Vichy France

French State État français (French)
1940–1944[1]
Flag Cartouche
Motto: " Travail, Famille, Patrie" ("Work, Family, Fatherland")
Anthem:  "La Marseillaise" (official) "Maréchal, nous voilà !" (unofficial)[2] ("Marshal, here we are!")
The French State in 1942:   Unoccupied zone   German military occupation zone   French protectorates
The gradual loss of all Vichy territory to Free France and the Allied powers
Status	Independent state under partial occupation (1940–1942) Fully occupied by Germany (1942–1944) Government-in-exile (1944–1945)
Capital	Vichy (de facto administrative) Paris (constitutional)
Capital-in-exile	authoritarian dictatorship
Chief of State
• 1940–1944	Philippe Pétain
Prime Minister
• 1940–1942	Philippe Pétain
• 1940 (acting)	Pierre Laval
• 1940–1941 (acting)	P.É. Flandin
• 1941–1942 (acting)	François Darlan
• 1942–1944	Pierre Laval
Legislature	German retreat	Summer 1944
• Vichy laws repealed	9 August 1944[1]
• Capture of the Sigmaringen enclave	22 April 1945
Currency	French franc
Preceded by Succeeded by French Third Republic 1940: German military administration 1942: German military administration Italian military administration 1944: French Government Commission for the Defense of National Interests Provisional Government of the French Republic
Paris remained the de jure capital of the French State, although the Vichy government never operated from there. Although the French Republic's institutions were officially maintained, the word "Republic" never occurred in any official document of the Vichy government.

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Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State (État français), was the French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under the harsh terms of the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone" (zone libre), where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies.^[3] The occupation of France by Nazi Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country, but in November 1942 the Germans and Italians occupied the remainder of Metropolitan France, ending any pretence of independence by the Vichy government.

The

At Vichy, Pétain established an authoritarian government that reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy. Conservative Catholics became prominent, and Paris lost its avant-garde status in European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and promoted antisemitism and, after Operation Barbarossa started in June 1941, anti-Sovietism. The terms of the armistice allowed some degree of independence and neutrality to the Vichy government, such as keeping the French Navy and French colonial empire under French control and avoiding full occupation of the country by Germany. Despite heavy pressure, the Vichy government never joined the Axis powers and even remained formally at war with Germany. In practice, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime.

Germany kept

Most of the French public initially supported the regime, but opinion turned against the Vichy government and the occupying German forces as the war dragged on and living conditions in France worsened. Open opposition intensified as it became clear that Germany was losing the war. The French Resistance, working largely in concert with the London-based Free France movement, increased in strength over the course of the occupation. After the liberation of France began in 1944, the Free French Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) was installed as the new national government, led by Charles de Gaulle.

The last of the Vichy exiles were captured in the Sigmaringen enclave in April 1945. Pétain was put on trial for treason by the new Provisional Government, and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle. Only four senior Vichy officials were tried for crimes against humanity, although many had participated in the deportation of Jews, abuses of prisoners, and severe acts against members of the Resistance.

Overview

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In 1940, Marshal

After the

The Nazis had some intention of annexing a large swath of northeastern France, replacing that region's inhabitants with German settlers, and initially forbade French refugees from returning to the region, but the restrictions were never thoroughly enforced and were basically abandoned following the invasion of the Soviet Union, which had the effect of turning German territorial ambitions almost exclusively to the East. German troops guarding the boundary line of the northeastern Zone interdite were withdrawn on the night of 17–18 December 1941, but the line remained in place on paper for the remainder of the occupation.^[8]

Nevertheless, effectively Alsace-Lorraine was annexed: German law applied to the region, its inhabitants were conscripted into the Wehrmacht^[9] and pointedly the customs posts separating France from Germany were placed back where they had been between 1871 and 1918. Similarly, a sliver of French territory in the Alps was under direct Italian administration from June 1940 to September 1943. Throughout the rest of the country, civil servants were under the formal authority of French ministers in Vichy.^{[citation needed]} René Bousquet, the head of French police nominated by Vichy, exercised his power in Paris through his second-in-command, Jean Leguay, who coordinated raids with the Nazis. German laws took precedence over French laws in the occupied territories, and the Germans often rode roughshod over the sensibilities of Vichy administrators.

On 11 November 1942, following the landing of the Allies in North Africa (Operation Torch), the Axis launched Operation Anton, occupying southern France and disbanding the strictly limited "Armistice Army" that Vichy had been allowed by the armistice.

Legitimacy

Vichy's claim to be the legitimate French government was denied by Free France and by all subsequent French governments

The Vichy regime sought an anti-modern

The Vichy government tried to assert its legitimacy by symbolically connecting itself with the

To advance his message, Pétain frequently spoke on French radio. In his radio speeches, Pétain always used the personal pronoun je (French for the English word "I"), portrayed himself as a Christ-like figure sacrificing himself for France and assuming a God-like tone of a semi-omniscient narrator who knew truths about the world that the rest of the French did not.^[23] To justify the Vichy ideology of the Révolution nationale ("national revolution"), Pétain needed a radical break with the French Third Republic. During his radio speeches, the entire French Third Republic era was always painted in the blackest of colours as a time of décadence ("decadence") when the French people were alleged to have suffered moral degeneration and decline.^[24]

Summarising Pétain's speeches, the British historian Christopher Flood wrote that Pétain blamed la décadence on "political and economic liberalism, with its divisive,

France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 after the

While the debate continued, the government was forced to relocate several times to avoid capture by advancing German forces and finally reached Bordeaux. Communications were poor and thousands of civilian refugees clogged the roads. In those chaotic conditions, advocates of an armistice gained the upper hand. The Cabinet agreed on a proposal to seek armistice terms from Germany with the understanding that if Germany set forth dishonourable or excessively-harsh terms, France would retain the option to continue to fight. General Charles Huntziger, who headed the French armistice delegation, was told to break off negotiations if the Germans demanded the occupation of all of Metropolitan France, the French fleet, or any of the French overseas territories. The Germans did not, however, make any of those demands.^[45]

Prime Minister Reynaud favoured continuing the war but was soon outvoted by those who advocated an armistice. Facing an untenable situation, Reynaud resigned and, on his recommendation, President

Adolf Hitler had a number of reasons for agreeing to an armistice. He wanted to ensure that France did not continue to fight from North Africa and that the French Navy was taken out of the war. In addition, leaving a French government in place would relieve Germany of the considerable burden of administering French territory, particularly as Hitler turned his attention toward Britain, which did not surrender and fought on against Germany. Finally, as Germany lacked a navy sufficient to occupy France's overseas territories, Hitler's only practical recourse to deny the British the use of those territories was to maintain France's status as a de jure independent and neutral nation and to send a message to Britain that it was alone, with France appearing to switch sides and the United States remaining neutral. However, German espionage against France after its defeat intensified greatly, particularly in southern France.^[46]

Conditions of armistice

As per the terms of the Franco-German armistice of June 22, 1940, Nazi Germany effectively annexed the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine while the German army occupied northern metropolitan France and all the Atlantic coastline down to the border with Spain.^[47] That left the rest of France, including the remaining two-fifths of southern and eastern metropolitan France and Overseas France North Africa, unoccupied, and under the control of a collaborationist French government based at the city of Vichy, and headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain. Ostensibly, the Vichy French government administered the whole of France (excluding Alsace-Lorraine), including Overseas Vichy France-North Africa.

