19. Resistance

France Since 1871 (HIST 276)

If the extent of French collaboration during World War II has been obscured, so too has the nature of resistance. Although the communist Left represented the core of the resistance movement, resistors came from any different backgrounds, including in their ranks Catholics, Protestants, Jews and socialists. Unlike the relationship between de-Christianization and right-wing politics, in the case of the resistance there is no clear correlation between regional locations and cells of resistors. It has been argued that the definition of resistance itself should be broadened to include the many acts of passive resistance carried out by French civilians during the occupation.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Jews in Vichy France
10:35 - Chapter 2. Mitterrand's Confession
13:01 - Chapter 3. The Resistance: Roots in the Existing Communist Organization
24:40 - Chapter 4. Religious Resistance Movements: The Jewish Underground and the Protestant Adoptions
30:18 - Chapter 5. Defining Resistance: Mapping the Grey Areas
39:04 - Chapter 6. Regional Resistance? The Lack of Geographic Determinism

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.