Women's Role In The French Resistance

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During the Nazi occupation of France, those who were a part of the French Resistance faced great perils while defying the Nazis. There are many men who are given recognition for helping defy the Nazi soldiers, but very few women. In reality women played a crucial role in the French Resistance. Unsuspicious and innocent as they seemed, these women carried messages for the resistance, smuggled jews from the Nazis, and sabotaged German soldiers. In 1997, Lucie Aubrac stated “Women were the essential links in the Resistance” (Gildea 130).
Though women made up only ten-percent of the French Resistance, they made a lasting impact on the Nazi occupation of France during World War Two.

The Corps féminin des Volontaires françaises (CVF), founded November 1940,
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In 1942, Helene Terre, leader of the the CVF, was invited to speak on BBC where she addressed “ALL French women volunteers, that is All French women who want victory and liberation”. Women in the French Resistance were able to resist the Nazis’ in different ways the men because of the stereotypes of Nazi ideology. Women seemed less suspicious, as opposed to their husbands, in the eyes of a Nazi soldier. Women served as safe house keepers for the jews, they collected information on the Germans, wrote underground newspapers, carried priceless letters, and formed escape lines. Some even physically fought against the Nazis. Simone Segouin was a woman who captured twenty-five German Soldiers at just