Prisoners

Germany took two million French soldiers as prisoners-of-war and sent them to camps in Germany. About a third had been released on various terms by 1944. Of the remainder, the officers and NCOs (corporals and sergeants) were kept in camps but were exempt from forced labour. The privates were first sent to "Stalag" camps for processing and were then put to work. About half of them worked in German agriculture, where food rations were adequate and controls were lenient. The others worked in factories or mines, where conditions were much harsher.^[48]

Armistice Army

The Germans occupied northern France directly. The French had to pay costs for the 300,000-strong German occupation army, amounting to 20 million Reichsmarks per day, at the artificial rate of twenty Francs to the Reichsmark^{[citation needed]}. That was 50 times the actual costs of the occupation garrison^{[citation needed]}. The French government also had responsibility for preventing French citizens from escaping into exile.

Article IV of the Armistice allowed for a small French army – the Armistice Army (Armée de l'Armistice) – stationed in the unoccupied zone, and for the military provision of the French colonial empire overseas. The function of those forces was to keep internal order and to defend French territories from Allied assault. The French forces were to remain under the overall direction of the German armed forces.

The exact strength of the Vichy French Metropolitan Army was set at 3,768 officers, 15,072 non-commissioned officers, and 75,360 men. All members had to be volunteers. In addition to the army, the size of the Gendarmerie was fixed at 60,000 men plus an anti-aircraft force of 10,000 men. Despite the influx of trained soldiers from the colonial forces (reduced in size in accordance with the armistice), there was a shortage of volunteers. As a result, 30,000 men of the class of 1939 were retained to fill the quota. In early 1942 those conscripts were released, but there were still not enough men. That shortage remained until the regime's dissolution, despite Vichy appeals to the Germans for a regular form of conscription.

The Vichy French Metropolitan Army was deprived of tanks and other armoured vehicles and was desperately short of motorised transport, a particular problem for cavalry units. Surviving recruiting posters stress the opportunities for athletic activities, including horsemanship, reflecting both the general emphasis placed by the Vichy government on rural virtues and outdoor activities and the realities of service in a small and technologically backward military force. Traditional features characteristic of the pre-1940 French Army, such as kepis and heavy capotes (buttoned-back greatcoats) were replaced by berets and simplified uniforms.

The Vichy authorities did not deploy the Army of the Armistice against resistance groups active in the south of France, reserving that role to the Vichy Milice (militia), a paramilitary force created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy government to combat the Resistance.^[50] Members of the regular army could thus defect to the Maquis after the German occupation of southern France and the disbandment of the Army of the Armistice in November 1942. By contrast, the Milice continued to collaborate, and its members were subject to reprisals after the Liberation.

Vichy French colonial forces were reduced in accordance with the terms of the armistice, but in the Mediterranean area alone, Vichy still had nearly 150,000 men under arms. There were about 55,000 in

German custody

The Armistice required France to turn over any German citizens within the country upon German demand. The French regarded this as a "dishonorable" term since it would require France to hand over persons who had entered France seeking refuge from Germany. Attempts to negotiate the point with Germany proved unsuccessful, and the French decided not to press the issue to the point of refusing the Armistice.

10 July 1940 vote of full powers

On 10 July 1940, the

Out of a total of 544 Deputies, only 414 voted; and out of a total of 302 senators, only 235 voted. Of these, 357 deputies voted in favour of Pétain and 57 against, while 212 senators voted for Pétain, and 23 against. Thus, Pétain was approved by 65% of all deputies and 70% of all senators. Although Pétain could claim legality for himself, particularly in comparison with the essentially self-appointed leadership of Charles de Gaulle, the dubious circumstances of the vote explain why most French historians do not consider Vichy a complete continuity of the French state.[56]

The text voted by the Congress stated:

The National Assembly gives full powers to the government of the Republic, under the authority and the signature of Marshal Pétain, to the effect of promulgating by one or several acts a new constitution of the French state. This constitution must guarantee the rights of labour, of family and of the homeland. It will be ratified by the nation and applied by the assemblies which it has created.^[57]

The Constitutional Acts of 11 and 12 July 1940

There were five governments during the tenure of the Vichy regime, starting with the continuation of Pétain's position from the Third Republic, which dissolved itself and handed him full powers, leaving Pétain in absolute control of the new, "French State" as Pétain named it. Pierre Laval formed the first government in 1940. The second government was formed by Pierre-Étienne Flandin, and lasted just two months until February 1941. François Darlan was then head of government until April 1942, followed by Pierre Laval again until August 1944. The Vichy government fled into exile in Sigmaringen in September 1944.

Foreign relations

Vichy France in 1940–1942 was recognised by most

The US position towards Vichy France and de Gaulle was especially hesitant and inconsistent. Roosevelt disliked de Gaulle and regarded him as an "apprentice dictator".[64] The Americans first tried to support General Maxime Weygand, general delegate of Vichy for Africa until December 1941. After the first choice had failed, they turned to Henri Giraud shortly before the landing in North Africa on 8 November 1942. Finally, after Admiral François Darlan's turn towards the Free Forces (he had been prime minister from February 1941 to April 1942) they played him against de Gaulle.^[64]

US General

Moscow maintained full diplomatic relations with the Vichy government until 30 June 1941, when they were broken by Vichy expressing support for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In response to British requests and sensitivities of the French-Canadian population, Canada, despite being at war with the Axis since 1939, maintained full diplomatic relations with the Vichy regime until early November 1942, when Case Anton led to the complete occupation of Vichy France by the Germans.^[65]

The British feared that the French naval fleet could end up in German hands and be used against its own naval forces, which were so vital to maintaining North Atlantic shipping and communications. Under the armistice, France had been allowed to retain the

