Remembering the Resistance: the Vercors maquis

Ruins of Vassieux-en-Vercors, July 1944. © Collection M. Bleicher

In the collective imagination, the landscapes of the Resistance often make one think of the maquis, hilly or wooded areas where men and women sought refuge in order to organise their resistance against the Vichy authorities and the occupier. The Vercors massif, with its natural landscape, reconstructed villages and commemorative monuments, today preserves the memory of the maquisards of 1943-44.

The maquis

Maquis of the Drôme. A maquisard keeps watch at a refuge, armed with a German MG-42 machine gun. Copyright private collection.

11 November 1943

Garde d'honneur du drapeau tricolore. ©Collection Musée Départemental d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation - Ain.

Seventy years ago, on 11 November 1943, Captain Romans-Petit, leader of the Maquis of Ain and Haut-Jura, organised a military parade in Oyonnax to mark the 11th November and to show the Germans the strength and discipline of the Resistance.

Maquis du Mont Mouchet

Memorial to the Resistance on Mont Mouchet (Haute Loire, France).

The Maquis du Mont Mouchet, along with the Maquis du Vercors, was no doubt the largest grouping of French Résistance fighters at a single location in the nation.