Partisans

 

    Partisans are defined as members of irregular military forces that form in opposition to an occupying power. They usually function behind enemy lines and use guerilla tactics to antagonize the occupying army by disrupting supply lines and communications. World War II saw the rise of partisan units across Europe as the German blitzkrieg rolled across Europe. Often supplied, trained, and, in some cases, led by the Allied regular military forces, these partisan groups inflicted great damage to the German war machine and provided much information to the Allies.  They also served as protectors and providers for many civilians, including Jews and other minority groups targeted for extermination. In the latter years of WWII, some partisans turned their efforts to fighting the Soviets as the Red Army "liberated" and then oppressed territories in Eastern Europe.

     Nancy Wake, by Peter Fitzsimons, is the biography of a New Zealand woman who became a major leader of partisan forces of the French Underground, or the Maquis. This book was the first time I had ever heard of her, even though her story was very well known in New Zealand and Australia, inspiring several books, movies, and television shows.  As a girl, she moved to Australia. Even as a girl, she was always looking for excitement and action, and the prescribed roles of girls and women at the time chafed her. In her late teens, she decided to go where the action was, Paris. She worked as member of the press briefly and then met and married a wealthy French businessman, but upper class socialite was not a big enough role for her. When France surrendered, she began working as a courier for various guerilla groups. Soon, she found herself involved in assisting downed pilots and other Allied prisoners in their escapes to neutral Spain. She eventually became known to the Germans as 'the white mouse," and when the Germans got to close to capturing her, she escaped to Spain and then to England where she joined the Special Operations Executive, where she was trained in every aspect of partisan guerilla warfare. She and her team were dropped into France, and she became the leader of a large partisan force.   Her exploits and her character became legendary, and Fitzsimons relies on a lot of   interviews with her. (She also wrote her own autobiography, called The White Mouse.) Basically, she was a major badass throughout her life. Upon returning to Australia, she dabbled in politics, remarried (her French husband was tortured and executed by the Gestapo), and wrote of her experiences. In her 80s, she moved to a London hotel, which never accepted payment for her stay, and she could be found practically every morning in the bar, telling war stories. She moved to an old soldiers' home in 2003, where she died in 2011, at age 98. It's a great story if you are a WWII or espionage buff.

    Into the Forest was just published in September by Rebecca Frankel.  It is the gripping story of the Jewish residents, a couple of families in particular,  of a Polish village who are forced to flee into the forest for survival as the German murder squads roll through their area. There, they join forces with partisans. Like most Holocaust books, it's a brutal read, and the author pulls no punches when it comes to describing what they had to do to survive, but it is also a powerful story of survival.

    Defiance is the story of four brothers, the Bielski brothers, who established a large partisan force in Belarus during World War II.  They were responsible for saving at least 1,200 Jews, creating a community nicknamed the "Jerusalem of the woods." Their story was adapted into a 2008 film called Defiance, starring Daniel Craig.