Switzerland and other neutral states maintained diplomatic relations with the Vichy regime until the liberation of France in 1944, when Pétain resigned and was deported to Germany for the creation of a forced government-in-exile.^[67]

French Indochina, Japan and Franco-Thai War

To counter the Vichy government, General Charles de Gaulle created the

In Wallis and Futuna, the local administrator and bishop sided with Vichy but faced opposition from some of the population and clergy; their attempts at naming a local king in 1941 to buffer the territory from their opponents backfired as the newly elected king refused to declare allegiance to Pétain. The situation stagnated for a long while due to the remoteness of the islands and because no overseas ship visited the islands for 17 months after January 1941. An aviso sent from Nouméa took over Wallis on behalf of the Free French on 27 May 1942 and Futuna on 29 May 1942. That allowed American forces to build an airbase and seaplane base on Wallis (Navy 207) that served the Allied Pacific operations.^[78]

Americas

A Vichy France plan to have Western Union build powerful transmitters on Saint Pierre and Miquelon in 1941 to enable private trans-Atlantic communications was blocked after pressure by Roosevelt. On 24 December 1941 Free French forces on three corvettes, supported by a submarine landed and seized control of Saint Pierre and Miquelon on orders from Charles de Gaulle without reference to any of the Allied commanders.^[79]

French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, removed its Vichy-supporting government on 22 March 1943,^[80] shortly after eight allied ships had been sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Guiana,^[81] and the arrival of American troops by air on 20 March.^[80]

Martinique became home to the bulk of the Gold reserve of the Bank of France, with 286 tons of gold transported there on the French cruiser Émile Bertin in June 1940. The island was blockaded by the British navy until an agreement was reached to immobilise French ships in port. The British used the gold as collateral for Lend-Lease facilities from the Americans on the basis that it could be "acquired" at any time if needed.^[79] In July 1943, Free French sympathisers on the island took control of the gold and the fleet once Admiral Georges Robert departed following a threat by America to launch a full-scale invasion.^[80]

Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, also changed allegiance in 1943 after Admiral Georges Robert ordered police to fire on protestors,^[82] before he fled back to Europe.

Equatorial and West Africa

In Central Africa, three of the four colonies in

On 23 September 1940, the

One colony in French Equatorial Africa, Gabon, had to be occupied by military force between 27 October and 12 November 1940.^[83] On 8 November 1940, Free French forces under the command of de Gaulle and Marie-Pierre Kœnig, along with the assistance of the Royal Navy, invaded Vichy-held Gabon. The capital, Libreville, was bombed and captured. The final Vichy troops in Gabon surrendered without any military confrontation with the Allies at Port-Gentil.

French Somaliland

The governor of French Somaliland (now

In March 1941, the British enforcement of a strict contraband regime to prevent supplies being passed on to the Italians, lost its point after the conquest of

Wavell considered that if British pressure was applied, a rally would appear to have been coerced. Wavell preferred to let the propaganda continue and provided a small amount of supplies under strict control. When the policy had no effect, Wavell suggested negotiations with Vichy governor Louis Nouailhetas to use the port and railway. The suggestion was accepted by the British government but because of the concessions granted to the Vichy regime in Syria, proposals were made to invade the colony instead. In June, Nouailhetas was given an ultimatum, the blockade was tightened and the Italian garrison at Assab was defeated by an operation from Aden. For six months, Nouailhetas remained willing to grant concessions over the port and railway but would not tolerate Free French interference. In October, the blockade was reviewed, but the beginning of the war against Japan in December led to all but two blockade ships being withdrawn. On 2 January 1942, the Vichy government offered the use of the port and railway, subject to the lifting of the blockade but the British refused and ended the blockade unilaterally in March.[88]

Syria and Madagascar

The next flashpoint between Britain and Vichy France came when a

From 5 May to 6 November 1942, British and Commonwealth forces conducted Operation Ironclad, known as the Battle of Madagascar, the seizure of the large, Vichy French-controlled island of Madagascar, which the British feared Japanese forces might use as a base to disrupt trade and communications in the Indian Ocean. The initial landing at Diégo-Suarez was relatively quick, though it took British forces a further six months to gain control of the entire island.^{[citation needed]}

French North Africa

Operation Torch was the American and British invasion of French North Africa (

Vichy is often described as a German puppet state, although it has also been argued it had an agenda of its own.^[92][93]

Historians distinguish between state collaboration followed by the Vichy regime, and "collaborationists", who were private French citizens eager to collaborate with Germany and who pushed towards a radicalisation of the regime. Pétainistes, on the other hand, were direct supporters of Marshal Pétain rather than of Germany (although they accepted Pétain's state collaboration). State collaboration was sealed by the

Germany interfered little in internal French affairs for the first two years after the armistice, as long as public order was maintained.

Suspicions had been raised amongst prefects and police officials by the Vichy Minister of Interior as to the intentions of the men working within the camps. Many were suspected of retaining ties to anti-fascist groups as well as the burgeoning maquis and resistance groups, in particular in the southern departments. The Vichy Minister of Interior wrote in 1942; "I am advised that the Travailleurs Étrangers...continue to be mobilization centres on behalf of the revolution. The responsible leaders of the communist activities have been recruiting among the Spanish Republicans...who, during the civil war in their own country, showed that they are capable of furnishing the core of an insurrectionary army".[104]

Besides the political prisoners already detained there, Gurs was then used to intern foreign Jews,

Vichy also enacted racial laws in its territories in North Africa. "The history of the Holocaust in France's three North African colonies (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) is intrinsically tied to France's fate during this period."[109]^{[110][111][112][113]}

With regard to economic contribution to the German economy, it is estimated that France provided 42% of the total foreign aid.^[114]

Eugenics policies

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In 1941, Nobel Prize winner Alexis Carrel, an early proponent of eugenics and euthanasia, and a member of Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party (PPF),^{[citation needed]} advocated for the creation of the French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems (Fondation Française pour l'Étude des Problèmes Humains), using connections to the Pétain cabinet. Charged with the "study, in all of its aspects, of measures aimed at safeguarding, improving and developing the French population in all of its activities", the Foundation was created by decree of the collaborationist Vichy regime in 1941, and Carrel was appointed as "regent".^[115] The Foundation also had for some time as general secretary François Perroux.^{[citation needed]}

The Foundation was behind the 16 December 1942 Act mandating the "

The German government has taken energetic measures against the propagation of the defective, the mentally diseased, and the criminal. The ideal solution would be the suppression of each of these individuals as soon as he has proven himself to be dangerous.[118]

