Wartime Wednesday: Resistance During World War II

Wartime Wednesday: 

Resistance During World War II

With the onset of World War II, resistance groups formed all over Europe and throughout Asia as citizens rose up against invaders and occupiers. According to Wikipedia, the most notable organizations were located in Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Poland in addition to the Jewish Resistance located in multiple German-occupied countries, and the multitude of groups within Germany. In Asia, the Chinese and Korean resistance organizations were quite effective.

Resistance took many forms from non-cooperation and propaganda to sabotage, assassinations, and outright warfare. Other activities included intelligence gathering, organize uprisings, and leading refugees, escapees, and downed airmen out of their countries. Alone, the organizations would not have been full successful, but fortunately, government organizations such as America’s Office of Strategic Services and Britain’s Special Operations Executive provided personnel, weapons, and equipment as well as training.

United in a cause, resistance members came from all walks of life: political activists, academics, 

civilians, soldiers, and clergy. Stories abound about the very young and the very old doing their part.

In 1944, inhabitants in Warsaw initiated an uprising that lasted an astonishing sixty-three days as combatants tried to liberate their city from the Germans. Interestingly, initial plans for “Operation Tempest” didn’t include Warsaw, however with the anticipated arrival of the Soviet army, the decision was reversed. The organization managed to pull together more than 45,000 fighters to take on 25,000 Germans, which seemed like an easy victory except for the fact that only twenty-five percent of the resistance members had weapons. Unfortunately, the uprising was unsuccessful, and the Germans destroyed over eighty-five percent of the city which led to high civilian casualties.

Most resistance organizations were small with even smaller “cells” within the group. Most scholars agree that the effectiveness of resistance movements were limited; that they are measured “more by their political and moral impact than their decisive military contribution to the Allied victory.” (Wikipedia) Does that make them any less important? I don’t believe so.

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Coming Spring 2026: The Resistance Chronicles

Book 1: Shetland Sunset: Bonded by a cause but an ocean apart, will their love survive a world war?
https://books2read.com/u/4AWqJk

Book 2: Norwegian Nights: Can their marriage endure a debilitating injury, a devastating loss, and a world war?
https://books2read.com/u/bwl5qv

Book 3: Dutch Dawn: Will they survive the 500-mile journey to freedom?

Photo Credits:

Bellorussia Jewish Resistance Group: By Unknown author - http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/belarus/bel427.html, Public Domain.

Civilians at the Warsaw Uprising: Courtesy National WW2 Museum

Italian Partisan: By Tanner (Capt), War Office official photographer: from the collections of the Imperial War Museum, Public Domain.