Resistance The underground war against Hitler, 1939-1945

Halik Kochanski

Book - 2022

"A monumental history that finally integrates the many resistance movements against Nazi hegemony across Europe into a single, sweeping narrative. It's almost shocking to think that now, more than seventy years after the Nazi surrender in 1945, there is not a single volume that has attempted to unify the resistance movements that convulsed Europe during the brutal years of occupation. In her extraordinary work, Resistance, Halik Kochanski does just that, creating a prodigiously researched account that becomes the first to bring these disparate histories into a single narrative. Taking us from France in the west to parts of the Soviet Union in the east, Resistance reveals why and how small bands of individuals undertook actions tha...t could lead not merely to their own deaths, but to the destruction of their entire communities. As Kochanski demonstrates, most who joined up were ordinary people who would not have been expected-even by themselves-to become heroes. Simultaneously panoramic and heartbreakingly intimate, Resistance is an incomparable history necessary for any home library"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Halik Kochanski (author)
Edition
First American edition
Item Description
"First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, under the title Resistance: The Underground War in Europe 1939-1945" -- Title page verso.
Physical Description
xxii, 936 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 831-916) and index.
ISBN
9781324091653
  • Acknowledgements
  • Map: Europe on the Eve of the Second World War
  • List of Illustrations
  • Introduction
  • Part 1. Why Resist?
  • 1. The Shock of Defeat
  • 2. Choices
  • 3. The Clandestine Press
  • 4. Escape from Occupied Europe
  • 5. Resisters of the First Hour
  • 6. Intelligence Gathering: 1939-41
  • 7. The Origins of SOE and OSS
  • Part 2. Growing the Resistance
  • 8. The Early Partisans
  • 9. The Mobilization of the Communists
  • 10. SOE Gets to Work
  • 11. Three SOE Operations
  • 12. The Sauckel Effect
  • 13. The Holocaust: The Christian Response
  • 14. The Holocaust: The Jewish Response
  • 15. Who is the Enemy?
  • 16. Divided Loyalties: France 1942-43
  • 17. The Germans Hit Back
  • 18. Resistance or Civil War? The Balkans
  • Part 3. Resistance in Action
  • 19. The Italian Surrender
  • 20. Denmark Enters the Fray
  • 21. Civil War or Resistance - The Balkans
  • 22. Challenges and Dilemmas in the East
  • 23. Intelligence: 1942-44
  • 24. Preparing for D-Day
  • 25. Summer 1944: France
  • 26. Summer 1944: Other Fronts
  • 27. Uprisings: Warsaw, Paris, Slovakia
  • 28. Autumn 1944: Western Europe
  • 29. The German Retreat from the Balkans
  • 30. Nearing the End: Winter 1944-45
  • 31. To the Bitter End: Spring 1945
  • 32. The Aftermath
  • Notes
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Hitler's blitzkrieg rolled over nations east and west of the Reich, crushing armies and seizing territory. Daring citizens who endured after their soldiers had been vanquished mounted what seemed hopeless resistance to their new overlords. Individual national histories have documented these efforts, but Kochanski (The Eagle Unbowed, 2012), pulls back to take in both Eastern and Western Europe, revealing a wider perspective on these underground movements. By their very nature, these diverse rebel bands were disjointed, had generally local objectives, and were unique from country to country. They also operated from a wide spectrum of political beliefs and intentions. Kochanski, after first surveying the breadth of Germany's conquests, details the growth of resistance movements in all their manifestations, from sabotage to assassination. Preexisting local disputes, sheer economic necessity, and racist ideologies complicated these responses. She also casts revealing light in chapters devoted to both the Christian and Jewish responses to the Holocaust. In this massive work of research, Kochanski brings together individual stories and larger historical forces to document how ordinary people successfully challenged what seemed overwhelming military might.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A magisterial doorstop of a history that is well worth the effort. Readers whose knowledge of the resistance against Hitler comes from movies must unlearn a lot of misinformation about its contribution to victory (modest), organization (sloppy), security (inept), and level of participation (low). Impressively debunking myths and deconstructing faulty history, Kochanski adds that a resistance movement was active in every conquered nation, and heroism was widespread. However, resistance seemed futile from 1939 until Hitler's June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Axis had conquered most of Europe. Responding to vicious Nazi treatment, Poles resisted from the beginning, but occupiers in Western Europe exerted a lighter hand, so there was a great deal of collaboration. The earliest organized opposition assisted refugees and then airmen to escape occupied Europe. This was as dangerous as sabotage, with "approximately one person being arrested for each airman who was helped." Matters improved as Wehrmacht defeats in the Soviet Union made Allied victory a possibility, energizing resistance organizations, which learned from their mistakes, although not before a brutally efficient Gestapo devastated them with mass arrests during the summer of 1943. The resistance fighters also benefited when the Nazis vastly expanded forced labor and began their extermination programs. Various movements worked to integrate masses of young people, who suddenly had a motive to resist. Sadly, despite scattered exceptions, the resistance neglected many Jewish populations. Matters improved by 1944, with the Red Army advancing and the Allies landing in Italy and France. Legendary warfare agencies in the U.S. and Britain were dropping a steady stream of supplies and agents into occupied Europe, and most agents survived. Although sabotage dominates many popular accounts, intelligence gathering may have contributed more to victory. Kochanski continues her masterful chronicle beyond Germany's surrender. She capably shows that while resistance organizations dissolved or entered politics in Western Europe, they continued to fight Soviet occupation or civil wars for years in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, and Greece. A definitive history and a great read. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.