democrat as well as other Catholic activists. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization. Half of the Jews who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota. Most known activist of Żegota was Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler was a Polish Catholic social worker who served in the Polish Underground and the Żegota resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw during World War II...
head of the children's division who saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
, providing them false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside the Ghetto.
On the night of 7–8 October 1942, Operation Wieniec
Operation Wieniec
Operation Wieniec was one of the large-scale anti-Nazi operations of the Armia Krajowa during the World War II that took place on the night from 7 to 8 October 1942. It targeted rail infrastructure near Warsaw....
started. It targeted rail infrastructure near Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Similar operations aimed at disrupting German transport and communication in occupied Poland occurred in the coming months and years. It targeted railroads, bridges and supply depots, primarily near transport hubs such as Warsaw and Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
.
On 25 November, Greek guerrillas with the help of twelve British saboteurs carried out a successful operation which disrupted the German ammunition transportation to the German Africa Corps under Rommel
Rommel
Erwin Rommel was a German World War II field marshal.Rommel may also refer to:*Rommel *Rommel Adducul , Filipino basketball player*Rommel Fernández , first Panamanian footballer to play in Europe...
—the destruction of Gorgopotamos
Gorgopotamos
Gorgopotamos is a village and a former municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lamia, of which it is a municipal unit. It is located 10 km southwest of Lamia. Its 2001 population was 443 for the village and 4,510 for the...
bridge (Operation Harling
Operation Harling
Operation Harling was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive , in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ELAS and EDES, which destroyed the heavily guarded Gorgopotamos viaduct in Central Greece on 25 November 1942...
).
On 20 June 1942 took place the most spectacular escape from Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. Ukrainian Eugeniusz Bendera and three Poles, Kazimierz Piechowski
Kazimierz Piechowski
Kazimierz Piechowski is a retired engineer, a Boy Scout during the Second Polish Republic, a political prisoner of the Nazis at Auschwitz concentration camp, a soldier in the Polish Home Army then a prisoner for seven years of the communist government of Poland...
, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape. The escapees were dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände
3rd SS Division Totenkopf
The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke...
, fully armed and in an SS staff car. They drove out the main gate in a stolen Rudolf Hoss automobile Steyr
Steyr automobile
Steyr was an Austrian automotive company from 1915 until 1990.Formed as a branch of Steyr Osterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft in 1915, to diversify manufacturing, the founders hired 38-year-old designer Hans Ledwinka after he resigned from Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau...
220 with a smuggled report from Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
about the Holocaust. The Germans never recaptured any of them.
The Zamość Uprising
Zamosc Uprising
The Zamość Uprising refers to the actions by Polish resistance against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region under the Nazi Generalplan Ost...
was an armed uprising of Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
and Bataliony Chłopskie) against the forced expulsion of Poles
Expulsion of Poles by Germany
The Expulsion of Poles by Germany was a prolonged anti-Polish campaign of ethnic cleansing by violent and terror-inspiring means lasting nearly a century. It began with the concept of Pan-Germanism developed in early 19th century and continued in the racial policy of Nazi Germany asserting the...
from the Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...
region (Zamość Lands, Zamojszczyzna) under the Nazi Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
. Nazi Germans attempting to remove the local Poles from the Greater Zamosc area (through forced removal, transfer to forced labor camps, or, in rare cases, mass murder) to get it ready for German colonization. It lasted from 1942–1944, and despite heavy casualties suffered by the Underground, the Germans failed.
1943
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...
, came under ferocious attack by over 150,000 German and Axis troops, supported by about 200 Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
in what became known as the Battle of the Neretva (the German codename was "Fall Weiss" or "Case White"). The Axis rallied eleven divisions, six German, three Italian, and two divisions of the puppet Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
(supported by Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
formations) as well as a number of Chetnik
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
brigades. The goal was to destroy the Partisan HQ and main field hospital (all Partisan wounded and prisoners faced certain execution), but this was thwarted by the diversion and retreat across the Neretva river
Neretva
Neretva is the largest river of the eastern part of the Adriatic basin. It has been harnessed and controlled to a large extent by four HE power-plants with large dams and their storage lakes, but it is still recognized for its natural beauty, diversity of its landscape and visual...
, planned by the Partisan supreme command led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
. The main Partisan force escaped into Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
where it immediately took the offensive and succeeded in eliminating the Chetnik movement as a fighting force.
On 19 April 1943, three members of the Belgian resistance
Belgian resistance
Belgian resistance during World War II to the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany took different forms. "The Belgian Resistance" was the common name for the Netwerk van de weerstand - Réseau de Résistance or Resistance Network , a group of partisans fighting the Nazis...
movement were able to stop the Twentieth convoy
Twentieth convoy
Transport 20 was a Jewish prisoner transport in Belgium organized by the Nazi Germany during World War II. Members of the Belgian Resistance freed Jewish and Gypsy civilians who were being transported by train from the Dossin Barracks located in Mechelen, Belgium to the Auschwitz concentration camp...
, which was the 20th prisoner transport in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
organised by the Germans during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The exceptional action by members of the Belgian resistance occurred to free Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and gypsy civilians who were being transported by train from the Dossin army base located in Mechelen
Mechelen transit camp
The Mechelen transit camp, or officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln in German, was a detention and deportation camp established in the Dossin, the oldest casern at Mechelen, by the Nazi German occupier of Belgium...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
to the concentration camp Auschwitz. The XXth train convoy transported 1,631 Jews (men, women and children). Some of the prisoners were able to escape and marked this particular kind of liberation action by the Belgian resistance movement as unique in the European history of the Holocaust.
In October 1943, the rescue of the Danish Jews
Rescue of the Danish Jews
The rescue of the Danish Jews occurred during Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark during World War II. On October 1st 1943 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered Danish Jews to be arrested and deported...
meant that nearly all of the Danish Jews were saved from KZ camps by the Danish resistance
Danish resistance movement
The Danish resistance movement was an underground insurgency movement to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Danish people by the Nazi occupation authority, the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale...
. This action is considered one of the bravest and most significant displays of public defiance against the Nazis. However, the action was largely due to the personal intervention of German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a German attache who warned the Danish Jews about their intended deportation in 1943...
, who both leaked news of the intended round up of the Jews to both the Danish opposition and Jewish groups and negotiated with the Swedes to ensure Danish Jews would be accepted in Sweden.
On 26 March 1943 in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Operation Arsenal
Operation Arsenal
The Operation Arsenal, code name: "Meksyk II" was the first major operation by the Szare Szeregi Polish Underground formation during the Nazi occupation of Poland. It took place on March 26, 1943 in Warsaw...
was conducted by the Szare Szeregi
Szare Szeregi
"Gray Ranks" was a codename for the underground Polish Scouting Association during World War II.The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation in Warsaw until 18 January 1945, and contributed to the resistance operations of the Polish...
