Mode of Vichy

Circumstances

Prolog: The defeat of 1940 and the German invasion

In answer to the invasion of the Poland by the troops of Adolf Hitler, France and the the United Kingdom the war with the III {{E}} Reich declare. Adopting then a defensive strategy, the two allied ones, instead of invading the Germany whose army is occupied in Poland, let this one regulate their account with the Polish troops quietly. France reacts mollement while launching, the September 7th, nine of its 102 divisions in an offensive on the Saar. Germany however did not condescend to react, but very quickly in front of the speed to which the Polish army, organized with the French councils, crumbles (hardly more than one week), thus reinforcing the myth of an invincible German army, France recalls its troops which leave Germany the October 17th. The French thus remain behind the Ligne Maginot and “play the watch”: the maritime blockade which will cause German collapse as in 14 - 18. It is the “Drôle of war”. But the May 10th 1940, Hitler attacks by invading the Netherlands, the Luxembourg and the Belgium. The French command expected and launches its troops it the defense of the Belgium, as envisaged. Using with full the concepts of the French innovators with 1918, ignored by their own command (shock and speed, couple tank-plane, concentration), the spearhead of the German army (ten armor-plated divisions) crosses the massive of the Ardennes, considered to be impenetrable by the French generals (and thus badly defended, and badly constant when the attack appeared obvious) and encircles south towards north the committed Franco-British army in Belgium.

At the beginning of June the mass is known as. Valiantly defended around Dunkirk by some French divisions which are sacrificed, the British quota regains the England at the time of the operation Dynamo. The government leaves Paris the June 10th for Bordeaux. The refugees who flee the Belgium and the North of France are then joined by two million refugees of the Paris region. For Jean-Pierre Azéma, between the May 15th and the June 10th, at least six million French will have given up their residence and will have taken part in the “exodus” of 1940, being found on the roads under the attacks of the Luftwaffe and ruining French military logistics. The Bataille of France is lost, in spite of the savage and heroic resistance of many units. The military countryside causes close to 100 000 dead French and 40 000 German, and the Germans capture more than two million prisoners.

The June 10th 1940, Mussolini, combined Hitler, declares the war in France, but does not manage to advance its troops through the the well defended Alps. Free, solicited, refuses to enter in war against France, even when French collapse is obvious.

The request for armistice

It is panic in France in the political world and soldier. The ones are resigned to the defeat and claim the Armistice, the others want to continue the fight with the British as promised, while resting on the colonies and in particular the Algérie.

It is the first camp, supported by the general Maxime Weygand the marshal Pétain, Pierre Laval and François Darlan, which carries it. The general de Gaulle, in favor of the continuation of the war, joined London, where he pronounces his call become famous but relatively unperceived past in ambient chaos. The core of the free France is constituted then, with other French volunteers. Other personalities also took refuge in America. The President of the Council Paul Reynaud, which wanted to continue the fight to him, finally chooses to resign the June 16th 1940.

The president of the Republic Albert Lebrun then names Philippe Pétain president of the Council. The following day, this last announces with the radio that France must cease the combat and require the armistice. The Government Philippe Pétain, made up with Bordeaux the June 17th, and the Parlement settle in July with Vichy, calm city, and having great hotel capacities. It sets up a Propagande intended to justify its choices of which that of the news capital . The Culte of the personality is the main motor.

The June 22nd 1940, the French delegation must go to sign the armistice with Rethondes in the coach which had been used as framework with the armistice of the First World War and in front of the monument which spoke about the criminal pride of the German Empire overcome by the people that he wanted to make slaves. Hitler then explodes the monument under the cameras. As for the coach it will be sent to a Berliner museum where it will be destroyed by a bombardment combined in 1943. The Germany thus intends to erase the defeat of the First World War and to humiliate France.

The armistice

Chronological reference marks

1940

14 June 1940: the Germans enter Paris.
June 17th, 1940: the marshal Pétain form a government and asks for the conditions of the armistice.
June 18th, 1940: call of the general de Gaulle.
June 22nd, 1940: signature of the Franco-German convention of armistice to Rethondes.
10 July 1940: the Parliament votes the capacities with Pétain, president of the Council.
July 11th, 1940: promulgation of the constitutional acts melting the French State.
July 12th, 1940: Pierre Laval vice-president of the Council.
3 October 1940: statute of the Jews in the Council of Ministers ( Official journal of October 18th).
October 24th, 1940: meet Hitler - Pétain with Montoire.
13 December 1940: Laval, resigned, is replaced by Pierre-Etienne Flandin.

1941

9 February 1941: Flandin replaced by the admiral Darlan as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
22 June 1941: Germany attacks the USSR.
18 July 1941: Pierre Pucheu becomes Minister of Interior Department.
20 October 1941: attack with Nantes against a German officer, Karl Hotz. In reprisals, the Germans shoot 48 hostages two days later with Châteaubriant.

