Resistance movement

From Wikinfo

A resistance movement is a group dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country. Tactics of resistance movements range from passive resistance and industrial sabotage to what would today be regarded as guerrilla (or guerilla) warfare and terrorism. Contemporary acts of a group that considers itself a resistance movement are usually condemned as terrorism by the government they are directed against, even when such attacks are directed against military targets.

In World War II, many countries had resistance movements dedicated to fighting the German invaders. There was also an anti-Nazi German resistance movement within Germany itself. Although Britain was not invaded in World War II, preparations were made for a British resistance movement in the event of a German invasion.

Mass resistance movements:

• Armia Krajowa, Polish underground army in World War II (400 000 sworn members)

Resistance movements (some were groups of few people, and some may be considered terrorist campaigns by some people):

• Underground Railroad, Pre-American Civil War American slave escape network
• Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB), Jewish resistance movement that led the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.
• The French resistance movement in World War II, including the Maquis.
• The White Rose, a German resistance movement in World War II
• The Red Orchestra, a German resistance movement, which included the only American executed by the Nazis for belonging to an anti-Nazi organization.
• Norwegian resistance movement in World War II
• Danish resistance movement in World War II
• Italian resistance movement in World War II
• The Mujahadeen in Soviet occupied Afghanistan
• Hizbollah (or Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group who resisted the Israeli military occupation of various parts of Lebanon through guerrilla warfare until Israeli forces left the Southern Lebanese "security zone" in 2000
• Chechen separatist guerrillas nominally under separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov (elected President of Chechnya in 1997) fighting against what they see as a Russian occupation of their country
• The Palestinian militant groups such as the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the first intifada (or uprising) and the second Al Aqsa Intifada against Israeli military occupation
• The Iraqi resistance or "insurgency" against the US-led military occupation

Notable individuals in the resistance movements:

• Mildred Harnack
• Mordecai Anielewicz
• Jean Moulin
• Christian Pineau
• Laura Secord
• Yasser Arafat
• Aslan Maskhidov

See also

• Special Operations Executive
• Collaboration (quite the opposite of resistance)
• Covert cell

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Resistance_movement" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_movement, used under the GNU Free Documentation License