(Gray Ranks) Polish Underground formation and led to the release of arrested troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy"
Jan Bytnar
Jan Roman Bytnar was a Polish Scoutmaster , Polish Scouting resistance activist and Second Lieutenant of the Armia Krajowa during the Second World War...
. In an attack on the prison van
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
Bytnar and 24 other prisoners were set free.
The Battle of Sutjeska from 15 May-16 June 1943 was a joint attack of the Axis forces that once again attempted to destroy the main Yugoslav Partisan force, near the Sutjeska
Sutjeska
Sutjeska can refer to:* Sutjeska , a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina* Sutjeska National Park, a national park in Bosnia and Herzegovina* Sutjeska , a village in Serbia* Battle of Sutjeska, a second world war battle in Yugoslavia...
river in southeastern Bosnia. The Axis rallied 127,000 troops for the offensive, including German, Italian
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, NDH
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n and Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
units, as well as over 300 airplanes (under German operational command), against 18,000 soldiers of the primary Yugoslav Partisans operational group organised in 16 brigades.
Facing almost exclusively German troops in the final encirclement, the Yugoslav Partisans finally succeeded in breaking out across the Sutjeska river through the lines of the German 118th Jäger Division, 104th Jäger Division and 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division in the northwestern direction, towards eastern Bosnia. Three brigades and the central hospital with over 2,000 wounded remained surrounded and, following Hitler's instructions, German commander-in-chief General Alexander Löhr
Alexander Löhr
Alexander Löhr was an Austrian Air Force commander during the 1930s and, after the "Political Union of Germany and Austria" , he was a German Air Force commander...
ordered and carried out their annihilation, including the wounded and unarmed medical personnel. In addition, Partisan troops suffered from severe lack of food and medical supplies, and many were struck down by typhoid. However, the failure of the offensive marked a turning point for Yugoslavia during World War II.
Operation Heads started—action of the serial assassinations Nazi personnel sentenced to death by the Special Courts
Special Courts
Special Courts were the underground courts organized by the Polish Government in Exile during World War II in occupied Poland. The courts determined punishments for the citizens of Poland who were subject to the Polish law before the war.-History:After the Polish Defense War of 1939...
for crimes against Polish citizens in occupied Poland. The Resistance fighters of Polish Home Army
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
's unit Agat
Batalion Parasol
Battalion Parasol was a Scouting battalion of the Armia Krajowa, the primary Polish resistance movement in World War II. It consisted mainly of members of the Szare Szeregi, distinguishing itself in many underground operations, and in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 .-...
kill Franz Bürkl
Franz Bürkl
SS-Oberscharführer Franz Bürkl was a Gestapo officer in the Nazi-occupied Poland. He was assassinated in the Operation Bürkl on September 7, 1943....
during Operation Bürkl
Operation Bürkl
Operation Bürkl , or the special combat action Bürkl , was an operation by the Polish resistance conducted on September 7, 1943...
in 1943, and Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera was an SS General and Gauleiter of Carinthia...
during Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera was the code name for the successful assassination of Franz Kutschera, SS and Reich's Police Chief in Warsaw, executed on 1 February 1944 by the Polish Resistance fighters of Home Army's Anti-Gestapo unit Agat...
in 1944. Both men were high-ranking Nazi German SS and secret police officers responsible for murder and brutal interrogation of thousands of Polish Jews and Polish resistance fighters and supporters.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
lasted from 19 April-16 May, and cost the Nazi forces 17 dead and 93 wounded.
From November 1943, Operation Most III
Operation Most III
Operation Most III or Operation Wildhorn III was a World War II operation in which Poland's Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket.-Background:...
started. The Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
. In effect, some 50 kg (110.2 lb) of the most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported to Brindisi
Brindisi
Brindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
by a Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Douglas Dakota aircraft. In late July 1944, the V-2 parts were delivered to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
1944
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
's unit Agat
Batalion Parasol
Battalion Parasol was a Scouting battalion of the Armia Krajowa, the primary Polish resistance movement in World War II. It consisted mainly of members of the Szare Szeregi, distinguishing itself in many underground operations, and in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 .-...
executed Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera
Franz Kutschera was an SS General and Gauleiter of Carinthia...
, SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
and Reich
Reich
Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
's Police Chief in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in action known as Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera
Operation Kutschera was the code name for the successful assassination of Franz Kutschera, SS and Reich's Police Chief in Warsaw, executed on 1 February 1944 by the Polish Resistance fighters of Home Army's Anti-Gestapo unit Agat...
.
In the spring of 1944, a plan was laid out by the Allies to kidnap General Müller, whose harsh repressive measures had earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
". The operation was led by Major Patrick Leigh Fermor
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...
, together with Captain W. Stanley Moss
W. Stanley Moss
Ivan William "Billy" Stanley Moss MC , was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with the Coldstream Guards and the Special Operations Executive . He was a best-selling author in the 1950s, based both on his novels...
, Greek SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
agents and Cretan resistance fighters
Cretan resistance
The Cretan resistance was a resistance movement against Nazi Germany by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from May 20, 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the fall of 1945 when...
. However, Müller left the island before the plan could be carried out. Undeterred, Fermor decided to abduct General Heinrich Kreipe
Heinrich Kreipe
Karl Heinrich Georg Ferdinand Kreipe was a German general, who served in World War II. He is most famous for his spectacular abduction by British and Cretan resistance fighters from occupied Crete in April 1944....
instead.
On the night of 26 April, General Kreipe left his headquarters in Archanes
Archanes
Archanes is a former municipality in the Heraklion peripheral unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Archanes-Asterousia, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 4,548 . It is also the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement in...
and headed without escort to his well-guarded residence, "Villa Ariadni", approximately 50 in 6 in (15.39 m)25 km outside Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
. Major Fermor and Captain Moss, dressed as German military policemen, waited for him 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) before his residence. They asked the driver to stop and asked for their papers. As soon as the car stopped, Fermor quickly opened Kreipe's door, rushed in and threatened him with his gun while Moss took the driver's seat. After driving some distance the British left the car, with suitable decoy material being planted that suggesting an escape off the island had been made by submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
, and with the General began a cross-country march. Hunted by German patrols, the group moved across the mountains to reach the southern side of the island, where a British Motor Launch
Motor Launch
A Motor Launch is a small military vessel in British navy service. It was designed for harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high speed air-sea rescue....
(ML 842, commanded by Brian Coleman) was to pick them up. Eventually, on 14 May 1944, they were picked up (from Peristeres beach near Rhodakino) and transferred to Egypt.