Carrel also wrote this in his book:

The conditioning of petty criminals with the whip, or some more scientific procedure, followed by a short stay in hospital, would probably suffice to ensure order. Those who have murdered, robbed while armed with automatic pistol or machine gun, kidnapped children, despoiled the poor of their savings, misled the public in important matters, should be humanely and economically disposed of in small euthanasic institutions supplied with proper gasses. A similar treatment could be advantageously applied to the insane, guilty of criminal acts.^[119]

Alexis Carrel had also taken an active part to a symposium in Pontigny organised by Jean Coutrot, the "Entretiens de Pontigny".^{[citation needed]} Scholars such as Lucien Bonnafé, Patrick Tort, and Max Lafont have accused Carrel of responsibility for the execution of thousands of mentally ill or impaired patients under Vichy.^[116]

Antisemitic laws

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A Nazi ordinance dated 21 September 1940 forced Jews of the occupied zone to declare themselves as such at a police station or

July 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup

Main article: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup

In July 1942, under German orders, the French police organised the

Verfügungstruppe) had directed the action, French police authorities vigorously participated. "There was no effective police resistance until the end of Spring of 1944", wrote historians Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus.^[124]

August 1942 and January 1943 raids

Further information: Marseille roundup

The French police, headed by Bousquet, arrested 7,000 Jews in the southern zone in August 1942. 2,500 of them transited through the

Proportionally, either number makes for a lower death toll than in some other countries (in the Netherlands, 75% of the Jewish population was murdered).[128] This fact has been used as arguments by supporters of Vichy; according to Paxton, the figure would have been greatly lower if the "French state" had not willfully collaborated with Germany, which lacked staff for police activities. During the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of July 1942, Laval ordered the deportation of children, against explicit German orders. Paxton pointed out that if the total number of victims had not been higher, it was due to the shortage in wagons, the resistance of the civilian population, and deportation in other countries (notably in Italy).^[128]

Government responsibility

For decades, the French government argued that the

The first official admission that the French State had been complicit in the deportation of 76,000 Jews during WW II was made in 1995 by then President Jacques Chirac, at the site of the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where 13,000 Jews had been rounded up for deportation to death camps in July 1942. "France, on that day [16 July 1942], committed the irreparable. Breaking its word, it handed those who were under its protection over to their executioners," he said. Those responsible for the roundup were "450 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders [who] obeyed the demands of the Nazis..... the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state".^{[133][134][135]}

On 16 July 2017, also at a ceremony at the Vel' d'Hiv site, President Emmanuel Macron denounced the country's role in the Holocaust in France and the historical revisionism that denied France's responsibility for the 1942 roundup and subsequent deportation of 13,000 Jews. "It was indeed France that organised this," Macron insisted, French police collaborating with the Nazis. "Not a single German" was directly involved," he added. Macron was even more specific than Chirac had been in stating that the Government during the War was certainly that of France. "It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness. Yes, it's convenient, but it is false. We cannot build pride upon a lie."^[136][137]

Macron made a subtle reference to Chirac's remark when he added, "I say it again here. It was indeed France that organized the roundup, the deportation, and thus, for almost all, death."^[138][139]

Collaborationnistes

Collaborationnisme (English: collaborationism) should be distinguished from collaboration. Collaborationism refers to those, primarily from the fascist right, who embraced the goal of a German victory as their own,[141]^[142] whereas collaboration refers to those of the French who for whatever reason collaborated with the Germans. Organizations such as La Cagoule opposed the Third Republic, particularly while the left-wing Popular Front was in power.^{[citation needed]}

Collaborationists may have influenced the Vichy government's policies, but ultra-collaborationists never comprised the majority of the government before 1944.^[143]

To enforce the régime's will, some paramilitary organisations were created. One example was the

Vichy authorities strongly opposed "modern" social trends and tried "national regeneration" to restore behaviour more in line with traditional Catholicism. Philip Manow argued that, "Vichy represents the authoritarian, antidemocratic solution that the French political right, in coalition with the national Church hierarchy, had sought repeatedly during the interwar period and almost put in place in 1934".^[144] Calling for "National Regeneration", Vichy reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy, with central planning as a key feature.^[18]

Labour unions came under tight government control. There were no elections. The independence of women was reversed, with an emphasis put on motherhood. Government agencies had to fire married women employees.^{[citation needed]} Conservative Catholics became prominent. Paris lost its avant-garde status in European art and culture.^[145] The media were tightly controlled and stressed virulent anti-Semitism and, after June 1941, anti-Bolshevism.^[18] Hans Petter Graver wrote that Vichy "is notorious for its enactment of anti-Semitic laws and decrees, and these were all loyally enforced by the judiciary".^[146]

Economy

Vichy rhetoric exalted the skilled labourer and small businessman. In practice, the needs of artisans for raw materials were neglected in favour of big businesses.^[147] The General Committee for the Organization of Commerce (CGOC) was a national program to modernise and professionalise small business.^[148] In 1941 it also instituted the mobilization of non-ferrous metals under the cover of supporting French agriculture but in fact to support flagging German armament production.

In 1940, the government took direct control of all production, which was synchronised with German demands. It replaced free trade unions with compulsory state unions that dictated labour policy without regard to the voice or needs of the workers. The centralised bureaucratic control of the French economy was not a success, as German demands grew heavier and more unrealistic, passive resistance and inefficiencies multiplied and Allied bombers hit the rail yards. Vichy made the first comprehensive long-range plans for the French economy, but the government had never attempted a comprehensive overview. De Gaulle's provisional government in 1944–45 quietly used the Vichy plans as a base for its own reconstruction program. The Monnet Plan of 1946 reaped the heritage of previous efforts at planning in the 1930s, Vichy, the Resistance, and the Provisional Government.^[149] Monnet's plan to modernize the economy was designed to improve the country's competitive position so as to prepare it for participation in an open multilateral system and, thereby, to reduce the need for trade protection.^[150]

Forced labour

Nazi Germany kept French prisoners-of-war as forced labourers throughout the war. They added compulsory and volunteer workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The shortage of volunteers led the Vichy government to pass a law in September 1942 that effectively deported workers to Germany, where they were 15% of the labour force by August 1944. The largest number worked in the giant Krupp steel works in Essen. Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasant conditions of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline. The workers finally returned home in the summer of 1945.^[151] The forced labour draft encouraged the French Resistance and undermined the Vichy government.^[152]

Food shortages

Civilians suffered shortages of all varieties of consumer goods.^[153] The rationing system was stringent and badly mismanaged, leading to malnourishment, black markets and hostility to state management of the food supply. The Germans seized about 20% of the French food production, causing severe disruption to the French household economy.^[154] French farm production fell by half because of lack of fuel, fertiliser and workers. Even so, the Germans seized half the meat, 20% of the produce and 2% of the champagne.^[155] Supply problems quickly affected French stores, which lacked most items. The government answered by rationing, but German officials set the policies, and hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops.

