La Petite Pamplemousse: For All Those Who Fought For Their Country

As everyone should already know, today is Armistice Day (Veteran's Day back home, Remembrance Day in Great Britain). Here in France, today signifies the end of World War I on the Western Front. Over time and after the deuxième guerre mondiale (WWII), the symbolism of today has shifted from celebrating the end of a war to celebrating all those who have fought in the Armed Forces. Considering this, I decided to spend yesterday afternoon at the Centre D'Histoire de la Resistance et de la Deportation (Resistance Museum at the Historical Center here in Lyon). I wasn't expecting too much considering the cheap fee (2 euros for students), but I ended up spending three hours soaking up historical information I never learned about in my AP History classes. Below are a few facts I decided were worth sharing:

75,000 were deported from France and 11,000 of them were children.
3 out of 4 French Jews escaped deportation to concentration camps.
27,000 resistant fighters were killed.
Vénnssieux had a "camp de rassemlement avant déportation." In other words, the Jews would be gathered and kept there until there was more room in the large concentration camps. This was quite shocking to read considering I work right next to this town.
Catholics supported Pètain because they believed he would give them more jobs.
The soldiers in Afrika Korps did not have French citizenship despite their help in the war. (These are the soldiers fighting in Libya versus the Germans and Italians).
The Air Force bombed Lyon on May 26th, 1944.
The Germans burnt and destroyed all of the bridges in Lyon on their way out. What a pain in the neck with the two rivers!
The museum was the Gestapo headquarters during WWII. What a wave of chills I got when I read that (and saw the burnt wall pictured below).
The Resistance in France was made up of numerous groups. A large majority of the groups were stationed in Lyon. Most did not know that they were all working against the Nazis in the same city.

1/3 of the Resistance consisted of men and women under 30 years old
1/3 were 30-45 years old.
The Lorraine Cross signified one of the main groups (Forces Francaises Libres or Free French Forces). Resistance fighters would mark this around town to express their loyalty to Free France.
September 8th, 1943 Italy surrendered ultimately and then less than a month later declared war on Germany (on October 13th). Pretty hilarious in my opinion.
On September 3rd, 1944, Lyon was liberated after having been occupied by German forces since November 1942.
The first concentration camps opened in March 1933 at Oranienburg and Dachau. They were first used as a training camp for future Nazis.
On December 11th 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA. I don't remember learning this in school, just when we declared war on Japan. I found it very interesting to read from a different historical perspective and this really caught my eye for some reason.
Four young French men crossed the English Channel by canoe to join the Resistance and meet De Gaulle for further information.
There were a lot of bad ass women who were in charge of transporting weapons between Resistance figures and bases, hiding Jewish children, and writing political articles for the newspapers.