What is partisan?

What Does partisan Mean

The Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), in its dictionary, indicates that partisan is synonymous with guerrilla fighter . The concept, therefore, refers to who is part of a guerrilla : a group of combatants who do not depend directly on an army and who are dedicated to facing an enemy.

Beyond this formal or academic definition, the term is not usually used to refer to any type of guerrilla. The notion of partisan is generally used to name someone who faces an occupying army . More specifically, the idea is associated with members of clandestine groups that, within the framework of World War II , formed the resistance against Nazism and its allies .

Take the case of the partisan Jews . These individuals met in irregular troops that fought against the Nazis in different regions of the European continent. It is estimated that there were more than 20,000 partisan Jews, many of them escaped from concentration camps and ghettos .
The Yugoslav Partisans , meanwhile, opposed the forces of Germany , Italy and Japan in the region of the Balkans . Led by Josip Broz (better known as Marshal Tito ), they were integrated into the so-called People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia .
In Italy also acted numerous partisans. This resistance faced fascism and Nazism and remained active between 1943 (after the Nazi invasion of Italy took place ) and 1945 (when the German surrender took place).
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ), Albania and France were other countries that, during World War II , saw partisans in action.