Some people, including German soldiers, benefited from the black market, where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Farmers especially diverted meat to the black market and so there was much less for the open market. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and barter against cigarettes became common although those activities were strictly forbidden and thus carried the risk of confiscation and fines.

Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. In the more remote country villages, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products permitted better survival. The official ration provided starvation level diets of 1013 or fewer calories a day, supplemented by home gardens and especially black market purchases.^[156]

Women

The two million French soldiers held as prisoners-of-war and forced labourers in Germany throughout the war were not at risk of death in combat, but the anxieties of separation for their 800,000 wives were high. The government provided a modest allowance, but one in ten became prostitutes to support their families.^[157]

Meanwhile, the Vichy regime promoted a highly-traditional model of female roles.^[158] The National Revolution's official ideology fostered the patriarchal family, headed by a man with a subservient wife, who was devoted to her many children. It gave women a key symbolic role to carry out the national regeneration and used propaganda, women's organisations and legislation to promote maternity; patriotic duty and female submission to marriage, home and children's education.^[153] The falling birth rate appeared to be a grave problem to Vichy, which introduced family allowances and opposed birth control and abortion. Conditions were very difficult for housewives, as food was short as well as most necessities.^[159] Mother's Day became a major date in the Vichy calendar, with festivities in the towns and schools featuring the award of medals to mothers of numerous children. Divorce laws were made much more stringent, and restrictions were placed on the employment of married women. Family allowances, which had begun in the 1930s, were continued and became a vital lifeline for many families as a monthly cash bonus for having more children. In 1942, the birth rate started to rise, and by 1945, it was higher than it had been for a century.^[160]

On the other side, women of the Resistance, many of whom were associated with combat groups linked to the French Communist Party, broke the gender barrier by fighting side by side with men. After the war, this was considered to have been a mistake, but France did give women the vote in 1944.^[161]

German invasion, November 1942

Hitler ordered Case Anton to occupy Corsica and then the rest of the unoccupied southern zone in immediate reaction to the landing of the Allies in North Africa (Operation Torch) on 8 November 1942. Following the conclusion of the operation on 12 November, Vichy's remaining military forces were disbanded. Vichy continued to exercise its remaining jurisdiction over almost all of metropolitan France, with the residual power devolved into the hands of Laval, until the gradual collapse of the regime following the Allied invasion in June 1944. On 7 September 1944, following the Allied invasion of France, the remainders of the Vichy government cabinet fled to Germany and established a puppet government in exile in the so-called Sigmaringen enclave. That rump government finally fell when the city was taken by the Allied French army in April 1945.

Part of the residual legitimacy of the Vichy regime resulted from the continued ambivalence of U.S. and other leaders. President Roosevelt continued to cultivate Vichy, and promoted General

.

Sigmaringen commission

Main article: Sigmaringen enclave

Following the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944, Pétain and his ministers were taken to Sigmaringen by the German forces. After both Pétain and Laval refused to cooperate, Fernand de Brinon was selected by the Germans to establish a pseudo-government in exile at Sigmaringen. Pétain refused to participate further and the Sigmaringen operation had little to no authority. The offices used the official title "French Government Commission for the Defense of National Interests" (French: Commission gouvernementale française pour la défense des intérêts nationaux) and informally was known as the "French Delegation" (French: Délégation française). The enclave had its own radio station (Radio-patrie, Ici la France) and official press (La France, Le Petit Parisien), and hosted the embassies of Axis powers Germany and Japan, as well as an Italian consulate. The population of the enclave was about 6,000, including known collaborationist journalists, the writers Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Lucien Rebatet, the actor Robert Le Vigan, and their families, as well as 500 soldiers, 700 French SS, prisoners of war and French civilian forced labourers.^[162]

The Commission lasted for seven months, surviving Allied bombing runs, poor nutrition and housing, and a bitterly cold winter where temperatures plunged to −30 °C (−22 °F), while residents nervously watched the advancing Allied troops drawing closer and discussed rumors.^[163]

On 21 April 1945

General de Lattre ordered his forces to take Sigmaringen. The end came within days, and by the 26th, Pétain was in the hands of French authorities in Switzerland while Laval had fled to Spain.^[164][165] Brinon,^[166]

Luchaire, and Darnand were captured, tried, and executed by 1947. Other members escaped to Italy or Spain.

Aftermath

Provisional government

Main article: Provisional Government of the French Republic

The Free French, concerned that the Allies might decide to put France under administration of the

Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories, strove to establish the Provisional Government of the French Republic

quickly. The first action of the Provisional Government was to reestablish republican legality throughout Metropolitan France.

The provisional government considered the Vichy government to have been unconstitutional and all of its actions therefore without legitimate authority. All "constitutional acts, legislative or regulatory" taken by the Vichy government, as well as decrees taken to implement them, were declared null and void by the

Freemasons), and all acts that established special tribunals.^[167]

Collaborationist paramilitary and political organisations, such as the Milice and the Service d'ordre légionnaire, were also dissolved.^[167]

The Provisional Government also took steps to replace local governments, including governments that had been suppressed by the Vichy regime through new elections or by extending the terms of those who had been elected not later than 1939.^[168]

Purges

Further information: Pursuit of Nazi collaborators and Épuration légale

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After the liberation, France was swept for a short period with a wave of executions of collaborationists. Some were brought to the

Vélodrome d'hiver, Fresnes prison or the Drancy internment camp. Women who were suspected of having romantic liaisons with Germans or more often^{[citation needed]} of being prostitutes who had entertained German customers were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved. Those who had engaged in the black market were also stigmatised as "war profiteers" (profiteurs de guerre), and popularly called "BOF" (Beurre Oeuf Fromage, or Butter Eggs Cheese, because of the products sold at outrageous prices during the Occupation). The Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF, 1944–46) quickly reestablished order, and brought collaborationists before the courts. Many convicted collaborationists were then given amnesty under the Fourth Republic

(1946–54).