1942

27 March 1942: the first convoy of Jews leaves Drancy to join the concentration camps.
18 April 1942: replacement of Darlan by Laval. This one takes the official title of chief of the Vichy government. Rene Bousquet general secretary of the police force.
2 July 1942: agreements Bousquet - Oberg of police collaboration.
July 16th and 17th 1942: raid of Vel' of hiv.
8 November 1942: beginning of the Operation Torch (American unloading in North Africa).
November 11th, 1942: the Wehrmacht invades the southern zone.

1943

30 January 1943: creation of the Militia.
24 May 1943: died of the first militiaman killed by the Resistance.

1944

1st January 1944: Darnand appointed general secretary with the maintenance of law and order.
6 June 1944: Day-J: the Overlord operation is launched by the Allies, to invade the Normandy (D Day).
15 August 1944: Franco-American unloading in Provence (operation Dragoon).
August 20th, 1944: Pétain is transferred from force by the Germans in Belfort.
August 25th, 1944: Release of Paris.
August 26th, 1944: de Gaulle in Paris. The general de Gaulle ravels triumphantly on the Fields-Élysées.
23 November 1944: Leclerc releases Strasbourg with the 2 {{E}} armor-plated division.

The “national Revolution” in the French political scene

Clericalism of Vichy

The mode of Vichy will seek the support of the Catholic church, whose influence at that time remains considerable. Pétain was not, before he became Head of the State, a catholic practitioner, but at least it had nevertheless been high in the Église, whereas Laval and Darlan was rather “of the other edge”.

The power is on well between the marshal and the prelates of the French Église, which is had a presentiment of to visit him to Vichy. At the head of these bishops and cardinal petainists, the cardinal Gerlier, Primacy of Gaules. The catholic doctrines of the time, and in particular its social component, largely inspired the national Révolution, so much so that the cardinal Gerlier could declare “ Travail, Famille, Patrie , these three words are ours”. Since the end of the 19th century, France had known governments for which the label of “layman” was more or less synonymous with anticlerical. The Catholic church in France hoped well to benefit from a favorable government to mark some points.

The members of the clergy find their place in the official ceremonies. In addition to this kind of signs external of sympathy, the French episcopate obtains satisfaction on a certain number of points:

the law of 1904 which prohibited the monks from teaching in the public is repealed in September 1940.
the youth movements receive official approval in December 1941. In 1942, the project of Pucheu to found a single youth movement is isolated.
denominational private education receives State grants (400 franc million in 1941).

On the other hand, the Église does not obtain the right to teach the religion inside the school buildings. In spite of that, the episcopate recognizes the legitimacy of the mode of the Maréchal until in 1944. This legitimisation does not prevent certain prelates from publicly expressing criticisms, for example about the deportations of the Juifs, as of July 1942. This does not prevent either a certain number of Catholique S and members of the clergy to be detached clearly from the mode and to engage in the Résistance.

One of the institutions of the new mode to which the Catholique S granted the most readily their contest is without question the Légion of the combatants, which replaces all associations of war veterans. As of its foundation, the priests adhere to it in great number like some bishops. Thereafter, some of the executives of the Légion will take part in the creation of the Milice, but of others will give up it, the such Lorraine François Valentine, one of his most active leaders, who chooses the August 29th 1943, third birthday of the Légion, to launch a call to the Résistance.

The specificity of the Mode of Vichy in occupied Europe

Men of the Mode of Vichy

Pétain, Laval and Darlan, the Head of State and his two Prime Ministers (who have in fact only the rank of Deputy Prime Minister) are the three emblématiques policies of the period. Darlan was Prime Minister of February 1941 at April 1942.

The historian Robert Frank stresses that the point of fundamental agreement between the three men initially was their will to cease a fatal and useless combat, and on this point, they profit from the support of the large majority of the French. All the three bet on a final victory of Reich. As from the moment when the armistice is signed, certain consequences result from this: the French who want to continue the combat become outlaw. None of the three men had initially adhered to any ideology mussolinienne or hitlérienne, but in the atmosphere of the defeat, they approach some very quickly and their interests become related to those of Germany: German peace enables them to develop the national Revolution and to remake France starting from the Empire and of the nonoccupied zone. That the United Kingdom takes again the top, and in fact the disorders are likely to reappear in France with the triumphal return of the dissidents.