In April–May 1944, the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
launched the daring airborne Raid on Drvar aimed at capturing Marshal Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
, the commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav Partisans, as well as disrupting their leadership and command structure. The Partisan headquarters were in the hills near Drvar
Drvar
Drvar is a town and municipality in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, located on the road between Bosansko Grahovo and Bosanski Petrovac, also near Glamoč. It is administratively part of Canton 10 of the Federation....
, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
at the time. The representatives of the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Randolph Churchill
Randolph Churchill
Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill, MBE was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940 to 1945....
and Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, were also present.
Elite German SS parachute commando units fought their way to Tito's cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
headquarters and exchanged heavy gunfire resulting in numerous casualties on both sides. Interestingly, Chetniks
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
under Draža Mihailović
Draža Mihailovic
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serbian general during World War II...
also flocked to the firefight in their own attempt to capture Tito. By the time German forces had penetrated to the cave, however, Tito had already fled the scene. He had a train waiting for him that took him to the town of Jajce
Jajce
Jajce is a city and municipality located in the central part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is part of the Central Bosnia Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
. It would appear that Tito and his staff were well prepared for emergencies. The commandos were only able to retrieve Tito’s marshal's uniform, which was later displayed in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. After fierce fighting in and around the village cemetery, the Germans were able to link up with mountain troops. By that time, Tito, his British guests and Partisan survivors were fêted aboard the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
and her captain Lt. Carson, RN.
An intricate series of resistance operations were launched in France prior to, and during, Operation Overlord
Battle of Normandy
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord in World War II. It was the largest amphibious operation in history...
.
On June 5, 1944, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
broadcast a group of unusual sentences, which the Germans knew were code words—possibly for the invasion of Normandy. The BBC would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages, of which only a few were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
poem , "Chanson d'automne
Chanson d'automne
"Chanson d'automne" is a poem by Paul Verlaine, one of the best known in the French language. It is included in Verlaine's first collection, Poèmes saturniens, published in 1866...
", "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre-assigned missions. All over France resistance groups had been coordinated, and various groups throughout the country increased their sabotage. Communications were cut, trains derailed, roads, water towers and ammunition depots destroyed and German garrisons were attacked. Some relayed info about German defensive positions on the beaches of Normandy to American and British commanders by radio, just prior to 6 June. Victory did not come easily; in June and July, in the Vercors plateau
Vercors Plateau
The Vercors is a range of plateaux and mountains in the départements of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps. It lies west of the Dauphiné Alps, from which it is separated by the rivers Drac and Isère...
a newly reinforced maquis group fought more than 10,000 German soldiers (no Waffen-SS) under General Karl Pflaum and was defeated, with 840 casualties (639 fighters and 201 civilians). Following Tulle Murders
Tulle murders
The Tulle Murders refer to the actions committed by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in June 1944, at the end of World War II. After a successful FTP offensive on 7 and 8 June 1944, the arrival of Das Reich forces forced the guerillas to evacuate the city...
, Major Otto Diekmann's Waffen-SS company wiped out the village of Oradour-sur-Glane
Oradour-sur-Glane
Oradour-sur-Glane is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France.The original village was destroyed on 10 June 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company...
on 10 June. The resistance also assisted the later Allied invasion in the south of France (Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
).
They started insurrections in cities as Paris
Liberation of Paris
The Liberation of Paris took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on August 25th. It could be regarded by some as the last battle in the Battle for Normandy, though that really ended with the crushing of the Wehrmacht forces between the...
when allied forces came close.
Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....
launched in Poland in 1944 would lead to several major actions by Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
, most notable of them being the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
that took place in between August 1 and October 2, and failed due to the Soviet refusal, due to differences in ideology, to help; another one was Operation Ostra Brama: the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
or Home Army turned the weapons given to them by the Nazi Germans (in hope that they would fight the incoming Soviets) against the nazi Germans—in the end the Home Army together with the Soviet troops took over the Greater Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
area to the dismay of the Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
ns.
On 25 June 1944, the Battle of Osuchy
Battle of Osuchy
The Battle of Osuchy was one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II, a part of the Zamość Uprising...
started—one of the largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in occupied Poland during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, continuation of the Zamosc Uprising
Zamosc Uprising
The Zamość Uprising refers to the actions by Polish resistance against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region under the Nazi Generalplan Ost...
. During Operation Most III
Operation Most III
Operation Most III or Operation Wildhorn III was a World War II operation in which Poland's Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket.-Background:...
, in 1944, the Polish Home Army or Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
provided the British with the parts of the V-2 rocket.
Norwegian sabotages
Norwegian heavy water sabotage
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of actions undertaken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the German nuclear energy project from acquiring heavy water , which could be used to produce nuclear weapons...
of the German nuclear program drew to a close after three years on 20 February 1944, with the saboteur bombing of the ferry SF Hydro
SF Hydro
SF Hydro was a Norwegian steam powered railway ferry that operated on Tinnsjø in Telemark. The ferry operated between Mæl and Tinnoset between 1914 and 1944, connecting the two railways Rjukanbanen and Tinnosbanen. The railway was used to transport raw materials and fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's...
. The ferry was to carry railway cars with heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
drums from the Vemork
Vemork
Vemork is the name of a hydroelectric power plant outside Rjukan in Tinn, Norway. The plant was built by Norsk Hydro and opened in 1911, its main purpose being to fix nitrogen for the production of fertilizer. Vemork was later the site of the first plant in the world to mass-produce heavy water...
hydroelectric plant, where they were produced, across Lake Tinnsjø so they could be shipped to Germany. Its sinking effectively ended Nazi nuclear ambitions. The series of raids on the plant was later dubbed by the British SOE
SOE
- Organizations :* Special Operations Executive, a British World War II covert military organisation* State-owned enterprise, a government-owned business* Sega of Europe, a computer game developer* Sony Online Entertainment, a computer game developer...
as the most successful act of sabotage in all of World War II, and was used as a basis for the US war movie The Heroes of Telemark
The Heroes of Telemark
The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during World War II...
.
As an initiation of their uprising, Slovakian rebels
Slovak National Uprising
The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...
entered Banská Bystrica on the morning of 30 August 1944, the second day of the rebellion, and made it their headquarters. By 10 September, the insurgents gained control of large areas of central and eastern Slovakia. That included two captured airfields, and as a result of the two-week-old insurgency, the Soviet Air Force were able to begin flying in equipment to Slovakian and Soviet partisans.
There were also many brave men and women who resisted the Japanese occupation of their Homeland and Western colonies during World War II. You can look them up in the list of names of organization below.
Resistance movements during World War II
- British resistance movement
- Auxiliary UnitsAuxiliary UnitsThe Auxiliary Units or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained, highly secret units created by the United Kingdom government during the Second World War, with the aim of resisting the expected occupation of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany, after a planned invasion codenamed Operation Sea Lion...
