K účasti Slovákov v protifašistickom odboji vo Francúzsku

Beteiligung der Slowaken am antifaschistischen Widerstandskampf in Frankreich

Autor: BALÁŽ, Claude

BALÁŽ, Claude: K účasti Slovákov v protifašistickom odboji vo Francúzsku

BALÁŽ, Claude: Beteiligung der Slowaken am antifaschistischen Widerstandskampf in Frankreich.

Vojenská história, 20, 1, 2016, pp. 127-131.

 

The author analyses participation of Slovak emigrants – labourers in plants – during the World War II in the French resistance groups. As stated in the study, they distributed illegal press and issued their own illegal bulletins, Naše zvesti (Nos nouvelles – Our News) and Nové Československo (La Tchécoslovaquie nouvelle – New Czechoslovakia). Along with French labourers, many of them participated in sabotages and armed attacks, also implementing several actions enabling the Soviet prisoners of war to escape from the German Concentration Camps in France. Both individuals and groups of Slovak resistance fighters fought under the French, Polish, Romanian and other illegal organizations in Paris and its neighbourhood, Marseille, departemente Pas-deCalais (Sallaumines, Méricourt sur Lens, Donay), in the southern parts of departements, Corréze and Cantal, Haute-Loire (Mont-Mouchet, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, Brive, Égletons, Tulle), as well as the Pyrenees and Vosges. The resistance activity of Slovaks living in France culminated by their participation in the Paris Uprising, which was also the climax of the French nation-wide resistance movement. One of the first tasks was to overrun the former Czechoslovak diplomatic buildings in Paris, used by the Germans during occupation. Further combat actions took place in cooperation with the local French resistance units. They fought in the 6th District and built barricades in the 5th District. They also participated in fights at rue Jacob, on the Saint-Germain and SaintMichel boulevards, at place de la Concorde and L’Étoile, against the German command at the Field Headquaters at Opéra and at L’École militaire. During these operations, fighting along the French units, they captured numerous groups of Germans and seized a lot of weapons and material. Many Slovak participants of the frontline battles and underground resistance movement lost their lives in the fight for freedom and democracy. An interesting part of the study is the section analysing the basic data on 5 Slovak heroes of the French resistance from the World War 2, who were unknown in Slovakia up to now.

 

Keywords: Military History. France. World War 2. Slovaks in in Anti-fascist Resistance in France.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.69809/vojhist.2016.20.1.8

Ročník: 20 | Číslo: 1/2016 | Stránky: 127-131