Four different periods are distinguished by historians:

• the first phase of popular convictions (épuration sauvage – wild purge): extrajudicial executions and shaving of women's heads. Estimations by
  police prefects
  made in 1948 and 1952 counted as many as 6,000 executions before the Liberation and 4,000 afterward.
• the second phase (épuration légale or legal purge), which began with Charles de Gaulle's 26 and 27 June 1944 purge ordonnances (de Gaulle's first ordonnance instituting purge Commissions was enacted on 18 August 1943): judgments of collaborationists by the Commissions d'épuration, who condemned approximately 120,000 persons (e.g. Charles Maurras, the leader of the royalist Action Française, was thus condemned to a life sentence on 25 January 1945), including 1,500 death sentences (Joseph Darnand, head of the Milice, and Pierre Laval, head of the French government, were executed after trial on 4 October 1945, Robert Brasillach, executed on 6 February 1945, etc.), but many of those who survived that phase were later given amnesty.
• the third phase, more lenient towards collaborationists (the trial of Philippe Pétain or of writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline).
• finally came the period for amnesty and
  graces (such as Jean-Pierre Esteva, Xavier Vallat
  , creator of the General Commission for Jewish Affairs, René Bousquet, head of French police)

Other historians have distinguished the purges against intellectuals (Brasillach, Céline, etc.), industrialists, fighters (LVF etc.) and civil servants (Papon etc.).

Philippe Pétain was charged with treason in July 1945. He was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad, but Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. In the police, some collaborators soon resumed official responsibilities. This continuity of the administration was pointed out,^{[citation needed]} in particular concerning the events of the Paris massacre of 1961, executed under the orders of Paris Police Chief Maurice Papon while Charles de Gaulle was head of state. Papon was tried and convicted for crimes against humanity in 1998.

The French members of the Waffen-SS

Foreign Legion instead of prison.^{[citation needed}

]

Among artists, singer

Pierre Benoit and Arletty

were also detained.

Executions without trials and other forms of "popular justice" were harshly criticised immediately after the war, with circles close to Pétainists advancing the figures of 100,000 and denouncing the "Red Terror", "anarchy", or "blind vengeance". The writer and Jewish internee Robert Aron estimated the popular executions to a number of 40,000 in 1960. This surprised de Gaulle, who estimated the number to be around 10,000, which is also the figure accepted today by mainstream historians. Approximately 9,000 of these 10,000 refer to summary executions in the whole of the country, which occurred during battle.^{[citation needed]}

Some imply that France did too little to deal with collaborators at this stage by selectively pointing out that in absolute value (numbers), there were fewer legal executions in France than in its smaller neighbour Belgium, and fewer internments than in Norway or the Netherlands^{[citation needed]}, but the situation in Belgium was not comparable as it mixed collaboration with elements of a war of secession. The 1940 invasion prompted the Flemish population to generally side with the Germans in the hope of gaining national recognition, and relative to national population, a much higher proportion of Belgians than French thus ended up collaborating with the Germans or volunteering to fight alongside them.^[169][170] The Walloon population, in turn, led massive anti-Flemish retribution after the war, some of which, such as the execution of Irma Swertvaeger Laplasse, were controversial.^[171]

The proportion of collaborators was also higher in Norway, and collaboration occurred on a larger scale in the Netherlands (as in Flanders), based partly on linguistic and cultural commonality with Germany. The internments in Norway and the Netherlands, meanwhile, were highly temporary and rather indiscriminate: there was a brief internment peak in these countries since internment was used partly for the purpose of separating collaborationists from others.^[172] Norway ended up executing only 37 collaborationists.

1980s trials

Some accused war criminals were judged, some for a second time, from the 1980s onwards:

OAS terrorist movement during the Algerian War (1954–62). Jacques de Bernonville escaped to Quebec, then Brazil. Jacques Ploncard d'Assac became counsellor to the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.^[173]

In 1993, former Vichy official René Bousquet was assassinated while he awaited prosecution in Paris following a 1991 inculpation for crimes against humanity. He had been prosecuted but partially acquitted and immediately amnestied in 1949.^[174] In 1994, former Vichy official Paul Touvier (1915–1996) was convicted of crimes against humanity. Maurice Papon was likewise convicted in 1998 but was released three years later due to ill health and died in 2007.^[175]

Historiographical debates and "Vichy syndrome"

Further information: Vichy syndrome

As the historian Henry Rousso put it in The Vichy Syndrome (1987), Vichy and the state collaboration of France remains a "past that doesn't pass away".^[176]

Historiographical debates are still passionate and oppose different views on the nature and legitimacy of Vichy's collaborationism with Germany in the implementation of the Holocaust. Three main periods have been distinguished in the historiography of Vichy. Firstly, the Gaullist period aimed at national reconciliation and unity under the figure of Charles de Gaulle, who conceived himself above political parties and divisions. Then, the 1960s had

Marcel Ophüls's film The Sorrow and the Pity (1971). Finally, in the 1990s, the trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in Bordeaux who had been in charge of the "Jewish Questions" during the war and was convicted after a very long trial (1981–1998) for crimes against humanity.^[177]

Though it is certain that the Vichy government and many of its top administration collaborated in the implementation of the Holocaust, the exact level of such co-operation is still debated. Compared with the Jewish communities established in other countries invaded by Germany, French Jews suffered proportionately lighter losses (see Jewish death toll section above), but in 1942, repression and deportations started to strike French Jews, not just foreign Jews.[108]

Notable figures

See also: Category:French collaborators with Nazi Germany

Pierre Pucheu in 1941, who was executed in 1944

Xavier Vallat

• René Bousquet, head of the French police.
• François Darlan, Prime Minister (1941–1942).
• Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, Commissioner for Jewish Affairs.
• Rassemblement national populaire
  (RNP) in 1941. Joined the government in the last months of the Occupation.
• Pierre-Étienne Flandin, Prime Minister (1940–1941).
• Philippe Henriot, State Secretary of Information and Propaganda.
• Gaston Henry-Haye, Vichy ambassador to the United States of America.
• Charles Huntziger, general and Minister of Defense.
• Pierre Laval, Prime Minister (1940, 1942–1944).
• Jean Leguay, delegate of Bousquet in the "free zone", charged with crimes against humanity for his role in the July 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.
• François Mitterrand, later President of the French Republic (1981–1995)
• Maurice Papon, head of the Jewish Questions Service in the prefecture of Bordeaux. Condemned for crimes against humanity in 1998.^[178]
• Philippe Pétain, Head of State.
• Pierre Pucheu, Minister of the Interior.
• Parti Populaire Français
  in Marseille.
• Paul Touvier, condemned in 1995 for crimes against humanity for his role as head of the Milice in Lyon.
• Xavier Vallat, Commissioner General for Jewish Questions.
• Maxime Weygand, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and Minister of Defense.

