Financing the fight: The economics of French resistance during World War II

The financing of French resistance is one of the least studied aspects pertaining to France’s complex role in the Second World War. By understanding how, and by whom, French resistance forces were funded, both within and without France’s metropolitan borders, a fundamental reappraisal of the existing historiography of French resistance becomes possible. This work argues that, without concerted efforts by the British and U.S. governments and the Free French, this financing would not have been possible and, due to a lack of funds, nascent resistance activity would have been monetarily hampered, if not extinguished entirely. However, the development of these funding lines was convoluted and rendered difficult due to the transportation of agents and funds behind enemy lines. They were heavily impacted by political machinations and operational security protocols but, through the efforts of financial administrators, including intermediaries from the Bank of England, resistance activity in France was successfully supported by external funding from 1941. It has been established that many who participated in fundraising were not French nationals and money was transferred across the planet which eventually arrived in France through clandestine landings and airdrops. The thesis takes a transnational approach. By using digital humanities techniques, including social network analysis (S.N.A.) and geographic information systems (G.I.S.), alongside forensic accountancy of the Free French and Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) accounts, the thesis seeks to ‘follow the money’ across the planet, from donor to end-recipient. Those receiving the funds included Maquis forces and British- and French-run networks in France. Having made use of a range of primary and secondary sources from France, Britain, the U.S.A. and Australia, this work builds upon the very limited existing historiography. Its primary sources include a 2017 interview with the late Daniel Cordier, the wartime secretary of Jean Moulin.