Philippe Pétain. For the French of the time, Pétain is the winner of Verdun, it is adulated by the majority of the French who approve the armistice and trust him to defend the interests of France vis-a-vis the enemy. The war veterans form the most faithful core of the partisans of Pétain. Marc Ferro showed the paradoxes of Pétain, divided between its major antigermanism and its will to collaborate with Reich: Pétain indeed wanted collaboration, but it subordinates it to the interests of its new mode. In spite of its great age and the excuses of which it will often make proof, Pétain is indeed the inspirer of the national Revolution. He intends to regenerate France by founding an authoritarian regime which is pressed on the army, the Église, the notable ones and the elites. He did not announce himself in his past by fascistic positions and was even regarded until in the Années 1930 as a “republican” marshal. According to the words of Robert Franck, “the anti-semitism of State of Vichy is mainly it his, since it contributed personally to the drafting of the first statute of the Juifs. ”

Laval, only member of the government to being provided with a permanent Ausweiss (right to pass from one zone to the other) thinks of being the right man for the job to start a total negotiation with the winner. He is implied neither in the development nor in the application of the national Revolution. Its past of pacifist near to the freemasons moves away it considerably from the admirals and the cardinals, companions natural of Pétain. Collaboration with Germany is the great policy to which it must attach its name. In the name of this one, it agrees to also collaborate for the deportation of the Jews. He does not hesitate to make include the children of less than 16 years in the convoys of deportation, whereas the Germans did not ask it.

Darlan, chief of staff of the navy and craftsman of the naval rearmament of France in the years 1930 was regarded as republican, in the sense that it did not have any leaning monarchist or clerical. Until - boutist of the continuation of the combat until June 1940, then rejoined with the Armistice and pushing the collaboration of State with Germany further Laval for the period, of December 1940 in April 1942 when the latter had been isolated place of Deputy Prime Minister, combined Americans for the short period when it is with the capacity in North Africa, he can appear like opportunist ambitious, which he is undoubtedly. According to Robert Franck, the whole of his positions is explained by considerations of géostratégie skewed by a consecutive phobia of the British to the business of Mers el Kébir. He wants to preserve the French navy and the Empire. Without particular affinity with Fascism, it will not cease thinking that a victory of the United Kingdom would be worse than the German domination and would involve “the return to the capacity of the cosmopolitan Jews and the pledged freemasons to the Anglo-Saxon policy” (notes of Darlan, October 1940). Its anti-semitism is durable since it is its government which prepares and promulgates the second statute of the Jews in June 1941. Contrary to Laval, it adheres overall to the project of national Revolution.

Four successive phases of the Vichy government

Pétain, Laval and Darlan is the three personalities which exerted the highest responsibilities in the French State, of June 1940 to the Release. Around them, one can distinguish several successive waves in the political personnel from the mode of Vichy:

; Vichy of revenge reactionary (1940-1941) All the components of the right-hand side are present in the first government Laval: extremists assagis (Paul Marion, PF), maurrassiens (Raphaël Alibert, Yves Bouthillier), liberals (Lucien Romier), various reactionaries (general Weygand, Xavier Vallat). The left is not absent, for example Rene Belin, former leader of the CGT.

; Technocratic Vichy (1941-1942) With the arrival of Darlan (1941), a personnel much younger - that one would call technocrats later - fact its entry in policy Pierre Pucheu, Minister of Interior Department, François Lehideux, with the industrial production, young wolves of the Banque Worms, in the cabinet of Darlan, Rene Bousquet with the police force.

; “Pragmatic” Vichy of Laval (1942-1943) The return of Pierre Laval in 1942 marks also a certain return of a more republican political personnel, very far away from the political will of revenge of Vichy of 1940. The objective of the government Laval is very pragmatic: to give pledges to Germany by Collaboration to obtain a greater autonomy of France and a good place in new Europe. The government Laval mark a little end of the national Revolution (with for example the rehabilitation of the republican departments against the regionalism preached by Vichy traditionalist of 1940).

; Vichy of the ultra-collaborationists (1944) As from 1944, the ultraones of Paris, sympathizers Nazis at side of which Laval appears almost moderate, enter in force to the government: Philippe Henriot, Marcel Déat and Joseph Darnand.

Some leaders and senior officials of foreground

Philippe Pétain
Pierre Laval, vice-president of the Council
François Darlan, vice-president of the Council
Joseph Barthelemy, Minister for Justice
Fernand de Brinon, Secretary of State near the chief of the Government
Joseph Darnand, general secretary with the Maintenance of law and order
Eugene Bridoux, general, Secretary of State to the War, chief of the Staff general
Marcel Déat, Secretary of State to Work
Jacques Doriot, founder of the LVF
Louis Darquier, known as “of Pellepoix”, police chief with the Jewish Questions
Philippe Henriot, general secretary with Information and Propaganda
Gabriel Jeantet
François Lehideux, Secretary of State to the Industrial production in the government Darlan
Xavier Vallat, police chief with the Jewish Questions
Maxime Weygand, Minister for the National defense from June in September 1940, then acting general in French Africa
Cardinal Gerlier, “Primacy of Gaules”, privileged interlocutor of Pétain
Rene Bousquet, general secretary of the police force of April 1942 in January 1944

The Collaboration of State (1940-44)

Following Stanley Hoffmann (1974), other historians, like Paxton or Azéma have habit to indicate under the term of “Collaborationnistes” those which wished, for ideological reasons, because they were fascistic sympathizers or Nazis, a collaboration reinforced with Germany hitlérienne. It acts, for example, of the chief of the French Popular party (PF), Jacques Doriot, of the writer Robert Brasillach, with the head of the review I am everywhere, or of Marcel Déat. Those could influence the policy followed by the Vichy governments, though it is only into 1944 that the ultraones become majority with the government.

