13. Untrue and Highly Romanticized Narratives Have Surrounded the Resistance Both During and After WWII
For the most part, Western European civilian populations exhibited little willingness to risk the horrific reprisals and atrocities the Nazis were prepared to inflict upon restive subjects. An exception was the communists – who made a drastic turn from acquiescence to German occupation during the period of Russo-German friendship to fierce resistance after Hitler attacked the USSR. The inaction was not due to lack of courage, but lack of incentive. Because they were not treated as atrociously as were, e.g.; Soviet or Yugoslav civilians, Western Europeans’ backs were not as much against the wall to where they felt they had nothing to lose.
Accordingly, Western Europeans did not flock to the resistance in the kinds of numbers that transformed it into a mass popular movement as happened in the Balkans and the USSR. Western European resistance was not as widespread or intense as is often depicted in film or fiction. Contra the untrue narrative of massive resistance, far more people accepted German occupation and made the best of a bad situation than resisted and risked German vengeance. E.g.; many more Frenchmen collaborated with the German occupiers than joined the Resistance. French Resistance numbers only boomed following the successful D-Day landings, after which late arrivals swelled the resistance ranks.
Also Read: Fabricated Stories About World War II Still Known by Many.