Resistance

We had a late start that day in Lyon. An outdoor market on the banks of the Saone tempted us with apple-filled pastry things and two or three kinds of cheese to eat with them. By the time we finished, it was threatening rain, so we strolled back to the hotel for my windbreaker.

A museum of decorative arts was our goal. We found it on the map but got lost trying to get there and ended up instead at the Musee de la Resistance et de la Deportation. We expected to whizz in and out and still catch the decorative arts museum, but this turned out to be one of the places that grabs you and won’t let you go until you’ve experienced, not just looked at, what is on display.

The Museum is in the former Gestapo headquarters, but has been modified inside to give the feeling of what it was like to live in occupied Lyon in the 1940s. Thick concrete interior walls create a maze of corridors taking you ever deeper into the stories of the Resistance. Names such as Jean Moulin, in old newspapers, were now familiar to me as each city and town has streets named after Resistance heroes. It’s good to learn history in the nation where it happened.

Philippe Petain, a WW I war hero and vice premier of France, asked the Germans for an armistice in June, 1940, and was made their puppet Chief of State with a capital at Vichy. The legitimate government gave up all their powers to him, saying “Petain is France.” With a sweep of the pen, France fell into German hands.

Also that June, however, Charles deGaulle, an unknown French commander, arrived in London and, in a soul-stirring speech over BBC radio, called for every Frenchman and woman to resist, to join him in England if they could, or to fight at home. That launched local resistance groups all over France, first in small numbers, then in tens of thousands. It was dangerous work; many were murdered and/or tortured, and it lasted over four years, until the Allies landed in Normandy in June, 1944.

DeGaulle was President of France when Mary and I were there in 1961. We even saw him in his limo riding down the street. How did I recognize him in the closed car? His silhouette in the window – he was very tall and had a long French nose.

Lyon was a center of the Resistance in spite of the presence of (or perhaps because of) the infamous Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo headquarters, and Fort Montluc, a prison for Jews and Resistance fighters. Hidden radios gathered and distributed the news, along with small presses that printed broadsides like the one pictures.

The official Catholic church supported Petain and the occupation, including Petain’s own anti-Semitic laws, but individual Catholic churches spoke out against Germany and helped Jews and other targeted people. Protestant churches from the beginning declared that Christians should never forget that Jews are God’s chosen people, and that Jesus was a Jew.

Women played a lead role, though records are scanty since often they were helping their husbands or sons and weren’t mentioned by name. They made good couriers and information-gatherers because, as one woman said, “No-one paid attention to the women.” She could be in the room where an official meeting was going on and be “invisible.” Several women helped their husbands escape from prison.

In August, 1944, “maquis” [the civilian armies or Resistance fighters] marched toward Lyon from all over southern, eastern, and western France in a coordinated and successful effort to liberate it. Allied bombers gave air support but, as happens with bombs, demolished some of the city, which has now been restored.

A film showed the growth of concentration camps. As early as the mid 1930s, young French men were deported to Germany to do slave labor in factories making war-related items. Later these work camps were turned into the extermination camps for Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

After over two hours, we emerged from this Musee sobered and appreciative of the indomitable French spirit of Liberte. Our own nation owes much to France, as you can see from the following study of the French involvement in our Revolution:

“From the perspective of the American Revolution, however, the high point of French support is the landing of five battalions of French infantry and artillery in Rhode Island in 1780. In 1781, these French troops under the command of Count Rochambeau marched south to Virginia where they joined Continental forces under Washington and Lafayette. Cornwallis, encamped on the Yorktown peninsula, hoped to be rescued by the British navy. A French fleet under the command of Admiral DeGrasse intercepted and, after a fierce battle lasting several days, defeated the British fleet and forced it to withdraw. This left the French navy to land heavy siege cannon and other supplies and trapped Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula.

“At that point, the defeat of Cornwallis was essentially a matter of time. On September 14, 1781, the French and Continental armies completed their 700 mile march and soon thereafter laid siege to the British positions. After a number of weeks and several brief but intense engagements, Cornwallis, besieged on the peninsula by the large and well-equipped French-American army, and stricken by dysentery, determined to surrender his army. On October 19, 1781, the British forces marched out between the silent ranks of the Americans and French, arrayed in parallel lines a mile long, and cast down their arms.

“Abbé Robin, who witnessed the surrender, described the victorious American and French forces present at the ceremony. ‘Among the Americans, the wide variety in age -- 12 to 14-year old children stood side by side with grandfathers -- the absence of uniformity in their bearing and their ragged clothing made the French allies appear more splendid by contrast. The latter, in their immaculate white uniforms and blue braid, gave an impression of martial vigor despite their fatigue. We were all astonished by the excellent condition of the English troops, by their number -- we were expecting scarcely 3,000 and they numbered more than 8,000 -- and by their discipline.’” [http://people.csail.mit.edu/sfelshin/saintonge/frhist.html]

Well, more serious than usual, but I wanted to share it with you because of how it affected me, and also because too often one hears or reads disparaging remarks about the courage of the French. That view is not supported by history.