Role of women in organized opposition to the German occupiers of France and the Vichy Regime during World War II. The French Resistance, in which women played an integral role, consisted of various forms of opposition to Nazi and pro-Nazi rule in occupied and Vichy France during World War II.
The lightning advance of German air and ground forces through the French countryside during the spring of 1940 led to a quickly demoralized French nation. An armistice with Germany on June 22, 1940, split France into occupied and unoccupied zones. The unoccupied zone was run by Marshal Henri Phillipe Petain from the French resort town of Vichy and became a collaborationist regime that partnered closely with Nazi Germany. Resistance against collaborationist Vichy France and Nazi Germany was advocated by General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French forces in England. Resistance groups sprang up in the occupied and unoccupied zones and these organizations relied on the efforts not only of men but also of women to subvert Nazi and Vichy activities.
Resistance against the Nazis and their collaborators took many forms. Besides armed combat, resisters collected and disseminated information and resistance-oriented news; they protected and hid fugitives and downed Allied pilots; and they obtained and transported messages, weapons, and news, planted explosives, assassinated Nazi officials, and provided support and logistical services. Women from all social, religious, and political affiliations became involved in the various activities of the resistance groups. These women, like men, joined the resistance for various reasons including their patriotic or political views, religious or ethical principles, or even due to a desire for adventure.
Women were warmly welcomed into most French Resistance organizations, and in many activities women were considered preferable to men because women "had the best disguise: they were women!" (Schwartz 1989, 131). Women drew little suspicion because they were considered to be politically insignificant and, therefore, harmless. In fact, women often used their gender to their advantage by flirting and otherwise using "feminine wiles" to create a sense of innocence that fooled the enemy. France Pejot, for example, escaped two militiamen by insisting on providing the men with coffee. As the coffee "brewed," she ran down the back stairs and made her escape (Weitz 1995, 252-253). Clara Malraux also used her femininity as a tool when she undertook missions where she socialized with German soldiers to determine if any were demoralized or discouraged enough to be recruited to help the Resistance (Weitz 1995, 128).
Women were heavily involved in courier and clandestine news activities. Most couriers in the Resistance were women because men aroused too much suspicion. Women were entrusted with transporting extremely sensitive information that if found by the Nazis or their collaborators could have meant arrest, interrogation, and even death for the captured courier. Using the ubiquitous bicycle, couriers such as Dr. Genevieve Congy transported intelligence messages, including maps indicating military deployments, to heads of various resistance units (Weitz 1995, 78).
Although not traditionally considered "resistance," social support services for resisters and refugees were imperative activities that were overwhelmingly performed by women. Women in these roles supplied fighters with ration cards and supplied food to people in refugee camps (Poznanski 1998, 238 and 242). They also risked their lives to rescue others. Marianne Cohn, for example, led a group of Jewish women to the Spanish border before the Nazis killed her (Weitz 1995, 172). Many social service activities became formalized within resistance movements. Berty Albrecht, for example, "conceived of and organized formal social services for Combat," a major resistance organization, which other resistance organizations soon followed (Weitz 1995, 177).
It was unusual for a woman in the French Resistance to be a leader, although there are a few exceptions. Berty Albrecht is one example. She was in charge of the social services section of Combat, and she also produced the organization’s first newsletter. Lucie Aubrac helped found the Liberation-Sud movement and Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the only woman to head an entire network, commanded the three thousand strong British-backed Alliance network.
Leadership, however, was rare for women. Even more uncommon were women participants in assassinations, sabotage, and armed combat. However, female participants in armed resistance did exist. Jeanne Bohec, for example, blew up a major rail line in preparation for the Allied landings in Normandy (Weitz 1995, 154). Another female resister, code named "Claude," was assigned to assassinate a "notorious member of the Gestapo." Claude walked into a Parisian restaurant frequented by German officers, flirted with the Nazi officer she was assigned to kill, dined with him, persuaded him to join her in a pre-arranged taxi, and then in the back of the taxi shot him point blank and fulfilled her mission (Schwartz 1989, 130). Full-time female fighters were extremely rare, but they nevertheless existed (Schwartz 1989, 129). There were even a few all-women groups that focused on combat missions. One such group specialized in placing grenades under German trucks (Poznan-ski 1998, 242). These women fought in and sometimes commanded co-ed units. Georgette Gerard, for example, became one of only two known women who led maquis (fighting) units (Weitz 1995, 151). Another woman, Madeleine Riffaud, commanded a Parisian guerrilla team when she was only nineteen years old (Schwartz 1989, 129). Women in combat and leadership roles were thought of more as "honorary men" than they were as women performing male-specific roles (Schwartz 1989, 138). In this way it was possible for traditionalist Frenchmen to reconcile women performing male-identified roles. Anna Pouzache, for example, was a liaison agent who frequently camped with maquis men. When one new arrival questioned a woman belonging to the maquis, a fellow partisan sprang to Pouzache’s defense saying, "It’s not a woman, it’s Anna" (Schwartz 1989, 136).
The impact of the French Resistance on female participants was varied. Although many female resisters lived with constant fear and had to postpone their lives and schooling during the occupation, resistance activities provided women with an unheard-of freedom that was unavailable to them prior to the war. They traveled alone, spent days and nights away from home, and worked in places otherwise forbidden. Their experiences in the Resistance provided women with newfound confidence and assurance in their capabilities.
Women members of the maquis display the rifles and pistols they used to fight the Nazi garrison in Marseille before the entry of Allied troops, 1944.
