Description

*WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2023*
*A NEW YORKER BOOK OF THE YEAR*

‘The best book about the subject I have ever read’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times

A sweeping history of occupation and resistance in war-torn Europe, from the acclaimed author of The Eagle Unbowed

Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe the experience of occupation was sharply varied. Some countries – such as Denmark – were within tight limits allowed to run themselves. Others – such as France – were constrained not only by military occupation but by open collaboration. In a historical moment when Nazi victory seemed permanent and irreversible, the question ‘why resist?’ was therefore augmented by ‘who was the enemy?’.

Resistance is an extraordinarily powerful, humane and haunting account of how and why all across Nazi-occupied Europe some people decided to resist the Third Reich. This could range from open partisan warfare in the occupied Soviet Union to dangerous acts of defiance in the Netherlands or Norway. Some of these resistance movements were entirely home-grown, others supported by the Allies.

Like no other book, Resistance shows the reader just how difficult such actions were. How could small bands of individuals undertake tasks which could lead not just to their own deaths but those of their families and their entire communities?

Filled with powerful and often little-known stories, Halik Kochanski’s major new book is a fascinating examination of the convoluted challenges faced by those prepared to resist the Germans, ordinary people who carried out exceptional acts of defiance and resistance.

‘A superb, myth-busting survey of the many ways in which the subjugated peoples of Europe tried to fight back’ Saul David, Daily Telegraph

Publisher Review

The best book about the resistance I have ever read. It addresses the story with scholarly objectivity and an absolute lack of sentimentality ... it is marvellous to read a study of such breadth and depth, which reaches balanced judgments. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times * Ground-breaking ... a superb, myth-busting survey of the many ways in which the subjugated peoples of Europe tried to fight back. -- Saul David * Daily Telegraph * A full and nuanced account of all the different forms of resistance... a timely book. * Times Literary Supplement * Eminently readable ... subtle, multilayered and kaleidoscopic ... Kochanski's gripping account of the activities of the resistance includes, as might be expected, tales of derring-do and extraordinary courage as well as tragedy, betrayal and Nazi barbarism. -- Andrew Stuttaford * Wall Street Journal * This ambitious history offers the first unified picture of resistance against Nazi Germany in the many countries it invaded ... Dispensing with heroics and highlighting the imperfect, human nature of the underground, [Kochanski] nevertheless depicts a vital defence of dignity, spirit, and the future, mounted against all odds. * New Yorker * Halik Kochanski's Resistance reads less like a work of history and more like a chronicle of a partisan war foretold ... her scrupulous scholarship, and her refusal to romanticize the grim, grimy work of being a resister, does make Resistance something of a primer for the many Ukrainians now fighting to undermine Russian authority. -- Yuliya Tymoshenko * Project Syndicate * This history of resistance in the Second World War is as moving as it is comprehensive. * The Critic * An excellent comparative study of wartime resistance in all its forms. * BBC History *