Maquis (World War II) Maquis (World War II) The Maquis () were rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters, called "maquisards", during the Nazi Occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of men and women who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's "Service du travail obligatoire" ("Compulsory Work Service" or "STO") to provide forced labor for Germany. To avert capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. Originally the word came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, high ground in southeastern France covered with
Maquis (World War II) mystique and discourse of l"e Maquis". Politically motivated anti-fascists, immigrant workers on the run, the "réfractaires" and Spanish Civil War veterans, along with the leniency of the Vichy administration's pursuit of "réfractaires", contributed to the emergence of an aggressive movement, with a combative discourse and a romantic mystique of rural revolt. The speed with which the term ‘"maquis"’ spread was astonishing, since the concept did not exist in January 1943. By June, maquis discourse made its way from south-eastern France to the plains of northern France. The Maquis eventually became the national service, due to the large influx of young