Heroes of the French Resistance Quiz

Answer: Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was a colonel at the time World War II began, but was later promoted to Brigadier General. He fought the Germans until Marshal Philippe Pétain agreed to an armistice with Germany. De Gaulle left France for London, to rally support for the continuation of the struggle against the Nazis.
Soon after arriving in London de Gaulle gave the speech quoted above. Although many French people weren't able to hear it live, it was published in newspapers in the unoccupied zone, and was passed by word-of-mouth. People soon became aware of the general who would not concede defeat. Many people took heart, and joined the Resistance.
In London, de Gaulle formed the Free French movement, with himself at the helm. Although the U.S. would recognise the Pétain regime as the legitimate government of France, Winston Churchill and the British in time came to support General de Gaulle.
In 1940, de Gaulle was twice convicted in absentia of treason by the Vichy government; the second time he was condemned to death.
After the Liberation by the Allied Forces, de Gaulle immediately established the Free French Forces as France's true government. He returned to France a short while before the liberation of Paris, and rode into the city with Allied officials.
Marshal Pétain was sentenced to death for collaboration and treason after the war was over; his sentence was commuted by Charles de Gaulle.

Answer: Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, of mixed Native American and African American background. She began her career as an entertainer in New York, working as a chorus girl. She left the U.S. to work in France, where she was very popular, and she became a citizen of France in 1937. Baker was famous for dancing wearing nothing but a banana skirt. After the war, she adopted twelve children of different races, whom she called her "Rainbow Tribe." Baker also worked with the civil rights movement in the U.S. during the 1960s. She died in Paris in 1975.

She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance and was made a member of the Legion of Honour for her work for the Resistance.

Answer: She was captured by the Germans and executed

Violette Bushell Szabo (1921-1945) was born in Paris, France. Her exploits were dramatized in the 1958 film "Carve Her Name with Pride", which was based upon a book written by R. J. Minney. A photograph on a website dedicated to her shows a beautiful young woman. She was married to French officer Etienne Szabo, and gave birth to a daughter. Etienne Szabo died shortly after their child was born, and Violette then decided to join the SOE.
On her first mission she was sent to reconnoiter an area near Paris, with the goal of forming Resistance groups there. She was arrested by French police, but they let her go. After returning to London, she again parachuted into an area near Limoges, just after the Allies arrived on the beaches in Normandy. Soon after she arrived, she was arrested again, although Violette and her comrades put up a fierce fight, killing several Germans. This time she was sent to the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück. She was brutally mistreated and was finally executed in 1945. Witnesses described her as being particularly courageous.
She left behind her young daughter, Tania. Violette was posthumously awarded the George Cross by King George VI: he pinned the Cross on Tania's dress.
Violette Szabo is one of several heroic women who worked for the SOE during the war, and paid the ultimate price.

Answer: Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 - 1989) was an Irish dramatist, novelist and poet.
After the Nazis occupied France, Beckett began working for the Resistance, and was nearly caught by the Gestapo several times. Once Beckett and his wife were forced to flee their home on foot. He served as a courier and even used his back yard to store military equipment.
The French awarded Beckett the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance after the war.
The other three men named were Irish authors as well.

Answer: Jean Moulin

Jean Moulin was born in Béziers, France in 1899. He is remembered in France as a courageous fighter and martyr. After studying law, he became France's youngest prefect in the Aveyron department during the late 1930s.
In 1940, the Vichy government removed Moulin from office, and he joined the Resistance. Moulin escaped to London in September 1941, and met General de Gaulle, who gave him the difficult assignment of unifying the numerous Resistance groups. In January 1942, he returned to France, parachuting into the Alpilles. He was eventually given orders to form the CNR, and was attending a meeting of that group when he was arrested by the Nazis on June 21, 1943.
He was interrogated by the notorious Klaus Barbie, aka the "Butcher of Lyon". He gave no information to the Nazis, and on July 8, 1943 he died after brutal torture while being transported to a concentration camp.
Many years after the war, Klaus Barbie was finally brought to justice. Upon his arrest in Bolivia in 1983, he was deported to France. After a lengthy and controversial trial he was sentenced to life in prison and died there four years later at the age of 77.

Answer: Andre Malraux

Andre Malraux (1901-1976) was born in Paris. He was a always interested in politics. He served as a pilot on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, and wrote of his experiences in his novel, "Man's Hope", published in 1938.
He joined the French Army at the beginning of World War II. After being captured by the Germans in 1940, he managed to escape, and joined the Resistance. He continued his writing throughout the War. Malraux was captured again by the Gestapo in 1944, and this time was rescued by fellow Resistance fighters. He was awarded the the Croix de Guerre, the Médaille de la Résistance, and the British Distinguished Service Order at the war's end.
When the war ended, Malraux would serve as Minister of Information for a short time in 1945, and later as Minister of Culture from 1960 to 1969. (I made up the other names.)

Answer: Paul Eluard

Paul Eluard was born near Paris in 1895. He was active in politics as well as writing poetry, and would become a member of the French Communist Party.

In addition to writing Resistance poetry, he served in the French Army, and served as a courier and publisher of Resistance publications. After being denounced to the Germans, he was forced to go on the run, moving from house to house frequently. At one point he spent time in a mental hospital to hide from the Gestapo. His work was an inspiration to the French people, and he is considered one of the important surrealist poetry writers of the last century. The other three named were important writers as well.

Answer: Albert Camus

Albert Camus was born in Algeria to French parents. He lived in near poverty throughout his childhood, but was able to attend the University of Algiers. At this time he contracted tuberculosis.
He joined the French Communist Party in 1935, apparently due to his concern for the conditions in Spain that led to the Spanish Civil War. He began to write, working for different newspapers. He was unable to join the French army due to his tuberculosis. Camus went to work for "Paris-Soir" magazine, and he was in Paris when the Germans took over. During the war he finished his first books, "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus". He was a member of the French Resistance cell Combat, and was editor of their underground newspaper. When Paris was liberated, he was there to report on the end of the Occupation.
He published his great novel "The Plague" in 1947, which is usually seen as a metaphor for the spread of Nazism in Europe. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, for his writings against capital punishment. Camus died in a car crash on January 4, 1960.
The three others named are authors as well.

Answer: Yes

Hers is an amazing story, an everyday housewife who became a true heroine of the Resistance. After serving fifteen months in prison after her first arrest for Resistance activities, she immediately resumed working for the Resistance. She helped save the lives of many English agents, she was a courier, she transported documents and even guns and dynamite for use in sabotage missions. The story of what she accomplished is amazing.
In 1944 she was betrayed by an English agent whose life she had saved, and was taken prisoner by the Gestapo. Even after incredibly brutal torture, she refused to cooperate with the Nazis and was sentenced to be executed. Just before she was to be executed in a concentration camp, the camp was liberated by Allied soldiers and her life was saved.
After the war she was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Legion of Honour and the American Freedom Medal.

Answer: Guerrilla groups working for the Resistance

The Maquis were guerrilla bands that usually operated in rural areas of France. (Their name was derived from hardy shrubs that grow in the countryside.) They generally ran their operations in the mountains surrounding the southern area of France, and rescued many people in danger from the Gestapo.

Their groups ranged in size from just a few people to large numbers of people. They took part in many kinds of sabotage actions, blowing up railroad tracks and ambushing garrison trains, harassing the Germans any way they could. They were alerted by coded messages broadcast over the BBC when D-Day was imminent.

As Allied forces moved into France, the French Resistance was there for the fight. It is said that some groups did not take prisoners, and many Germans surrendered to Allied soldiers rather than face the Resistance fighters.