(planned British resistance movement against German invaders)
- Auxiliary Units
- Albanian resistance movementMilitary history of Albania during World War IIThe Albanian Resistance of World War II was a movement of largely Communist persuasion directed against the occupying Italian and then German forces in Albania, which led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944....
- Austrian resistanceAustrian resistanceThe Austrian resistance to the Nazi rule that started with the Anschluss in 1938 had a prehistory of socialist and communist activism against the era of Austrofascism from 1934. These activists, limited primarily to adherents of the political far left, operated in isolation from the Austrian...
movement, e.g. O5 - Belarusian resistance movementBelarusian resistance movementBelarusian resistance during World War II was focused towards Nazi Germany from 1941 until 1944. Belarus was one of the Soviet republics occupied during Operation Barbarossa...
- Chorny KotChorny KotČorny Kot was a German-trained Belarusian nationalist, anti-Soviet guerrilla unit during World War II.As part of the Nazis' effort to combat the enormous Soviet partisan movement in Belarus during the war, special units of local collaborationists were trained by the SS's Otto Skorzeny to...
(anti-communist)
- Chorny Kot
- Belgian ResistanceBelgian resistanceBelgian resistance during World War II to the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany took different forms. "The Belgian Resistance" was the common name for the Netwerk van de weerstand - Réseau de Résistance or Resistance Network , a group of partisans fighting the Nazis...
- Bulgarian resistance movement
- Burmese resistance movementAnti-Fascist People's Freedom LeagueThe Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League , or hpa hsa pa la by its Burmese acronym, was the main political party in Burma from 1945 until 1962...
(AFPFL – Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League) - LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n, LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n and EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n anti-Soviet resistance movements ("Forest BrothersForest BrothersThe Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
") - Czech resistance movementCzech resistance to Nazi occupationCzech resistance to German Nazi occupation during World War II is a scarcely documented subject, by and large a result of little formal resistance and an effective German policy that deterred acts of resistance or annihilated organizations of resistance...
- Danish resistance movementDanish resistance movementThe Danish resistance movement was an underground insurgency movement to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Danish people by the Nazi occupation authority, the movement was slower to develop effective tactics on a wide scale...
- Dutch resistance movementDutch resistanceDutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
- Valkenburg resistanceValkenburg resistanceThe Valkenburg Resistance was the resistance movement in Valkenburg, Limburg, Netherlands, during World War II. Most of the activities were related to helping people who had gone into hiding for various reasons. Going into hiding was dangerous, but so was keeping people in hiding...
- Valkenburg resistance
- Estonian resistance movement
- French resistance movementFrench ResistanceThe French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
- Maquis
- Francs-tireurs et PartisansFrancs-tireursFrancs-tireurs – literally "free shooters" – was used to describe irregular military formations deployed by France during the early stages of the Franco-Prussian War...
(FTP) - French Forces of the InteriorFrench Forces of the InteriorThe French Forces of the Interior refers to French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation...
(FFI) - Conseil National de la RésistanceConseil National de la RésistanceThe Conseil National de la Résistance or the National Council of the Resistance is the body that directed and coordinated the different movements of the French Resistance - the press, trade unions, and members of political parties hostile to the Vichy regime, starting from...
(CNR) - Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'ActionBureau Central de Renseignements et d'ActionThe Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action , commonly referred as the BCRA was the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service...
(BCRA) - Free French ForcesFree French ForcesThe Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
(FFL)
- German anti-Nazi resistance movement
- White RoseWhite RoseThe White Rose was a non-violent/intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor...
- Red Orchestra
- Edelweiss PiratesEdelweiss PiratesThe Edelweiss Pirates were a loose group of youth culture in Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth...
- European UnionEuropean Union (resistance group)The original European Union was an antifascist resistance group during Germany's Nazi era, which formed around Anneliese and Georg Groscurth and Robert Havemann. Other important members were Herbert Richter and Paul Rentsch....
- Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen GroupBästlein-Jacob-Abshagen GroupThe Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group was a German resistance group that developed around the core members Bernhard Bästlein, Franz Jacob and Robert Abshagen. It fought the National Socialist regime from 1940 till the end of the war in 1945...
- Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein OrganizationSaefkow-Jacob-Bästlein OrganizationThe Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization was an underground German resistance movement acting during the Second World War, that published the illegal magazine, Die Innere Front ....
- Kreisau CircleKreisau CircleThe Kreisau Circle was the name the Nazi Gestapo gave to a group of German dissidents centered on the Kreisau estate of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. The Kreisauer Kreis is celebrated as one of the instances of German opposition to the Nazi regime...
- Solf Circle
- Confessing ChurchConfessing ChurchThe Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
- Robert Uhrig GroupRobert UhrigRobert Uhrig was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism.- Background :Born in Leipzig, the son of a metalworker, Uhrig grew up to become a journeyman toolmaker. He joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1920 and took several courses at the Marxist Workers' School...
- Neu BeginnenNeu BeginnenNeu Beginnen was a fringe opposition group on the socialist wing of SPD, which was greatly influenced by the ideas of Lenin. It was formed in 1929. After the Machtübernahme in 1933, the members of the small group discussed what the future of Germany should be after the National Socialist movement...
- Ehrenfeld GroupEhrenfeld GroupThe Ehrenfeld Group , was an anti-Nazi resistance group, active in the summer and autumn of 1944....
- Vierergruppen in Hamburg, Munich and ViennaVierergruppe (German Resistance)A Vierergruppe was a small German resistance group that fought the National Socialists. There were three "groups of four" working simultaneously and independently of each other in Hamburg, Munich and Vienna....
- Uncle Emile group
- White Rose
- The Stijkel GroupThe Stijkel GroupThe Stijkel Group were a Dutch resistance group that fought the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. They operated between 1939 and 1942, when they were betrayed.-Han Stijkel:...
, a Dutch resistance movement, which mainly operated around the S-Gravenhage area. - Werwolf, the Nazi resistance against the Allied occupationWerwolfWerwolf was the name given to a Nazi plan, which began development in 1944, to create a commando force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself. Werwolf remained entirely ineffectual as a combat force, however, and in practical terms, its value as...
- Greek ResistanceGreek ResistanceThe Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...
- List of Greek Resistance organizations
- Cretan resistanceCretan resistanceThe Cretan resistance was a resistance movement against Nazi Germany by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from May 20, 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the fall of 1945 when...
- National Liberation Front (EAM) and the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), EAM's guerrilla forces
- National Republican Greek League (EDES)
- National and Social Liberation (EKKA)
- Chinese resistance movementsAnti-Japanese Volunteer ArmiesAfter the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....
