Repression of the Resistance
Résistants français fusillés par les Allemands, sans date
French Resistance fighters executed by a German firing squad (undated)
The repression of the Resistance was particularly effective. Its results can be measured through the number of arrests, deportations and executions. The Service Historique de la Défense archives help us to understand the process and identify the different actors involved. They shed new light on this issue by focusing on the organisations and men tasked with carrying out the repression. For example, the Abwehr and Sipo-SD files seized at the end of the war offer an insight into the techniques used to penetrate Resistance organisations, teaching much about the use of double agents and the role they played. The German archives kept by the SHD also record the sentences handed down by the German military tribunals in France, complementing what is known about the occupier’s judicial system.