France - Paris Again Day 2 - French Resistance in Paris Exibition

 At the Hotel de Ville, they had a free exhibition of the French Resistance in Paris

.The first section had pictures of life in Paris under the Nazi Germany regime.

This was a Jewish area after the Nazi's and Vichy French sent them away to concentration camps.

This picture is haunting to me because of the casualness of the women and the menacing look of the German officers on the left.

A secret suitcase radio.

A handbill telling those who are loyal to Charles De Gaul to sabotage, set fires and destroy the occupying forces equipment.

After the allies landed on D-Day and were advancing towards Paris, the resistance and loyal citizens organized roadblocks. I find the relaxing attitude these two have slightly amusing.

A map with Paris and the German roadblocks.

This fellow was a Chemistry professor at the Paris university making explosives for the Resistance.

Another roadblock with a defaced picture of Hitler.

Frenchmen gathering weapons. I like the smile the woman has on the left.

After some of France was liberated, Charles De Gaul encouraged a new French fighting force to be formed to assist the allies, called the FFI (French Forces of the Interior). It was an attempt to better organize the French Resistance with the Allies under one command.

This picture is of women suspected of colluding with the occupiers.

A call for people to open their homes to people returning from concentration camps. This not only included those of Jewish decent but prostitutes, homosexuals and anyone the Germans and Vichy did not like.

This Muslim hospital treated members of the French resistance. It was largely left alone because of the alliance the Germans had with the Ottoman Empire and the clever "plague" and virus outbreaks when Germans came to check things out.

Tintin magazine ran a special in 1949 on the liberation of Paris by General Leclerc, head of the 2nd Armored Division.

As a gamer, the actions of the French Resistance show that covert resistance works to redirect the enemies resources away from the front lines and give aid to allies battleplans. Once the allies neared Paris, the Resistance was important to the allies for local knowledge and an immediate police force.