Non-Vichy collaborationists

• Pierre Bonny, also known as Pierre Bony.
• Robert Brasillach, writer, executed for collaboration after the war.
• Legion des volontaires francais contre le bolchevisme
  (LVF).
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline, writer.
• Mouvement social révolutionnaire
  in 1940.
• Parti Populaire Français
  (PPF) and member of the LVF.
• Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, writer.
• Henri Lafont
• Gaullist Service d'Action Civique
  (SAC) in the 1960s.
• Robert Le Vigan, actor.
• Charles Maurras, writer and founder of royalist movement Action Française.
• Lucien Rebatet, writer.
• Pierre Taittinger, chairman of the municipal council of Paris 1943–1944.

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

English

• Atkin, Nicholas, Pétain, (Longman, 1997)
• Azema, Jean-Pierre. From Munich to Liberation 1938–1944 (The Cambridge History of Modern France) (1985)
• Azema, Jean-Pierre, ed. Collaboration and Resistance: Images of Life in Vichy France 1940–1944 (2000) 220pp; photographs
• Boyd, Douglas. Voices from the Dark Years: The Truth About Occupied France 1940–1945 (The History Press, 2015)
• Burrin, Philippe. France Under the Germans: Collaboration and Compromise (1998)
• ISBN 0-375-41131-3
  ; Biography of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, the Commissioner for Jewish Affairs
• Campbell, Caroline. "Gender and Politics in Interwar and Vichy France." Contemporary European History 27.3 (2018): 482–499. online
• Christofferson, Thomas R., and Michael S. Christofferson. France during World War II: From Defeat to Liberation (2nd ed. 2006) 206pp; brief introduction online edition Archived 14 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Davies, Peter. France and the Second World War: Resistance, Occupation and Liberation (Introduction to History) (2000) 128pp excerpt and text search
• Diamond, Hanna. Women and the Second World War in France, 1939–1948: Choices and Constraints (1999)
• Diamond, Hanna, and Simon Kitson, eds. Vichy, Resistance, Liberation: New Perspectives on Wartime France (2005) online edition Archived 5 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine; online review
• Fogg, Shannon Lee. The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and Strangers (2009), 226pp excerpt and text search
• Gildea, Robert. Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation (2004) excerpt and text search
• Glass, Charles, Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation (2009) excerpt and text search
• Gordon, B. Historical Dictionary of World War Two France: The Occupation, Vichy and the Resistance, 1938–1946 (Westport, Conn., 1998)
• Halls, W. D. Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France (1995) online edition Archived 13 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Holman, Valerie; Kelly, Debra (2000). France at War in the Twentieth Century: Propaganda, Myth, and Metaphor. Contemporary France (Providence, R.I.). New York: Berghahn Books.
  OCLC 41497185
  .
• Jackson, Julian T. (2001). France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19-820706-1
  . Retrieved 15 August 2020.
• Jennings, Eric (1994). "'Reinventing Jeanne': The Iconology of Joan of Arc in Vichy Schoolbooks, 1940–44". The Journal of Contemporary History. 29 (4): 711–734.
  S2CID 159656095
  .
• Kedward, H. R. Occupied France: Collaboration and Resistance (Oxford, 1985), short survey
• ISBN 978-0-226-43893-1
  .
• Kocher, Adam, Adria K. Lawrence and Nuno P. Monteiro. 2018. "Nationalism, Collaboration, and Resistance: France under Nazi Occupation." International Security 43(2): 117–150.
• Kooreman, Megan. The Expectation of Justice: France, 1944–1946. (Duke University Press. 1999)
• Kroener, Bernhard R.; Muller, Rolf-Dieter; Umbreit, Hans (2000). Germany and the Second World War: Volume 5: Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power. Part I: Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources, 1939–1941. Germany & Second World War. OUP Oxford. p. iii.
  OCLC 1058510505
  . Retrieved 28 July 2021.
• Lackerstein, Debbie. National Regeneration in Vichy France: Ideas and Policies, 1930–1944 (2013) excerpt and text search
• Langer, William, Our Vichy gamble, (1947); U.S. policy 1940–42
• Larkin, Maurice. France since the Popular Front: Government and People 1936–1996 (Oxford U P 1997).
  ISBN 0-19-873151-5
• Lemmes, Fabian. "Collaboration in wartime France, 1940–1944", European Review of History (2008), 15#2 pp 157–177
• Levieux, Eleanor (1999). Insiders' French : beyond the dictionary. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  ISBN 978-0-226-47502-8
  .
• Manow, Philip. "Workers, farmers and Catholicism: A history of political class coalitions and the south-European welfare state regime". Journal of European Social Policy (2015) 25#1 pp: 32–49.
• Marrus, Michael R. and Robert Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. (Stanford University Press, 1995). online 1981 edition Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Martin Mauthner. Otto Abetz and His Paris Acolytes – French Writers Who Flirted with Fascism, 1930–1945. (Sussex Academic Press, 2016).
  ISBN 978-1-84519-784-1
• Melton, George E. Darlan: Admiral and Statesman of France, 1881–1942. (Praeger, 1998).
  ISBN 0-275-95973-2
  .
• Mockler, Anthony (1984). Haile Selassie's War: The Italian−Ethiopian Campaign, 1935–1941. New York:
  ISBN 978-0-394-54222-5
  .
• Nord, Philip. France's New Deal: From the Thirties to the Postwar Era (Princeton U.P., 2010)
• Michel, Alain (2014) [1st pub. 2011]. "10 Collaboration and collaborators in Vichy France: An unfinished debate". In Stauber, Roni (ed.). Collaboration with the Nazis: Public Discourse after the Holocaust. Routledge Jewish Studies series. London: Routledge.
  OCLC 876293139
  .
• Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (2nd ed. 2001) excerpt and text search; influential survey
• OCLC 494123451
  . Retrieved 3 September 2015.
• Playfair, I. S. O.; et al. (2004) [1956]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Germans Come to the Help of their Ally (1941). History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Vol. II (pbk. repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: HMSO.
  ISBN 978-1-84574-066-5
  .
• Pollard, Miranda. Reign of virtue: mobilising gender in Vichy France (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
• Raugh, H. E. (1993). Wavell in the Middle East, 1939–1941: A Study in Generalship. London: Brassey's.
  ISBN 978-0-08-040983-2
  .
• Smith, Colin. England's Last War Against France: Fighting Vichy, 1940–1942, London, Weidenfeld, 2009.
  ISBN 978-0-297-85218-6
• Sutherland, Jonathan, and Diane Canwell. Vichy Air Force at War: The French Air Force that Fought the Allies in World War II (Pen & Sword Aviation, 2011)
• Sweets, John F., Choices in Vichy France: The French Under Nazi Occupation (New York, 1986) excerpt and text search, focus on city of Clermont-Ferrand
• Thomas, Martin, The French Empire at War, 1940–45, Manchester University Press, 1998, paperback 2007.
• Vinen, Richard. The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation (2007)
• ISBN 0-8147-9336-3