- Northeast Anti-Japanese United ArmyNortheast Anti-Japanese United ArmyThe Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army was an anti-Japanese guerrilla army in the Northeast part of China after the occupation of Manchuria by Japan in 1931. It was organized by the Manchuria branches of the Chinese Communist Party . However, it lost direct contact with the CCP headquarter in...
- Anti-Japanese Army For The Salvation Of The CountryAnti-Japanese Army For The Salvation Of The CountryAnti-Japanese Army For The Salvation Of The Country was a volunteer army led by Li Hai-ching resisting the pacification of Manchukuo. It had about 10,000 anti-Japanese guerrilla troops described as being equipped with light artillery and numerous machine guns. They operated in the south of Kirin,...
- Chinese People's National Salvation ArmyChinese People's National Salvation ArmyOne of the most successful volunteer armies was the Chinese People's National Salvation Army or NSA, led by a former bandit turned soldier, Wang Delin. At the time of the invasion, Wang Delin's 200 man battalion was stationed near Yanji, a small town in the east of Jilin province...
- Heilungkiang National Salvation ArmyHeilungkiang National Salvation ArmyOn September 27, 1932, the forces of Gen. Su Bingwen mutinied in Hailar. Calling themselves the Heilungkiang National Salvation Army they moved eastwards aboard trains towards Tsitsihar to join Gen. Ma Zhanshan in re-capturing that provincial capital....
- Jilin Self-Defence ArmyJilin Self-Defence ArmyThe Jilin Self-Defence Army was formed in late January 1932, as the Manchukuoan and Japanese troops closed in on Harbin. General Ting Chao, Li Du, Feng Zhanhai, Xing Zhanqing, and Zhao Yi organised the Jilin Self-Defence Army in order to prevent the fall and occupation of the city. This brought...
- Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation ArmyNortheast Anti-Japanese National Salvation ArmyMa Zhanshan, a Muslim General who had surrendered in January 1932 and joined the Manchukuo regime, rebelled again in late April, forming his own volunteer army in Heilongjiang province at the beginning of May, and then he established another 11 troops of volunteers at Buxi, Gannan, Keshan, Kedong...
- Northeast Anti-Japanese United ArmyNortheast Anti-Japanese United ArmyThe Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army was an anti-Japanese guerrilla army in the Northeast part of China after the occupation of Manchuria by Japan in 1931. It was organized by the Manchuria branches of the Chinese Communist Party . However, it lost direct contact with the CCP headquarter in...
- Northeast People's Anti-Japanese Volunteer ArmyNortheast People's Anti-Japanese Volunteer ArmyThe Northeast People's Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army was led by Tang Juwu, formerly the commander of a Northeastern infantry regiment, interned by the Japanese at the beginning of the invasion of Manchuria...
- Northeastern Loyal and Brave ArmyNortheastern Loyal and Brave ArmyFollowing the defeat of the forces of Ting Chao at Harbin in February 1932, Feng Zhanhai withdrew his forces to Shan-Ho-Tun, a village in the Wuchang District...
- Northeastern People's Revolutionary ArmyNortheastern People's Revolutionary ArmyAfter the Empire of Japan invaded and occupied the Northeast in 1931, the Chinese Communist Party organized small anti-Japanese guerrilla units, and formed their own Northeastern People's Revolutionary Army, dedicated to social revolution, but these were dwarfed by the Anti-Japanese Volunteer...
- Northeastern Volunteer Righteous & Brave FightersNortheastern Volunteer Righteous & Brave FightersNortheastern Volunteer Righteous & Brave Fighters is an article on Wang Fengge, a student of traditional martial arts and later an officer in the Chinese Northeast Army, became involved in the Big Swords Society.- History :...
- Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army
- Hong Kong resistance movements
- Gangjiu dadui (Hong Kong-Kowloon big army)
- Dongjiang Guerrillas (East River Guerrillas, Southern China and Hong Kong organisation)
- Indian resistance movementIndian National ArmyThe Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
- Italian resistance movementItalian resistance movementThe Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
- Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale
- Italian resistance against Allies in East-AfricaItalian guerrilla war in EthiopiaThe Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia was as an armed struggle fought from the summer of 1941 to the autumn of 1943 by remnants of Italian troops in Italian East Africa, following the Italian defeat during the East African Campaign of World War II.-History:...
- Jewish resistance under Nazi rule
- Żydowska Organizacja BojowaZydowska Organizacja BojowaThe Jewish Combat Organization was a World War II resistance movement, which was instrumental in engineering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ŻOB took part in a number of other resistance activities as well...
(ZOB, the Jewish Fighting Organisation) - Zydowski Zwiazek Walki (ZZW, the Jewish Fighting Union)
- Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa
- Korea resistance movementKorean independence movementThe Korean independence movement grew out of the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. After the Japanese surrendered, Korea became independent; that day is now an annual holiday called Gwangbokjeol in South Korea, and Chogukhaebangŭi nal in North Korea.-Background:In...
- Korean Liberation ArmyKorean Liberation ArmyThe Korean Liberation Army, established on September 17, 1941 in Chongqing, China, was the armed force of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea...
- Korean Volunteer Army
- Korean Liberation Army
- Latvian resistance movementLatvian resistance movementA large number of Latvians resisted the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany. The Latvian resistance movement was divided between the pro-independence units under the Latvian Central Council and the pro-Soviet units under the Central Staff of the Partisan Movement in Moscow...
- Lithuanian resistance during World War II
- Luxembourgish resistance during World War II
- Malayan resistance movemment
- Norwegian resistance movementNorwegian resistance movementThe Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...
- MilorgMilorgMilorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement in World War II....
- XUXUXU was a clandestine intelligence organisation working on behalf of Allied powers in occupied Norway during World War II...
- Norwegian Independent Company 1Norwegian Independent Company 1Norwegian Independent Company 1 was a British SOE group formed in March 1941 originally for the purpose of performing commando raids during the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. It was organized under the leadership of Captain Martin Linge...
(Kompani Linge) - NortrashipNortrashipThe Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission was established in London in April 1940 to administer the Norwegian merchant fleet outside German-controlled areas. Nortraship operated some 1,000 vessels and was the largest shipping company in the world. It is credited for giving a major contribution to...
- Osvald GroupOsvald GroupThe Osvald Group was a Norwegian sabotage organisation during the Second World War, and led by Asbjørn Sunde, who used Osvald as one of his cover names. The organisation was originally a branch of the Wollweber League, a subsidiary to the Soviet secret police organization NKVD which dissolved when...
