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
Denmark in World War II as part of a coherent long-term strategy to protect democracy in Denmark or Europe. In 2003 Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen characterised the cooperation as "morally unjustifiable," the only time a Danish leader had condemned the war-era leadership, even though Anders Fogh Rasmussen is seen using it as a justification for his own ambitions, in connection with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Denmark in World War II At the outset of World War II, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate, then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy