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In 1941, the well-known international Cold War actor Serafino Romualdi traveled to South America for the first time. As a representative of the New York-based Mazzini Society, Romualdi sought to grow a robust anti-fascist movement among South America's Italian communities, finding the most success in Uruguay. As Romualdi conducted his tour of South America, he began writing a series of reports on local fascist activities, which caught the attention of officials at the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA), a US government agency under the direction of Nelson Rockefeller. The OCIAA would eventually tap Romualdi and his growing connections in South America to gather intelligence concerning Italian and German influence in the region. This investigation sheds light on the critical function that Romualdi and his associates played in helping the US government to construct the initial scaffolding necessary to orchestrate various strategies under the umbrella of OCIAA-sponsored cultural diplomacy. Despite his limited success with Italian anti-fascist groups in Latin America, Romualdi's experience in the region during the early 1940s primed him to become an effective agent for the US government with a shrewd understanding of the value in shaping local labor movements during the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on the French Resistance movements against the German occupation of France at the time of Second World War. Topics discussed includes Germans control on France after Second World War and opposition of it by Charles de Gaulle later president of France, uncertain nature of the resistant organization, and meaning of resistance which is a struggle to form, struggle against power, and struggle that involved power.

The armed resistance movement which emerged in Poland during the Second World War is usually portrayed as united and representing all sections of society. In reality, this was very far from the case and the underground resistance was divided on several lines, of which that separating the Home Army (AK) from the peasant armed units was most pronounced. Conflicts between the two related to the army’s role in the destruction of democracy before the war. As the end of the war appeared in sight, so these divisions multiplied as the peasant movement became anxious about the AK reconstructing the pre-war state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses relations between the Belarusian independence emigration and Nazi administration. With the collapse of the Belarusian People’s Republic in 1919 (proclaimed in 1918) a wave of political exiles appeared in the neighbouring countries of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Latvia. This emigration was deeply divided politically. Although most Belarusian politicians harboured critical opinions of Nazism, in 1939, in the face of approaching war, counting on German assistance in reconstructing the Belarusian state, they decided to enter into cooperation. This cooperation was continued after September 1939, despite the fact that regions considered by the emigres as belonging to the Belarusian state were divided between the USSR and Lithuania. During the springtime of 1940 various emigre milieus united in the Belarusian Committee for Mutual Aid (in Germany and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) and in the Belarusian Union for Mutual Aid (since spring 1941 known as the Belarusian Committee -- in the General Government). These organizations were active in the fields of material aid, assisting Belarusians in their contacts with the German administration, and in cultural and educational activities, carried out both in Belarusian territories and among the 25.000 prisoners of war, soldiers of the Polish army of Belarusian extraction, who were detained in Germany. At the same time some of the politicians entered into clandestine negotiations with the Polish underground authorities concerning future Polish-Belarusian relationships. In June 1941, in the face of no response from the Germans towards their overtures, Belarusian politicians (contrary to the actions undertaken by the Lithuanians and Ukrainians) abstained from declaring rebirth of their country, but decided to operate within the framework of the German sponsored administration and social organizations Belarusian emigre politicians also endeavoured to form the nucleus of a national army. These efforts found sympathetic response only from the Abwehr, which was interested in recruiting saboteurs for actions against Poland and the USSR. Finally, in May 1941 a platoon of Belarusian parachutist-sabotage fighters was created, which numbered up to 54 men and went into action during the first phase of the German-Soviet war. Later on, the platoon was dissolved and the soldiers were transferred to the auxiliary Belarusian police forces formed by the German authorities. Grzybowski emphasizes that major reasons for the failure of Belarusian independence efforts lay in the weakness of the emigre milieus and in the fundamental differences in German and Belarusian goals; little could be gained in terms of the future Belarusian independence, when the Nazis had no intention of committing themselves politically, and were only interested in economic exploitation of the territories and the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the National Republican Greek League (EDES) and its role in resisting Nazi German occupation during World War II. It describes the influence of Greek political instability from military coups, corruption, and fraud on laying the foundations for Greek resistance to German occupation forces. It then discusses underground resistance movements led by politician Komninos Pyromaglou. Other subjects under discussion include the National Liberation Front (EAM), the Communist Party of Greece, and the Union for People's Democracy.

The article discusses the passive response of Slovenia to occupation by the Axis powers during World War II. Many Slovene civilians practiced the policy of passivity which took two forms: political passivity as practiced by many prewar political and religious figures, and mass passivity practiced by the rest of the population. The practice of passivity varied in Slovenia with those regions experiencing Fascist racism being more willing to take up resistance than areas that were treated leniently.

After the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in September 1939, a network of Jewish underground organizations and active conspiratorial groups was established. Its objective was to resist the violent imposition of the Soviet system, to preserve Jewish culture and religion and, for those with a Zionist orientation, to work for the establishment of a Jewish homeland. The Zionist parties and organizations among them were particularly active, especially the youth groups. The fate of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe under the Soviet occupation of 1939-41 remains understandingly overshadowed by the tragic events of the Holocaust. As a result, the activities of this Jewish underground are not widely known and have received little attention from scholars. Only in recent years have historians researching the history of Jews in eastern Poland begun to look more closely at Jewish resistance and especially at Zionist activity under Soviet occupation. These scholars have, however, relied exclusively on the eyewitness accounts of the few survivors. At the same time, Polish and Russian historians conducting intensive research on the war-time Soviet occupation of eastern Poland have published contemporary Soviet documents that confirm the existence of this Jewish underground. The material currently available shows that the Jewish underground was more widespread than previously thought, and that the Soviet authorities viewed Jewish resistance groups, and indeed any clandestine activity, as a serious threat to their rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]