Underground medicine in occupied France: carers in the French Resistance (1943-1945)

“There was no network, no leader, just wounded people in need of immediate care […]; they crushed me under the weight of their instantaneous […] trust […]. I was Doctor Martel, guerrilla surgeon, with no instruments, no hospital, no aides, and no home.” These are the words of Alec Prochiantz, a resident doctor who became a surgeon for the Morvan Maquisards in the summer of 1944, as recorded in his wartime memoirs. The abrupt descent into clandestinity that he describes raises questions about the largely overlooked medical Resistance in occupied France—questions that this article seeks to address. It offers a broad collective portrait of the men and women who treated Resistance fighters and the forms their commitment took, before examining the role of Resistance organizations that were unevenly connected to the realities on the ground. Finally, it turns to the wartime experiences of these caregivers and the distinctive dynamics of the doctor–patient relationship under clandestine conditions.