- Milorg
- Philippine resistance movement
- AlliedAllies of World War IIThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
guerrillas ( composed of unsurrendered USAFFE troops including FilipinoFilipino peopleThe Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
civilians ). - HukbalahapHukbalahapThe Hukbalahap , was the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines , formed in 1942 to fight the Japanese Empire's occupation of the Philippines during World War II. It fought a second war from 1946 to 1954 against the pro-Western leaders of their newly independent country...
- Allied
- Polish resistance movementPolish resistance movement in World War IIThe Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
- Armia KrajowaArmia KrajowaThe Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
(the Home Army—main stream: Authoritarian/Western Democracy) - Cursed soldiersCursed soldiersThe cursed soldiers is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and afterwards. Created by some members of the Polish Secret State, these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland...
(anti-communist) - Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces - Anti-Nazi, Anti-Communist)
- Bataliony Chłopskie (Farmers' Battalions—main stream, apolitical, stress on private property)
- Armia LudowaArmia LudowaArmia Ludowa was a communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers' Party during World War II. Its aims were to support the military of the Soviet Union against German forces and aid the creation of a pro-Soviet communist government in Poland...
(the Peoples' Army—Soviet Proxies) - Gwardia LudowaGwardia LudowaGwardia Ludowa or GL was a communist armed organisation in Poland, organised by the Soviet created Polish Workers Party. It was the largest military organization which refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State. It was created in 1942 and in 1944 it was incorporated by the...
(the Peoples' Guard—Soviet Proxies) - Gwardia Ludowa WRNGwardia Ludowa WRNGwardia Ludowa WRN was a part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II. Created in 1939 by Polish Socialist Party - WRN faction, since 1940 it was subordinated to ZWZ with a degree of autonomy. In 1944 it numbered about 42,000 people...
(The Peoples' Guard Freedom Euqailty Independence—main stream; Polish Socialist Party's underground; progressive, anti—nazi and anti—Soviet; believed firmly in private property; believed in Marx's critiqueCritiqueCritique is a method of disciplined, systematic analysis of a written or oral discourse. Critique is commonly understood as fault finding and negative judgement, but it can also involve merit recognition, and in the philosophical tradition it also means a methodical practice of doubt...
of the Capitalist system, but rejected his solution) - LeśniLeśniLeśni is one of the informal names applied to the anti-German partisan groups operating in occupied Poland during World War II. The groups were formed mostly by people who for various reasons could not operate from settlements they lived in and had to retreat to the forests...
(Forest People—various) - Polish Secret StatePolish Secret StateThe Polish Underground State is a collective term for the World War II underground resistance organizations in Poland, both military and civilian, that remained loyal to the Polish Government in Exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were put in place in the final days of the...
- Armia Krajowa
- Romanian resistance movementRomanian anti-communist resistance movementAn armed resistance movement against the communist regime in Romania was active from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the communist regime...
(anti-communist) - Singaporean resistance movement
- DalforceDalforceDalforce, or the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army was an irregular forces/guerrilla unit within the British Straits Settlements Volunteer Force during World War II. Its members were recruited among the ethnic Chinese people of Singapore...
- Force 136Force 136Force 136 was the general cover name for a branch of the British World War II organization, the Special Operations Executive . The organisation was established to encourage and supply resistance movements in enemy-occupied territory, and occasionally mount clandestine sabotage operations...
- Dalforce
- Slovak resistance movementSlovak National UprisingThe Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...
- Soviet resistance movement
- Thai resistance movementFree Thai MovementThe Free Thai Movement was a Thai underground resistance movement against Imperial Japan during World War II. Seri Thai were an important source of military intelligence for the Allies in the region, and were notable for being the only World War II resistance movement to use fighter aircraft of its...
- Ukrainian Insurgent Army (anti-German, anti-Soviet and anti-Polish resistance movement)
- Viet MinhViet MinhViệt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
(Vietnamese resistance organization that had fought Vichy France and the Japanese) - Yugoslavia
- ChetniksChetniksChetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
(Serbian nationalist and royalist resistance. As the war went on, the Chetniks increased their cooperation with Axis powers in Yugoslavia in its fight against communist Partisans.) - Yugoslav Partisans (communist-led resistance)
- Chetniks
Notable individuals
- Giorgio AmendolaGiorgio AmendolaGiorgio Amendola was an Italian writer and politician.Born in Rome in 1907, he was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva Kuhn and Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist who died in 1926 in Cannes after having been attacked by killers hired by Benito Mussolini...
- Mordechaj AnielewiczMordechaj AnielewiczMordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
- Dawid Apfelbaum
- Yitzhak AradYitzhak AradYitzhak Arad , is an Israeli historian, retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan who has served as director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993...
- Walter AudisioWalter AudisioWalter Audisio was an Italian partisan and communist politician. He was responsible for the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.- Biography :...
- Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
- Tadeusz Bor-KomorowskiTadeusz Bór-KomorowskiGeneral Count Tadeusz Komorowski , better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader....
- Petr BraikoPetr BraikoBraiko Petr was a Soviet soldier during the Second World War and gained the status of Hero of the Soviet Union.He took part in seven raids by the guerrilla brigade of Sydir Kovpak. Though he did not achieve his dream of a career as a military pilot, which haunted him from childhood, he graduated...
- Pierre BrossolettePierre BrossolettePierre Brossolette was a French journalist, left-wing politician, a top leader and major hero of French Resistance.-Education and journalism:...
- Masha BruskinaMasha BruskinaMasha Bruskina was a 17-year-old Soviet Jewish partisan who was a volunteer nurse. She was arrested on October 14, 1941, by members of the Wehrmacht's 707 Infantry Division and the 2nd Schutzmannschaft Battalion; Lithuanian auxiliary troops under the command of Major Antanas Impulyavichus...
- Alexander Chekalin
- Marek EdelmanMarek EdelmanMarek Edelman was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and cardiologist.Before World War II, he was a General Jewish Labour Bund activist. During the war he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organization. He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, becoming its leader after the death of...
- Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'OrvesHenri Honoré d'Estienne d'OrvesHenri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves was a French Navy officer, reputed "first martyr of Free France" and one of the major heroes of the French Resistance.-Early life:...
- Aleksey Fyodorov
- Manolis GlezosManolis GlezosManolis Glezos is a Greek left wing politician and writer, worldwide known especially for his participation in the World War II resistance.- 1939 - 1945 :...
- Stefan Grot-Rowecki
- Jens Christian HaugeJens Christian HaugeJens Christian Hauge , often written Jens Chr. Hauge, was a Norwegian World War II resistance figure and politician who was the leader of the secret military organization Milorg during WWII...
- Enver HoxhaEnver HoxhaEnver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
- Vassili Kononov
- Oleg KoshevoyOleg KoshevoyOleg Vasilyevich Koshevoy was a Ukrainian partisan and one of the founders of the clandestine organization Young Guard, which fought the Nazi forces in Krasnodon during World War II between 1941 and 1945....