Economic collaboration

Economic collaboration, with the direction where hear historians as Paxton rises initially from the war debt theoretically fixed by the armistice of June 1940, but practically fixed during the years in a unilateral way by the Germans who arbitrarily established the rate of the franc compared to the mark. This debt, supposed to correspond to the maintenance of the troops of occupation was on average of 400 franc million per day, the equivalent of four million daily wages of workmen. Use of the term of economic collaboration mean that the predatory policy of Germany was carried out under French administration.

In the same way one can also add the prisoners of war, who are 1,5 million to be worked for Germany in Germany throughout almost all war.

In October 1940, one counted in France a million unemployed, consequence of the complete disorganization of the economy due to the rout. Quickly after the armistice, the Vichy government decided to authorize the French companies to accept contracts with the Germans. The German orders will be the main motor of the restarting of the French economy. The number of unemployed was descended to: 125000 in 1942, and with the Release, it was practically null. In a general way, with the allowances of occupation, Germany manages to make work agriculture and French industry mainly for its account: in 1943, according to the statistics of the central Office of the industrial production, 100% of the aircraft industry, 100% of the heavy forging, 80% of BTP, 60% of the industry of rubber work on behalf of Germany. Henri Rousso notes that the figures are probably overestimated, but that they give a correct order of magnitude. According to the German historian Jaekel, “In spring of 1942: 170000 French worked on the spot in the services of Wehrmacht and: 275000 with the construction of aerodromes and fortifications like the Atlantic Wall: 400000 finally with the manufacture of armaments. ”

Moreover, between 1942 and 1944, the general police chief of Reich for the use and the labor, Fritz Sauckel will require that France send two million workers under STO. Only: 600000 leave indeed, which is added to: 700000 voluntary workers. Volunteers and STO are more or less remunerated.

According to the general von Senger und Utterlin of the German armistice Council:

The French industry of the armaments of war was given to full turns for the German armaments. Without the economic potential of France, Hitler could not have made last the war also a long time. It is that which was the great profit that Hitler drew from the conquest of France.

Police collaboration

See also: police collaboration under Vichy

Independently of collaboration with the occupant, the authorities of Vichy implement since 1940 a policy of oppression in the name of the order and of the fight against “Anti-France” . Vichy reinforces then its police organization by nationalizing the municipal police (April 1941) and by instituting innumerable parapolices specialized like the Police service anticommunist (SPAC) or the Police force with the Jewish questions (PQJ), and the Minister of Interior Department Pierre Pucheu creates as of 1941 the mobile Groupes of reserve (GMR) which will take part in the fight against the maquis at the sides of the Milice. In May 1944, one counts thus more: 120000 men taking part in the maintenance of law and order.

There was never again: 3000 German police officers in occupied France. The collaboration of the French police force made it possible to the Germans at little cost to carry out some their objectives:

the control from abroad;
the fight against the communist ;
deportation of the Jewish ;
the fight against the resistant .

This collaboration between police officers was formalized under the government Darlan by what is called the “agreements” Bousquet - Oberg of July 1942. As of the Armistice of June 1940, the Germans come to seek in the prison camps of war the Spanish republicans, without the French State not protesting. The latter are the only category sought by the Germans in the prison camps, and the majority of them are off-set in the Concentration camp of Mauthausen.

Until the Invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the fight anticommunist is not a priority for the Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, Vichy continues the work started by Daladier, before obtaining an authorization in due form authorities of occupation in August 1940. , When the Communists start to perpetrate attacks against the Germans, then to later on set up various forms of resistances, the Communists stopped by the French police force are delivered to the occupying forces.

The Bousquet-Oberg agreements lead so that in 1942, it is the French police force, all alone, which deals with the raids of Jews parked before the deportation towards the camps of death. They are also the French gendarmes as well as the customs which deal with, with zeal, the guard of the Camp of Drancy. According to the report/ratio Dannecker (of the name of the chief of the Gestapo in Paris), the “Fichier Tulard”, which counts the Jews, is obligingly provided by the Police headquarter to service IV J of Gestapo, in load of the Jewish question. This file allowed thereafter many raids and of arrests, of which those of August 1941 in the XI {{E}} district of Paris as well as the Rafle of Vel d' Hiv.

