Biuletyn Informacyjny ("Information Bulletin") was a Polish weekly published covertly in occupied Poland during World War II. It was started in November 1939 in Warsaw as the main press release of the SZP, the first underground resistance organisation in Poland. Soon it was taken over by the Armia Krajowa and the Bureau of Information and [..]

German female military helpers during World War II

The Armia Krajowa (the Home Army), was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union for Armed Struggle) and over the next two years incorporated most other Polish underground forces. It was disbanded in January 1945, when Polish territory had largel [..]

European Resistance Archive Projekt

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, was an international socialist organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 and the official journal r [..]

Following the occupation of France during World War II, a complex originally planned as a large public housing project but used as police barracks was converted for use as a major detention centre primarily for Jews but also homosexuals and others labeled as "undesirables" who were seized by Nazi orders pending shipment to Auschwitz and o [..]

After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the PCF was declared a proscribed organisation by Edouard Daladier's government. The PCF pursued an anti-war course during the early part of the Second World War. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the PCF was the first to organize the Resist [..]

The Gestapo ( Geheime Staatspolizei: “secret state police”) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel (SS), it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) (“head office of the reich security service”) and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (“secur [..]

Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside the Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions. Kapos received more privileges than normal prisoners, towards whom they were often brutal. They were often convicts who were offered this work in exchange for a reduced sentence or parole.

L'eccidio della Bettola (23 june 1944): A Nazi reprisal happened on the Appennino reggiano in which 32 civilians were slaughtered. It was the night of S. Giovanni when the military police of the Wehrmacht, in answer to a partisan action in the locality La Bettola of Vezzano sul Crostolo, killed 32 civilians, all hosts of the local inn. At firs [..]