- Zoya KosmodemyanskayaZoya KosmodemyanskayaZoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya, alternatively Romanised as Kosmodem'yanskaya was a Soviet partisan, and a Hero of the Soviet Union...
- Sydir KovpakSydir KovpakSydir Artemovych Kovpak , June 7, 1887December 11, 1967) was a prominent Soviet partisan leader in Ukraine.-Biography:Kovpak was born to a poor peasant family in Ukrainian village near Poltava . For his military service in the World War I he was awarded two Crosses of St...
- Nikolai KuznetsovNikolai Ivanovich KuznetsovNikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov was a Soviet intelligence agent and partisan who operated in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during World War II. He used several pseudonyms during his intelligence operations: e.g...
- Hans LittenHans LittenHans Achim Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic. During one trial in 1931, Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler, to appear as a witness, where Litten then...
- Martin LingeMartin LingeMartin Jensen Linge was a former Norwegian actor who, in World War II, became the commander of the Norwegian Independent Company 1 , formed in March 1941 for operations on behalf of the Special Operations Executive.-Biography:Martin Linge was born in Norddal, Møre og Romsdal County, Norway...
- Luigi LongoLuigi Longothumb|right|Luigi Longo portrayed on a 1981 [[USSR]] postage stamp.Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972.-Early life:...
- Pavel LuspekayevPavel LuspekayevPavel Borisovich Luspekayev was a Ukrainian-Russian-Armenian actor who is best known for his role of Vereschagin in the classic Russian movie White Sun of the Desert....
- Max ManusMax ManusMaximo Guillermo "Max" Manus DSO, MC & Bar was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II.Manus was born in Bergen to a Norwegian father and a Danish mother...
- Pyotr MasherovPyotr MasherovPyotr Mironovich Masherov , - October 4, 1980) was the first secretary of Belarusian committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and a communist leader of Soviet Belarus.- Overview :...
- Draža Mihajlović
- Ho Chi MinhHo Chi MinhHồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
- Jean MoulinJean MoulinJean Moulin was a high-profile member of the French Resistance during World War II. He is remembered today as an emblem of the Resistance primarily due to his role in unifying the French resistance under de Gaulle and his courage and death at the hands of the Germans.-Before the war:Moulin was...
- Otomars OškalnsOtomars OškalnsOtomārs Oškalns was a prominent Latvian communist and partisan fighter. He was declared the Hero of the Soviet Union representing the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. After his death, Riga's second largest train station was named after him...
- Ferruccio ParriFerruccio ParriFerruccio Parri was an Italian partisan and politician who served as the 43rd Prime Minister of Italy for several months in 1945. During the resistance he was known as Maurizio.-Biography:...
- Alexander PecherskyAlexander PecherskyAlexander Aronovich Pechersky was the chief organizer and leader of the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II; this occurred at the Sobibor extermination camp on 14 October 1943.-Early life:...
- Sandro Pertini
- Witold PileckiWitold PileckiWitold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
- Christian PineauChristian PineauChristian Pineau was a noted French Resistance fighter.He was born in Chaumont-en-Bassigny, Haute-Marne, France and died in Paris.His father-in-law was the writer Jean Giraudoux, who was married to Pineau's mother...
- Panteleimon PonomarenkoPanteleimon PonomarenkoPanteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko ; 9 August 1902 18 January 1984) was a general in the Red Army before becoming a Soviet administrator in Belarus and then Kazakhstan. He was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia....
- Zinaida PortnovaZinaida PortnovaZinaida Martynovna Portnova, commonly known as Zina Portnova was a Russian teenager, Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union.-Biography:...
- Semyon RudnievSemyon RudnievSemyon V. Rudniev was one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement during World War II, popular Commissar in the partisan formation operating in Ukraine and led by Sydir Kovpak....
- Alexander SaburovAlexander SaburovAlexander Nikolayevich Saburov , one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement in Ukraine and western Russia during the German-Soviet War.Born near the city of Izhevsk in central Russia, Saburov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1933 and the NKVD in 1938.Few months after the German...
- Hannie SchaftHannie SchaftJannetje Johanna Schaft , was a Dutch communist resistance fighter during World War II. She became known as the girl with the red hair...
- Sophie SchollSophie SchollSophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans...
- Roman ShukhevychRoman ShukhevychRoman Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych was a Ukrainian politician and military leader, the general of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.-Childhood:Roman Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych was born in the city of Krakovets, Jaworow powiat, in Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria which is located today between Lviv and...
- Henk SneevlietHenk SneevlietHendricus Josephus Franciscus Marie Sneevliet, known as Henk Sneevliet or the pseudonym Maring , was a Dutch Communist, who was active in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East-Indies...
- Arturs SproģisArturs SproģisArturs Sproģis was a Latvian colonel and commander of the Soviet partisans during the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany in World War II.-Early life and career:...
- Ilya StarinovIlya StarinovColonel Ilya Grigoryevich Starinov was a Soviet military officer....
- Claus von Stauffenberg
- Imants SudmalisImants SudmalisImants Sudmalis was a Latvian historian and later Soviet communist and partisan, the Hero of the Soviet Union ....
- Gunnar SønstebyGunnar SønstebyGunnar Fridtjof Thurmann Sønsteby DSO was a member of the Norwegian resistance movement during the German occupation of Norway in World War II...
- Luis TarucLuis TarucLuis Taruc was a Filipino political figure and communist insurgent. He was the leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group between 1942 and 1954. His involvement with the movement came after his initiation to the problems of agrarian Filipinos when he was a student in the early 1930s...
- Josip Broz "Tito"Josip Broz TitoMarshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
- Palmiro TogliattiPalmiro TogliattiPalmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
- Gaston Vandermeersche
- Aris VelouchiotisAris VelouchiotisAris Velouchiotis , the nom de guerre of Athanasios Klaras , was the most prominent leader and chief instigator of the Greek People's Liberation Army , the military branch of the National Liberation Front , which was the major resistance organization in occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945...
- Pyotr VershigoraPyotr VershigoraPyotr Petrovich Vershigora or Petro Petrovich Vershyhora was a Soviet writer and one of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland....
- Nancy WakeNancy WakeNancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM , served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.-Early life:Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in...
- Napoleon ZervasNapoleon ZervasNapoleon Zervas was a Greek general and resistance leader during World War II. He organized and led the National Republican Greek League , the second most significant , in terms of size and activity, resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece.-Early life and army career:Zervas...
- Simcha ZorinSimcha ZorinShalom Zorin was a Jewish Soviet partisan commander in Minsk.Many Jewish partisans in Belorussia had their own units that operated as part of the general Belorussian partisan movement and the overall Jewish resistance movement fighting the Nazis in occupied Europe, although some of these Jewish...
