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A Ballerina Who Stabbed an SS Guard With a Stiletto and Other Historic Rebels

Khalid Elhassan August 10, 2020 34 min

1. Harsher Nazi Treatment of the Occupied in Eastern Europe Led to More Intense Resistance than in Western Europe

French policemen, under Gestapo supervision, rounding up Jews in Marseilles for deportation. Frank Fall Archive

In general, the Germans did not treat the occupied peoples of Western Europeans nearly as atrociously as they did, e.g.; Soviet or Yugoslav civilians. Thus, Western Europeans’ backs were not as much against the wall to where they felt they had nothing to lose. As a result, Western Europeans never flocked to the resistance in the kinds of numbers that transformed it into a mass popular movement as happened in the Balkans and the USSR.

During the war, the resistance in Western Europe was not as widespread or intense as is often depicted in film or fiction. Far more people were willing to accept German occupation and make the best of a bad situation, than were willing to resist and risk German vengeance. For example, far more Frenchmen collaborated with the German occupiers than joined the resistance. Indeed, the French resistance’s numbers only boomed following the successful Allied landings in Normandy, after which late arrivals swelled the resistance ranks.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

All That is Interesting – Zinaida Portnova: The Teenage Partisan Who Became a Soviet Hero During World War II

Encyclopedia Britannica – Eiffel Tower

Encyclopedia Britannica – Josephine Baker, French Entertainer

Garlinski, Jozef – Fighting Auschwitz: The Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp (2018)

Gildea, Roberts, et al. – Surviving Hitler and Mussolini (2006)

Ha’aretz, August 27^th, 2019 – The Jewish Dancer Undressed Slowly. Then She Shot an SS Soldier to Death

History – The French Resistance’s Secret Weapon? The Mime Marcel Marceau

History Collection – Overlooked Important WWII Figures from History

History – This Teenager Killed Nazis With Her Sister During WWII

History Daily – The Story Behind: A Member of the French Resistance Smiling at a German Firing Squad

Jones, Sherry – Josephine Baker’s Last Dance (2018)

Libcom – Stjepan Filipovic: Everlasting Symbol of Anti Fascism

Murphy, Brendan – Turncoat: The Strange Case of British Sergeant Harold Cole, the Worst Traitor of the War (1987)

Musee de la Resistance – Georges Blind [French]

History Collection – The Night Witches and Other Warrior Women of World War II

Nonument – Stjepan Filipovic Monument

Vice, May 11^th, 2016 – This 90 Year Old Lady Seduced and Killed Nazis as a Teenager

Vintage News – Eiffel Tower’s Cables Were Cut So That Hitler Would Have to Climb the Steps to the Top

Washington Jewish Week – Charlotte Sorkine: Unknown Hero of the French Resistance

Wikipedia – Resistance During World War II

Wikipedia – Truus-Menger Oversteegen

History Collection – Fearless Female War Heroes You Didn’t Learn About in History Class

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.