The French police force must normally pursue all the resistant . However, the actions of the police force in southern zone remain relatively discrete until November 1942. Indeed, for this period, hunting for the dissidents is the business of the intelligence services of the navy and the army of armistice (what does not prevent some elements of the secret services of the Army from secretly soaking in the Résistance). Then, as from 1943, the load of the fight against the resistant ones is transferred overall to the Milice from Darnand, in particular the fight against the maquis.

August 25th, 1942, more than two hundred German police officers, provided with French false paper are authorized to penetrate in southern zone with cars gonio to make hunting for the clandestine radios there.

Military collaboration

Hitler does not want collaboration military institutional between France and Germany: he is wary of the French, and even of the declared collaborators. Moreover, after crushing demolished of 1940, the French Army makes quite pale figure. On another side, Pétain and the various characters of Vichy, practice the collaboration of State in various fields, precisely in the hope to obtain for France a role of second in Europe of the “new order”.

Initially posted French neutrality allows in fact the Germans to rest on the French Army to push back possible British attacks in metropolis or in the French Empire. The army of armistice is limited to: 100000 men in metropolis, but it includes/understands: 450000 men in the various colonies. In September 1940, after the French equatorial Africa (AEF) rocked in the camp of the free France, with Dakar, the army remained honest in Vichy pushes back the English and French naval forces free.

Darlan tries to haggle over important military and political concessions, by signing the initialed protocols of Paris the 28 May 1941. These protocols consist of four documents including three first concerning the use by the Germans of the bases of Bizerte (Tunisia), of Dakar (Senegal) and of Alep (Syria), and engagement by the French to defend these bases against a possible British or American attack (whereas Germany, itself, are not yet in war with the United States). These concessions aimed to obtain a reinforcement of the army of armistice, but only in order to make fight this one at the side of the enemy. The true hoped counterpart lay in a fourth document which contained all the political concessions requested from the Germans, but was never signed by a German authority of a level higher than that of the ambassador of Germany Otto Abetz.

In spite of the opposition of Weygand, chief of the armies in Africa, the Vichy government starts again the Germans during all of autumn 1941, but will never ratify these agreements. Darlan will agree then, with the manner of Laval, concessions without counterparts: supplies (trucks, fuel, pieces of artillery) are delivered to Rommel via Tunisia. Some motor torpedo boats forward by the Rhone. As for the protocol on Syria, it immediately was applied, before any signature, and allowed the Luftwaffe to bombard starting from Syria the British forces in Iraq. Also it involved a response of the English and French Free S with the Raising, which will recover the territories of Syria and the Lebanon after more than one month of engagements having made several thousands of victims in the two camps. It represents the military case of concessions the most pushed on behalf of Darlan and of Pétain.

After the summer 1941, it is outside the government that all the movements collaborationnists are linked more or less with the blessing of the ambassador Otto Abetz to create the “Legion of the French volunteers” (LVF), which is in fact an association of private law. From July 1941 in June 1944: 16000 volunteers present themselves, among whom: 7000 men are retained to be committed on the Russian face. The LVF is financed and maintained by the Germans, they fight in German units and carry the German uniform. After a first not very convincing confrontation with the Soviet forces, the 536e regiment of infantry in which the troops of the LVF are gathered, is brought back to the back and confronted with the only partisans. The whole of the collaborators engaged under the German uniform (LVF, Militia and Waffen S French) will be then gathered in the Division Charlemagne.

An attempt at recovery of the LVF under the tricolor name of Légion by the Vichy government will be one cooking failure mainly because the government wanted to make a French force under French uniform of it what was not at all taste of German.

It is also necessary to note the attempt partly successful to create a rapid deployment force in North Africa and more particularly in Tunisia in front of the allied unloading (Opération Torch), more known force under the name of North-African Légion or African phalange. The majority of the French officers in North Africa joined the allies, in Algeria and in Morocco (even if there were some violent ones engagements against the allies) however in Tunisia, the admirals Derrien and Esteva remain faithful to the marshal which ordered with the forces Frenchwoman of Africa to resist and to fight the allies.

Practice of the collaboration of the Vichy governments

The Hitler-Pétain interview in Montoire, of which the goal is to express the French good will in order to obtain concessions, does not lead to any concrete result: just after the interview, on order of the Gauleiter Bürckel, close to: 100000 Mosellans are expelled of Lorraine towards France. Moreover: 6500 German Jews, that the Nazis do not want to intern in their own country, are raids with the Palatinat and in Bade-Wurtemberg, to be entrusted to the Vichy government. This one the intern with the Camp of Gurs, in southern zone, while waiting of the relivrer to the enemy, when this one can start its death camps of Poland.