Documentaries
- Confusion was their business (from the BBC series Secrets of World War II is a documentary about the SOE (Special Operations Executive) and its operations
- The Real Heroes of the Telemark is a book and documentary by survival expert Ray Mears about the Norwegian sabotage of the German nuclear program (Norwegian heavy water sabotageNorwegian heavy water sabotageThe Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of actions undertaken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the German nuclear energy project from acquiring heavy water , which could be used to produce nuclear weapons...
) - Making Choices: The Dutch Resistance during World War II (2005) This award-winning, hour-long documentary tells the stories of four participants in the Dutch Resistance and the miracles that saved them from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.
Dramatisations
- 'Allo 'Allo!'Allo 'Allo!'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
(1982–1992) a situation comedySituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
about the French resistance movement (a parody of Secret Army) - L’Armée des ombres (1969) internal and external battles of the French resistance. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
- Battle of Neretva (film) (1969) is a movie depicting events that took place during the Fourth anti-Partisan Offensive (Fall Weiss), also known as The Battle for the Wounded
- Bonhoeffer (2004 premier at the Acacia Theatre) is a play about Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, a pastor in the Confessing ChurchConfessing ChurchThe Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
executed for his participation in the German resistance. - Boško BuhaBoško BuhaBoško Buha was a young Yugoslav Partisan who used to be one of the greatest icons of World War II in the former Yugoslavia.Boško Buha was born to Serbian parents in the Slavonian village of Gradina, near Virovitica in today's Croatia...
(1978) tells the tale of a boy who conned his way into partisan ranks at age of 15 and became legendary for his talent of destroying enemy bunkers - Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (film)Charlotte Gray is a 2001 British-Australian-German feature film directed by Gillian Armstrong, based on the novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks...
(2001) – thought to be based on Nancy WakeNancy WakeNancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM , served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.-Early life:Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in... - Come and SeeCome and SeeCome and See directed by Elem Klimov, is a 1985 Soviet war movie and psychological horror drama about and occurring during the Nazi German occupation of the Byelorussian SSR. Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova star as the protagonists Florya and Glasha. The screenplay is by Ales Adamovich and...
(1985) is a Soviet made film about partisans in Belarus, as well as war crimes committed by the war's various factions. - DefianceDefiance (2008 film)Defiance is a 2008 World War II era film written, produced, and directed by Edward Zwick, set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The film is an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Poland during the Second World War...
(2008) tells the story of the Bielski partisansBielski partisansThe Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...
, a group of Jewish resistance fighters operating in Belorussia. - Flame & CitronFlame & CitronFlame & Citron is a 2008 Danish drama/action co-written and directed by Ole Christian Madsen. The film, a fictionalized account based on fact, is about two Danish resistance movement fighters during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.- Plot :...
(2008) is a movie based on two Danish resistance fighters who were in the Holger Danske (resistance group)Holger Danske (resistance group)Holger Danske was a Danish resistance group during World War II. It was created by veteran volunteers from the Winter War who had fought on the Finnish side against the Soviet Union. It was among the largest resistance groups and consisted of around 350 volunteers towards the end of the war...
. - A GenerationA GenerationA Generation is a 1955 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script, and it was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War, completed by Kanal and...
(1955) (Polish) two young men involved in resistance by GLGwardia LudowaGwardia Ludowa or GL was a communist armed organisation in Poland, organised by the Soviet created Polish Workers Party. It was the largest military organization which refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State. It was created in 1942 and in 1944 it was incorporated by the... - The Heroes of TelemarkThe Heroes of TelemarkThe Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during World War II...
(1965) is very loosely based on the Norwegian sabotage of the German nuclear program (the later Real Heroes of Telemark is more accurate) - Het Meisje met het Rode Haar (1982) (Dutch) is about Dutch resistance fighter Hannie SchaftHannie SchaftJannetje Johanna Schaft , was a Dutch communist resistance fighter during World War II. She became known as the girl with the red hair...
- Kanał (1956) (Polish) first film ever to depict Warsaw UprisingWarsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
- The Longest DayThe Longest Day (film)The Longest Day is a 1962 war film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II....
(1962) features scenes of the resistance operations during Operation OverlordOperation OverlordOperation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings... - Massacre in RomeMassacre in RomeMassacre in Rome is a 1973 film directed by George Pan Cosmatos about the Ardeatine massacre which occurred at the Ardeatine caves in Rome, 24 March 1944, committed by the Germans as a reprisal for a partisan attack.-Summary:...
(1973) is based on a true story about Nazi retaliation after a resistance attack in Rome - My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich KellnerMy Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich KellnerMy Opposition - The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner is a 2007 documentary film about an orphaned American who went in search of his German grandfather and discovered a secret diary written during the time of the Third Reich. The film is a production of Abella Entertainment Ltd...
(2007) is a Canadian film about Justice Inspector Friedrich KellnerFriedrich KellnerAugust Friedrich Kellner was a mid-level official in Germany who worked as a justice inspector in Mainz and Laubach. During the First World War, Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment...
of LaubachLaubach' is a town of approximately 10,000 people in the region of Hesse, Germany. Laubach is known as a , a climatic health resort. It is situated east of Gießen. Surrounding are the towns of , , and .-Points of interest:...
who challenged the Nazis before and during the war - Secret Army (1977) a television series about the Belgian resistance movement, based on real events
- Soldaat van Oranje (1977) (Dutch) is about some Dutch students who enter the resistance in cooperation with England
- Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (2005) is about the last days in the life of Sophie SchollSophie SchollSophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans...
- Stärker als die NachtStärker als die NachtStärker als die Nacht is an East German film directed by Slátan Dudow. It was released in January 1954.-Cast:* Wilhelm Koch-Hooge: Hans Löning* Helga Göring: Gerda Löning* Kurt Oligmüller: Erich Bachmann* Rita Gödikmeier: Lotte Bachmann...
(1954) (East German) follows the story of a group of German Communist resistance fighters - The Battle of SutjeskaThe Battle of Sutjeska (film)The Battle of Sutjeska is a partisan film directed by Stipe Delić, and made in SFR Yugoslavia. It tells the story of the famous Battle of Sutjeska, the greatest engagement of the Yugoslav Partisan War. It is one of the most expensive films made in Yugoslavia.-Plot synopsis:Nazi-occupied Bosnia and...
(1973) is a movie based on the events that took place during the Fifth anti-Partisan Offensive (Fall Schwartz)
External links
- Home of the British Resistance Movement
- European Resistance Archive
- Interviews from the Underground Eyewitness accounts of Russia's Jewish resistance during World War II; website & documentary film.