The
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 the
Second World War. Résistance
cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the
Maquis in rural areas), who, in addition to their
guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of
underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped
Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Résistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including
émigrés; academics, students,
aristocrats, conservative
Roman Catholics (including priests) and also citizens from the ranks of
liberals,
anarchists and
communists.