All the Light We Cannot See FINAL - University of Cincinnati

The History and the Literature: All the Light We Cannot See

Diane and Stan Henderson

OLLI at the University of Cincinnati October 29, 2021

The History

Overview

? The Fall of France, 1940 ? Vichy v. Free France: P?tain and de Gaulle ? Beginnings of Resistance ? Organization of the Resistance ? The Free French and the Allies: a Tense Embrace ? The Resistance in D-Day ? Battle of St. Malo ? Liberation and Revenge ? The Resistance: Impact and Memory

The Fall of France, 1940

French Position in 1940

? French army considered best in world

Backed by massive fortification of border

? Maginot Line

Built at cost of seven billion francs Array of forts linked by underground railway Relied on Germans following 1914 blueprint through

Netherlands and Belgium Discounted possibility of attack through Ardennes at

end of Maginot Line

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Blitzkrieg: Advantage Germans

? Deployment of Nazi forces emphasized concentration of tanks and utilization of technology

? Air superiority in spite of equal number of planes: concentrated numbers and Stuka design

? Germans used Netherlands/Belgian attack as a feint and concentrated on the Ardennes to the Meuse

? 8-hour bombardment by 1000 planes shatters French morale

Collapse and Dunkirk

? The Germans race to the Channel: "a narrow wedge of steel which pierced right through the body of France"

? Allied forces cut off from supply lines; Brits retreat to Dunkirk for evacuation

? Britain mobilizes flotilla, including private boats, that take advantage of three-day German pause

? 350,000 Allied troops escape, while French provide rear guard action, raising suspicion of discrimination

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"Exodus"

? As Nazis advance, French population flees; 8 million refugees, 20% of country's population clog roads with nowhere to go

? Churchill struggles to keep France in the fight; argues for guerrilla warfare

? Appointment of Phillipe P?tain to French government hastens capitulation

Vichy v. Free France: P?tain and de Gaulle

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Mar?chal Phillipe P?tain

? P?tain, one of France's greatest heroes in WWI, known as The Lion of Verdun, became Marshall of France at war's end

? In 1940, at age 84, he was named head of a "free" government in Vichy

? Most French welcomed his appointment, the "gift of my person" to the country

? He was tried and convicted of treason after the war but spared the death penalty because of his age

? De Gaulle said of him, he was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre."

Nazis Enter Paris

? French government declares Paris an open city ? Two secret evacuations may influence war's end

France's replicas of German Enigma coding machine France's supply of "heavy water" for nuclear warfare

? June 14 Nazi troops goosestep on the Champs Elys?e

? Churchill flies to France to try to prevent French surrender

France Surrenders

? DeGaulle flees to London ? P?tain takes the reigns of government and sues

for peace ? Hitler designs surrender for maximum

humiliation of France ? June 22 Armistice is signed in same railway car

as WWI with victor and vanquished now reversed

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Moving Forward from Defeat: Two Speeches

? P?tain embraces vassal status ? Churchill tells Commons, "Let us therefore brace

ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say: `This was their finest hour" ? De Gaulle broadcasts to France: "Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and shall not die"

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The Finest Hour speech was not recorded in Parliament, it appears that Churchill recorded it later for the BBC.

This page with the peroration shows that Churchill's speeches were written in blank verse as a guide to the cadences of his style.

Appel du 18 Juin 1940

"...la flame de la r?sistance fran?aise ne doit pas s'?teindre et ne s'?teindra pas" "Demain, comme aujourd'hui, je parlerai ? le Radio de Londres

Charles de Gaulle

? Charles de Gaulle, the most junior French general, fled to London after the Fall of France in June 1940

? He set up a Free French government in exile and began to manage his image in France

? He wanted the R?sistants only to do intelligence work

? He had rocky relations with other Free French and with the Allies, especially the Americans

? He increasingly used the BBC to develop "Gaullism," which put him at the center of France

Beginnings of Resistance

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Initial French Relief at Losing

? 90% of France actively supported Vichy or were too afraid to engage in resistance

? Most were elated that P?tain had surrendered; French troops sang and danced when captured

? Nazis were preferable to the communists, a powerful force among French workers

? Resistance in Greece and Yugoslavia was far more prevalent and effective



Most French were passive participants in the Resistance. "33 Conseils a l'occupe" actively advocated this passivity: "On the outside, pretend you do not care; on the inside, stoke up your anger. It will serve you well"

Passive resistance also involved scribbling V (for Victory) on buildings and sidewalks Children would whistle the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth (Morse Code for V) and people would reply

Ordinary People Resolve Action

? Angry, humiliated, ashamed, a few ordinary people decided they had to do something

? From the first edition of Resistance:

"we are independent, simply French....We have only one ambition, one passion, one desire: to recreate France, pure and free"

? "we can't allow them to colonize us....And to stop it happening, we have to kill....It has to be done, and I will do it."

Agnes Humbert

Who Made up the Resistance?

? Those who did resist included intellectuals who printed early broadsides and publications

? After Hitler attacked the USSR, communists were responsible for aggressive sabotage efforts

? Jews (France was notoriously anti-Semitic) comprised 15 to 20% of the resistance

? A number of misfits and petty criminals ? A small core despised what the Germans had

done to France

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