Starting from the autumn 1940, Laval starts to make unilateral concessions with the Germans, in the hope to be paid of return in a way or another: it thus yields the French interests in the gold mines of Bor, in Yugoslavia, as well as the gold reserves which the Belgians had entrusted to France in May 1940.

Darlan pushes the policy of collaboration a little further did not do it Laval while trying to practice with Hitler the policy of the Lump of a woman. In fact, Hitler will be never really favorable to a collaboration with the French, and the military and police concessions made by Darlan will not obtain the desired political counterparts.

In April 1942, Laval returns to the capacity and tries to promote the policy of the “changing”, i.e., the departure in Germany of young French workers within the framework of the Service of obligatory work (STO), in exchange of the repatriation of prisoners in the proportion of a prisoner for three workmen. A few months later, in November 1942, following the Operation Torch, the free Zone is invaded, and France becomes entirely vassalized by Germany. To counter the resistant increasingly many in the maquis, the French police force leaves the place to the Milice, in direct contact with Waffen S.

In March 1944, the Militia takes part in the attack against the Maquis of Glières (Savoy), in the sides of the German forces, and repressions which followed.

In June 1944, at the time of the Unloading and at the time of the Release of the French territory by the Allies, no troops of those which remained with the Vichy government beat at the sides of the Germans.

Jews in France during the Mode of Vichy

Chronological reference marks

10 July 1940: Pierre Laval makes vote by the Parliament the full powerss (component, legislature, executive and legal) with the marshal Pétain, which becomes Head of the State.
3 October 1940: first statute of the Jews. The French Jewish citizens are excluded from the public office, the army, teaching, the press, the radio and the cinema. The Jews “in excess” are excluded from the liberal professions.
29 March 1941: creation of the General police station to the Jewish questions (CGQJ). Xavier Vallat first police chief; Louis Darquier de Pellepoix succeeds to him of May 1942 in February 1944.
13 May 1941: occupied Zone: first raids of foreign Jews, organized by the Police headquarter.
2 June 1941: second statute of the Jews: compared to the first statute, hardening of the definition of the Jew, lengthening of professional prohibitions, numerus clausus at the university (3%), and the liberal professions (2%). The Jews are obliged to be made count in free Zone.
January 1942: Conference of Wannsee: the official Nazis define the practical methods of the “Final solution”, i.e. the complete extermination of the Jews of Europe, children included/understood.
20 May 1942: port of the yellow star obligatory (application on June 7th) in occupied zone.
“16-17 July 1942: raid of Vel” of Hiv in Paris, arrest of: 12884 declared Jews “stateless people” (: 3031 men: 5802 women and: 4051 children).
8 September 1943: capitulation of Italy leading to the occupation of the Italian zone (Nice) hitherto saved by the raids.
15 August 1944: last convoy of deportation from Clermont-Ferrand.

The Vichy government and Jews

There is in approximately 1940: 300000 Jews in Metropolitan France, among which: 150000 French citizens and: 150000 foreigners. Two thirds of the unit, but the very large majority of the foreign Jews live in Paris region. On: 150000 French Jews: 90000 are of old stock and among: 60000 foreign Jews, often immigrant of Eastern Europe, half was naturalized in the years 1930.

The Jews of France live a situation of oppression since July 1940 until the semione. As from spring 1942, they must face the policy of the “Final solution” decided by the Nazis in Europe occupied since the Conférence of Wannsee. This attempt at extermination of the Jews in all occupied Europe is now known under the name of Holocauste or of Shoah. It was a question for the Nazis of off-setting all the Jews of Europe towards Death camps located in Poland. Until November 1942, date of the occupation of the free zone, the situation of the Jews is not exactly the same one in free Zone and occupied Zone. The antijuives French laws apply to the whole of the territory, but in occupied zone are added German decrees.

The Vichy government will follow a policy of restriction of the rights of the Jews as of his installation, without the Germans not expressing the least request. As of July 1940, the Minister for Justice Alibert creates a commission of revision of: 500000 naturalizations pronounced since 1927. The withdrawal of nationality will concern: 15000 people including 40% of Jews. The abrogation of the Décret Crémieux deprives: 100000 Jews of Algeria of the French citizenship. In October 1940, the Council of Ministers promulgates the first statute of the Jews (see Lois on the statute of the Jews): the French Jewish citizens are excluded from the public office, the army, teaching, the press, the radio and the cinema. The Jews “in excess” are excluded from the liberal professions. The second statute of the Jews, of June 1941 is still a little more restrictive: it lengthens the list of the professions from where the Jews are excluded and establishes a numerus clausus limiting the proportion of Jews to 3% in the university and 2% in the liberal professions. Lastly, in July 1941, the Jews must yield their rights on the companies to the “Aryan ones”. The Germans had applied this measurement in occupied zone since October 1940. A General police station with the Jewish questions is created in March 1941, under the direction of Xavier Vallat. Its mission is to take care of the application of the antijuive legislation. According to the words of Asher Cohen:

Without this legislation sanctioned by a respected French government because legitimates, the later deportations were almost unthinkable, in any case, much more complicated to carry out the aryanisation seems to be the field where a certain effectiveness was obtained and where the results were impressive. The Jews were indeed isolated economic life of the nation, apparently without much difficulty.

