TIL: French Resistance

[timelets]

First off, active resisters before D-Day constituted not a small minority of the French population but a tiny one—perhaps as low as two percent of the people were actively engaged in publishing underground newspapers, sabotage operations, intelligence gathering, recruiting, or participating in one of the networks designed to rescue Allied fliers.

Only another eight percent were passive resisters—that is, they were willing to read subversive publications, celebrate traditional national holidays privately and quietly despite German bans, and provide crucial moral support to active Resistance networks.

The vast majority of French people simply tried to muddle through and survive increasingly tough times, while a certain undefined, but uncomfortably large number either supported Vichy in the (forlorn) hope that it would ultimately form a bulwark against German repression, or actively collaborated with the Petain regime.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-story-of-the-french-resistance
Review of Fighting in the Shadows, by Robert Gildea https://www.amazon.com/Fighters-Shadows-History-French-Resistance/dp/0674286103

French Jews, who comprised about one percent of the population, represented 15-20 percent of active Resistance.