In 1944 Paris, where No Exit was first performed in May, the city was under Nazi occupation, and had been since June of 1940. The country's (Vichy) government was under the control of the German military and hand-picked French officials. Curfews determined when people could leave their homes, and Jews were persecuted and ultimately sent to concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of Parisians left the city because of the occupation; food was scarce, and all media was controlled to disseminate Nazi propaganda.

The Resistance movement coexisted with the occupiers, and its operatives came from all walks of French life to undermine the Germans in many ways, including acts of sabotage, spying, armed conflict, and helping Allied forces. Resistance members reviled the Vichy collaborators as disloyal cowards. It has been said that the occupation presented an existential threat to France itself as a nation and the French identity.

Jean-Paul Sartre was not especially active in the Resistance. His play opened during the occupation, and Nazi officials attended the premiere; it was not censored by German officials. Though some saw the play as a metaphor for the occupation of Paris, Sartre remained quiet on that subject until after the Liberation of Paris in August of 1944. Though he cannot accurately be called a collaborator, it would be an overstatement to describe him as a risk-taking Resistance member who pushed the envelope with the play.

Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit was performed in Paris in 1944 during the Nazi Occupation of World War II.  Because there were curfews imposed by the Germans, Sartre wrote his play in one act so that Parisians could meet this curfew.  Before the play could be performed, however, it had to meet the approval of the German censors who approved and then disapproved several times as they watched rehearsals.  Nevertheless, Sartre inserted subtle messages of resistance in his play that the Parisians greatly appreciated. However, critics were divided in their reviews, probably in order to prevent arousing suspicion by the Nazis.

No Exit became symbolic of the Resistance, an underground organization formed by the exiled general Charles de Gaulle who was in Great Britain. Members of the Resistance of occupied France aided Great Britain with military intelligence and by helping British pilots who were shot down escape France.  Those who worked with the Germans under the newly formed Vichy government were known as Collaborators; these are the pacifists to which Garcin alludes in the play.  Another element in Sartre's play that relates to the Nazi occupation is the ironic comments about the abundance of heat and light in the hellish room that Garcin, Estelle, and Inez occupy. Of course, the philosophy of Existentialism that is thematic to No Exit also appealed to the members of the Resistance in its emphasis on the necessity and responsibility of the individual's creating his own essence.