As for the foreign Jews, they are regarded as waste which does not have really their place in France. Starting from October 4th, 1940, the prefects can intern the foreigners of “Jewish race” in special camps or assign them with residence. In February 1941: 40000 foreign Jews stagnate in a series of camps: the Miles, Gurs, Rivesaltes, etc In July 1940, whereas the “final solution” was not yet with the day order, the Germans had expelled: 20000 Jews of Alsace and Lorraine towards the nonoccupied zone. Later, as from 1942, when pressures start to be exerted to be able to implement the “final solution”, the French government could always show itself reconciling to deliver to the Germans foreign Jews. Collaboration between the German and French police forces is reinforced by what is called the agreements Bousquet - Oberg, of the name of the chief of the French police force and the representative in France of the German police force. The Germans can count on the French police force for rafler the foreign Jews, at least until the end 1942.

Implementation of the final solution

The Germans start to implement in France their policy of massive extermination of the Jews of Europe as of March 1942, where a convoy of Jewish deportees leaves Compiegne, turntable towards the death camps. Officially, it is a question of gathering them in a badly definite area (one speaks about Poland) that the Germans would have decided to place at the disposal of the Jews. Among them are French Jews, and the Vichy government does not express a protest. In occupied zone, the Jews are obliged to carry yellow star as from May 1942. This measurement will never be imposed in southern zone, even after its occupation by the Germans. The deportation of the Jews will become great extensive starting from the raid of Vel' of hiv, July 16th and 17th 1942: : 12884 Jews stateless people (: 3031 men: 5802 women and: 4051 children) are stopped by the French police force, gathered with the Cycle-racing track of winter under sordid conditions, then in Drancy, from where they will be forwarded to the death camps. At the end of August 1942, in free zone: 7000 foreign Jews are raids and delivered to the Germans.

The two series of measures antijuives, that of October 1940 and that of June 1941 had hardly raised protests on behalf of the religious authorities which remained the most faithful support of the mode. Just, the Gerlier cardinal, primacy of Gaules, it had given to the Head of the State, in September 1941 a note expressing of the reserves on the policy anti-semite. Its protesting counterpart, Pasteur Boegner, had addressed a personal letter to the admiral Darlan a little earlier, in March 1941. In the same way, the very hard conditions of internment of the foreign Jews had hardly moved the public opinion. Only some charitable organizations, either Jewish, or Protestant (the CIMADE), joined by some catholics had been concerned with carry help to the internees of the camps of Gurs, Noë, Récébédou, etc

From the semione, one attends a public change in public opinion. The port of yellow star, initially had caused the reprobation of much French as well as a new protest of Pasteur Boegner. In fact finally the raids of summer 1942 cause a decisive turn. Not only among the basic Christians, but also among the catholic hierarchy. In addition to the confidential steps, five catholic prelates of the southern zone make known publicly, in pulpit, their disapproval. The most famous protest is that of Mgr Jules Saliège, archbishop of Toulouse, whose letter is read in pulpit on August 23rd.

Henceforth, Laval and Bousquet will propose the opposition of the Église in the talks with Oberg to reduce the implication of the French police force in the process of deportations of the Jews. According to the words of Serge Klarsfeld, “the end of this massive co-operation is not in 1943 but in September 1942”. This turning does not want to say stop: the French police force, always under the orders of Bousquet, stops in the Paris region 700 people in October, 600 in November and 835 in December, whose majority were French.

In November 1942, the Germans invade the southern zone. At once, the Höherer S und Polizeiführer settled in all the prefectures to develop its antijuives activities. The German police force undoubtedly shows less effectiveness than the French police force, but it tracks the French Jews as well as the foreigners, and much of French Jews of the southern zone, believing itself protected or forgotten by the Vichy government, had not taken the practice to hide. From November 1942 in September 1943, the zone of Italian occupation, namely the two departments of Savoy and especially the Alpes-Maritimes, becomes the last refuge for the Jews. One finds some close to: 30000, in September 1943 in what proves to be a trap, when the Germans invade the zone after the capitulation of Italy. Under the control of Aloïs Brunner, the German police force and a unit of Waffen-SS rake the three departments, but for lack of a sufficient support of the French authorities, the operation leads only to the arrest of: 2000 Jews, deportees with Drancy then with Auschwitz.