Historiography

• Conan, Eric, and Henry Rousso. Vichy: An ever-present past (UP of New England, 1998)
• Fishman, Sarah, et al. France at War: Vichy and the Historians (2000) online edition Archived 5 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• Golsan, Richard J. Vichy's Afterlife: History & Counterhistory in Postwar France (2000)
• Gordon, Bertram M. "The 'Vichy Syndrome' problem in history", French Historical Studies (1995) 19#2 pp 495–518, on the denial of the realities of Vichy in JSTOR
• Munholland, Kim. "Wartime France: Remembering Vichy", French Historical Studies (1994) 18#3 pp. 801–820 in JSTOR
• Poznanski, Renée. "Rescue of the Jews and the Resistance in France: From History to Historiography", French Politics, Culture and Society (2012) 30#2 pp 8–32.
• ISBN 0-674-93539-X
• Singer, Barnett. "The Changing Image of Vichy in France", Contemporary Review Summer 2009 online edition Archived 8 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine

French

• Henri Amouroux, La grande histoire des Français sous l'Occupation, 8 volumes, Laffont, 1976
• OCLC 1356008
  .
• Jean-Pierre Azéma & François Bedarida, Vichy et les Français, Paris, Fayard, 1996.
• Le régime de Vichy et les Français (dir. Jean-Pierre Azéma & François Bédarida, Institut d'histoire du temps présent), Fayard, 1992,
  ISBN 2-213-02683-1
• Béglé, Jérôme (20 January 2014). "Rentrée littéraire – Avec Pierre Assouline, Sigmaringen, c'est la vie de château !" [Autumn publishing season launch – With Pierre Assouline, Sigmaringen, That's life in the castle]. Le Point (in French). Le Point Communications.
• Bentégeat, Hervé (2014). Et surtout, pas un mot à la Maréchale ... : Pétain et ses femmes [And above all, not a word to the Maréchale ... : Pétain and his women] (in French). Paris: Albin Michel.
  OCLC 1015992303
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• Michèle Cointet. Dictionnaire historique de la France sous l'Occupation (2nd ed. 2000) 732pp
• Michèle Cointet. L'Eglise sous Vichy. 1940–1945. La repentance en question., Perrin, Paris, 1998.
  ISBN 2-262-01231-8
• ISBN 978-2-262-03300-2
  .
• Eric Conan et
  ISBN 2-213-59237-3
• Yves Maxime Danan, La vie politique à Alger, de 1940 à 1944, L.G.D.J., Paris 1963.
• Jean-Luc Einaudi (2001). Les silences de la police : 16 juillet 1942–17 octobre 1961 (in French). Paris: L'Esprit frappeur.
  ISBN 978-2-84405-173-8
  .
• Delporte, Christian; Moine, Caroline (2018). Culture, médias, pouvoirs aux Etats-Unis et en Europe occidentale, France, Italie, RFA, Royaume-Uni, 1945–1991 [Culture, Media, Power in the United States and Western Europe, 1945–1991] (in French). Malakoff: Armand Colin.
  OCLC 1191067431
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• André Kaspi. Les Juifs pendant l'Occupation, Seuil, Paris, 1991,
  ISBN 2-02-013509-4
• ISBN 2-213-01573-2
• Launay, Jacques de. Le Dossier de Vichy, in series, Collection Archives, [Éditions] Julliard, [Paris], 1967. N.B.: A documentary history.
• Herbert R. Lottman. Pétain. Seuil, 1984,
  ISBN 2-02-006763-3
• OCLC 777999316
  .
• Jacques Sabille. "Les Juifs de Tunisie sous Vichy et l'Occupation". Paris: Edition du
  Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine
  , 1954
• Sémelin, Jacques (2013). Persécutions et entraides dans la France occupée : comment 75 % des juifs de France ont échappé à la mort (in French). Paris: Seuil Arènes.
  ISBN 978-2-35204-235-8
  .

German

• Eberhard Jäckel: Frankreich in Hitlers Europa: die deutsche Frankreichpolitik im 2. Weltkrieg, Stuttgart 1966.
• Martin Jungius: Der verwaltete Raub. Die "Arisierung" der Wirtschaft in Frankreich 1940–1944. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2008, Beiheft der Francia Nr. 67, hrsg. von Deutschen Historischen Institut Paris.
• ISBN 978-3-486-58945-0
  . (Comparative study of anti-Jewish policy implemented by the government in Nazi-Germany, by German occupational forces in France and by the semi-autonomic French government in Vichy)
• OCLC 316118163
  .

Films

• Marcel Ophüls, The Sorrow and the Pity
  (1969).
• Claude Chabrol, The Eye of Vichy (1993).

Further reading

• Boissoneault, Lorraine (9 November 2017). "Was Vichy France a Puppet Government or a Willing Nazi Collaborator?".
  ISSN 0037-7333
  . Retrieved 2 April 2023.
• Conan, Eric; Rousso, Henry (1998). Vichy: An Ever-present Past. UPNE.
  OCLC 1137403989
  .
• Rousso, Henry (1991). The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France Since 1944. Harvard University Press.
  OCLC 1034576435
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vichy government (1940–1944).

French Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Constitutional law of 10 July 1940 giving full powers to Marshall Pétain (in French)

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Adolf Hitler's Appeal to the French People on the Entry of German Troops into Unoccupied France

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Complete German Occupation of France

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Decision to Occupy Toulon

• Simon Kitson's Vichy web-page
• Original "Establishment of the Vichy government" constitutional act
• Map of the "free" and "occupied" French zones Archived 13 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
• National Geographic coverage of the armistice Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
• "Obituary of a Republic", Time, 22 July 1940
• Vica Nazi Propaganda Comics – Duke University Libraries Digital Collections – Pro-Nazi comics produced in Vichy France
• NAZI diplomacy: Vichy, 1940
• The Holocaust in France Archived 22 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine, at Yad Vashem website
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, But Not for All: France and the "Alien" Jews, 1933–1942