DE GAULLE'S GREAT FICTION
FIGHTERS IN THE SHADOWS
A New History of The French Resistance Robert Gildea
History, at least as it is commonly consumed, is often a
compound of disparate facts, half-truths, often in the form of ‘myths,’ and sometimes
outright fictions. These fictions are often created to soothe national pride or
assuage guilt, as in the latter case the fiction of Austria as ‘Hitler’s first
victim.’ Indeed, the Second World War alone has generated a whole plethora of stories
that distort reality and obscure painful truths. The greatest, or perhaps more accurately
most successful, of these rose coloured narratives is surely that of the ‘French resistance’ and a very strong
case can be made for General De Gaulle, the creator and primary peddler of this
myth, as the greatest confidence trickster in modern history.
France’s defeat in 1940 was the result of a complex
interplay of factors that I do not intend to explore here, except to state
baldly that the France of 1940 was not the France of the Belle Epoch. The inter
wars years had witnessed deep divisions in France between the Nationalist right[1]
and the Communist and socialist left, that at times threatened civil war,
whilst the First World War had resulted in the slaughter of a whole generation
of young Frenchmen, often sent to their deaths by incompetent generals like
Robert Nivelle. Consequently, there was, to say the least, no appetite for a round
two.
However, what made
the French defeat so devastating was its speed and comparative ease. The shock
to French institutions and the French psyche cannot be understated. In the
numbed aftershock, for most French people, two emotions struggled for prominence,
shame and relief. For the bourgeoisie elite the easy winner was relief, and
they consequently swallowed the ramblings of a semi senile old man spouting a
lot of windy guff about travail, famille,
patrie, (Labour, family, fatherland). For in 1940 it was Petain, not De Gaulle,-
whose radio broadcasts were listened to by a tint minority, who represented the
desire of the overwhelming majority of the French people. This was a desire for
peace, no matter how dishonourable. Though Petain’s dishonesty was of course even
greater than De Gaulle’s, the Vichy government presenting a catastrophic defeat
as ‘divine judgment upon the French people and their love of indolence and
luxury.’*
In 1940 the only groups forming any resistance to Nazi
occupation were those with little, or nothing, to lose, that is Jews and
foreign refugees who had already fled from fascism and Nazism. Whilst the
Communist dominated industrial working class, though instinctively hostile to
the Germans, and Vichy, held back. The Communist party having swallowed and
sold the Nazi-Soviet pact, was temporarily paralysed by the absurd policy, that
this was just another capitalist/imperialist war.
Thus the immediate resistance to German Occupation and Vichy
came largely from foreigners, refugees from pro fascist regimes across Europe,
including Austrian and German anti fascists,[2]
and Spanish Republicans and other veterans of the International Brigades. This
latter group provided a significant and effective contribution throughout the
German Occupation and is a story that deserves wider currency.[3]
(The first ‘French’ soldiers into Paris when it was finally liberated in 1944, was
part of a regiment “called 'la Nueve’ because it was composed mainly of Spanish
republicans”.)
 |
| Spanish Republicans Liberating Paris |
II
Asked by a German court in Lyon in May 1942 why she had
taken up arms, Marguerite Gonnet replied: “Quite simply, colonel, because the
men had dropped them.” Yet women, who sometimes led, and often contributed to
so many successful resistance operations, formed no part of De Gaulle’s
narrative.
Significant ‘French’ resistance, albeit from a small
minority, only arose after the Nazi invasion of the USSR -the Communist Party
being unleashed against the occupation, - and the later German occupation of
Vichy France, with the ensuing German mass conscription of labour. This led to
growing numbers of men forced into hiding, men who now also had little left to
lose.
We tend to associate the re-writing of history with the
former communist states of Eastern Europe, primarily the USSR, however De
Gaulle’s erasure of the role of foreign fighters in the French resistance was
far more effective than Stalin’s erasure of Trotsky’s contribution to the
Russian Revolution. Whilst only since the 1970’s has the leadership role by
women and the Communist Party within the resistance been more fully
acknowledged.
De Gaulle’s fiction that the French freed themselves never
really had much traction outside France, for the obvious reason that D Day
correctly enjoys centre stage in the liberation. However within France itself
De Gaulle managed, with the happy complicity of the French people as a whole,
particularly those heavily involved in collaboration, to sell the idea of
France as a nation of resisters.
Those of us across the channel who had to face no such
choices should not feel smug about Vichy France, one only has to see pictures
taken in the Channel Islands during German Occupation to see that the British
as a whole were unlikely to have behaved much differently[4].
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| Channel Islands Under German Occupation |
Remember too that in 1940 France had been so significantly defeated that for the
average Frenchman German dominance and occupation stretched out possibly
decades ahead. Few believed the British could hold out. In these circumstances
people looked to secure their own safety and security. This was not noble or
brave, but it was human, and is what people instinctively do. When this ‘cowardice’
crossed the borderline between passive complicity and collaboration was often
far more difficult than armchair resisters would have you believe.
The German occupation of France in 1940 was a great tragedy.
De Gaulle’s narrative was a great farce and Gildea has done a great service in
correcting De Gaulle’s fictional narrative and in honouring all those citizens
of every nationality, including British, who resisted the German occupation of France.
*Though Petain might have believed this to be true but, as
George Orwell remarked at the time, how much indolence and luxury did the
average worker enjoy, as compared to say Petain?
[1]
Who adopted the extraordinary slogan ‘Better Hitler than Blum.’ Blum being the
leader of the French Socialist Party.
[2]
A German Brigade of the French Resistance fought alongside their French and
international comrades after D day.
[3]
To see how Spanish were treated by the French after Franco’s victory I strongly
recommend Arthur Koestler’s ‘Scum of the Earth.’
[4]
Though of course in those circumstances German Occupation would have been much
more secure, with little prospect of liberation from across the vast and
turbulent Atlantic Ocean.
