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Allies, Government and Resistance: the Belgian Political Crisis of November 1944*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Geoffrey Warner
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Extract

During the closing stages of the second world war in Europe, the British and the Americans, together with the governments they supported, were often faced with the problem of dealing with armed resistance movements which they themselves had actively fostered to help in the fight against the Germans. Despite significant national and even local variations, the root cause of the problem was the same everywhere: the resistance was a political as well as a military phenomenon. Many of its members did not regard their task as complete with the departure of the last German soldier. They saw defeat and occupation as the inevitable result of pre-war political, social and economic structures which they were determined to transform. While the allies and the governments they supported were themselves often in favour of change, they were rarely prepared to go either as far or as fast as some elements of the resistance desired. Confrontation was therefore almost inevitable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 28 , December 1978 , pp. 45 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1978

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References

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59 Achille Van Acker, Willem Schermerhorn and Ferruccio Parri.