I’m in the Center for the History of the Resistance and Deportation in Lyon, learning about what life was like in an occupied city, and about the efforts of the French Resistance forces. Inside the museum, one photograph in particular really got my attention. It was a photo of Lyon’s famous Théâtre des Célestins.
Our hotel is just down the street from Théâtre des Célestins. I can see it from our window. It’s a majestic old building. The photograph in the museum showed Théâtre des Célestins during the Nazi occupation. It looked the same as it does now, except in the photo, German military vehicles parked all around, and a gigantic red, white, and black Nazi banner with a swastika on it hangs down over the front of the building. Makes one stop and think, that’s for sure. This happened here. But let’s get back to the French Resistance.
The Early Resistance
As you may recall from last time, the “French Resistance” wasn’t one, organized group. It was an aggregate term that encompassed many different, and mostly independent groups. They were effective, that’s for sure, but they could be much more effective if they were organized.
To try and get the various groups of resistance fighters organized, a fellow named Jean Moulin made his way from France to London to meet with Charles DeGaulle. Since there was no regular French government at the time, (unless you counted the Vichy government, which many did not recognize as being legitimate), the goal was to unite resistance fighters under DeGaulle.
The meetings went well, so on the night of January 1st, 1942, Jean Moulin, who would henceforth be known only by the code name, “Max,” parachuted back into France. He carried a piece of microfilm hidden in the false bottom of a match box. His resistance unification orders directly from DeGaulle were on that piece of microfilm.
He made his way all over France, meeting secretly with resistance leaders, working on them to settle their differences and to bring them together as one.
The Resistance Gets Organized
Little by little they got themselves organized, and as they did so, they started working more closely with the Special Operations Executive, (SOE). Winston Churchill had set up the SOE to operate from England. It wasn’t long before resistance fighters were fouling things up for the Nazis on a whole new level.
Eventually, Hitler had had enough. Something had to be done, so he sent one of his favorite psychopaths, Klaus Barbie, and an army of Gestapo thugs to France to eradicate the French Resistance. Their orders were to set up headquarters right in the heart of Resistance country – in Lyon. You may recall that Klaus Barbie came to be known as the “Butcher of Lyon.”
The Vichy government set up its own version of the Gestapo called the “Milice”. The Milice was like the “Gestapo Jr.”, and was nearly as bad. Now there would be an all-out underground war in parallel with the visible war.
In addition to fighting against the Resistance, the Milice took pleasure in enforcing new laws created by the Vichy government with only Jewish people in mind. For starters, Jews would have to wear yellow badges. They were prohibited from holding a long list of jobs, including teacher, doctor, and lawyer.
Jews were prohibited from working in the entertainment field. They were prohibited from having telephones or radios. The Milice went from Jewish house to Jewish house, confiscating telephones and radios. And of course there was much worse done than that.
Some Tools of the Trade
Meanwhile, more and more resistance fighters were making their way to England to be trained and supplied by the SOE. Two of their favorite weapons of choice were the STEN gun and the Welrod silent pistol. The STEN gun was a machine gun that was popular because it was simple, cheap, and easy to manufacture. There was a machine gun shortage at the time, and this was the way around it. It’s easy to recognize by the clip that sticks straight out to the side.
The Welrod pistol was another English-designed firearm. Its design was optimized for being quiet above all else. It’s also known as the “Assassin’s Pistol.” The whole barrel of the gun is essentially a silencer. It’s thick because it has all kinds of baffles and compartments to slow down expanding gases when the gun is fired, greatly reducing noise.
It was also designed to be fired at close range. In fact, the end of the muzzle was cut straight off, so that the range that it worked best at was point blank – pressed right up against the target. That’s how you’d get your best silencing performance. Plus, you didn’t need to spend a lot of time at target practice, I suppose, eh?
To be continued…
Featured Image: This is the entrance to Center for the History of the Resistance and Deportation