The Right ones of France

Statistics

There was, in 1940: 330000 Jews in France. Between spring 1942 and the Release of 1944: 76000 Jews are off-set towards the death camps, in 79 convoys. : 2500 only will return. A third was French Jews, and two thirds of the foreign Jews. 14% had less than eighteen years and 12% more than sixty years.

From March in December 1942: 43000 Jews were off-set in 43 convoys, bound for Auschwitz. The three quarters came from the northern zone and the remaining quarter of the southern zone.

In 1943: 17000 Jews are off-set in 17 convoys, 13 for Auschwitz and 4 for Sobibor.

In 1944, (the first 7 months): 16000 Jews are off-set of 14 convoys for Auschwitz.

November 1942: the Torch operation and occupation of the free zone

See also: Operation Torch, Mode of Vichy in released Africa (1942-1943)

The month of November 1942 is revolving in the Second world war, which marks the moment when, for the first time since the Accords of Munich (1938), Hitler lost the initiative in the West. For France of Vichy, it is about a rupture which does not have escaped with the contemporaries. By losing at the same time its sovereignty on part of France and the Empire, the specific situation which made it possible to justify the policy of neutrality and collaboration breaks down.

In the framework of the Operation Torch, the Americans and the English unload on November 8th, 1942 on the coasts of North Africa, in Algeria and in Morocco. Thanks to the action of the resistant local, which, in agreement with the American consuls, occupy the strategic points of Algiers, and there neutralizes during several hours the Vichyist generals, to start with June and Darlan, the Allies will be able to unload without opposition, then to encircle the city and to obtain in the course of the day its capitulation with its intact port. On the other hand, at Oran, and especially at Morocco, the Noguès general, reside general faithful to Vichy, opposes a resistance which shows: 1346 dead French and: 2000 wounded on the one hand and 479 dead American and 720 wounded. He follows a complex political situation in Algiers where the Americans will treat with Darlan which is by chance in Algiers, and seizes the power in Africa in the name of the Marshal. Darlan preserves all the laws of Vichy and maintains the deportees political in the Concentration camps of North Africa. It is cut down on December 24th, 1942 by the young patriot Fernand Bonnier of the Vault, and is replaced by Giraud. This last maintains the mode of Vichy and makes stop 27 chiefs of resistance. It will be necessary to wait on May 30th, 1943 so that de Gaulle settles in Algiers, but on the point of the feet, and several months still so that, after having évincé Giraud in October 1943, it finally manages to restore the republican legislation.

For Vichy, the operation has a double consequence:

On the one hand, the complete loss of the Empire, because after AEF (French equatorial Africa) passed in the camp of the free France dice August 1940, then Syria and Lebanon, after the intervention of the British, it is not only North Africa which escapes control from Vichy, but also the AOF (French Africa Western) which joins in Darlan on November 23rd. November 30th, the Réunion joins in fighting France. In addition, the invasion by Wehrmacht of the old free zone puts an end to the very particular statute of occupied France. The army of armistice, which fought the Allies in Morocco violently delivers the southern zone to the forces of the Axis without drawing a shot. What does not prevent the occupants to dissolve it. Laval then created the Militia, directed by Darnand, to replace the dissolved army and to repress the dissidents. As for the fleet of Toulon, it scuttles in extremis on November 27th, 1942, against the request for Laval, and after being themselves let encircle by the Germans and have refused to join the Allies.

Diplomatic relations with the Allies

The the United Kingdom, little time after the Armistice (June 22nd, 1940), attacked the French military fleet stationed with Mers el Kébir, killing: 1297 French soldiers and sliding ring or seriously damaging very many buildings. It feared that the French military fleet falls into the hands from the Kriegsmarine and can be employed against its own naval forces which were essential for the maintenance of free world maritime communications and for the maritime communications of the Allies. Consequently, Vichy immediately broke its diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.

It should be noted that the conditions of the Armistice allowed, under very strict conditions, that France (mode of Vichy) preserves the use of its National marine. The mode of Vichy however had begun near the Allies so that it does not fall into the hands from Germany from 3rd Reich, but he had refused to send it out of reach of the zone of influence of Germany, either in Great Britain, or or in the distances territories of the colonial Empire French (such as for example in the French West Indies). This refusal to put to out of reach the National marine was not making safe for Winston Churchill. This one thus made seize by the Royal Navy French buildings stationed in the British ports and the French squadron stationed in the port Alexandria (Egypt), placed under the command of the admiral Rene-Emile Godfroy, was in this port, after the concluding of an agreement with the admiral Andrew Cunningham (ordering Royal Navy in the Mediterranean) assigned with residence until 1943 and disarmed.

The the USSR maintained, until June 30th, 1941, its diplomatic relations with the mode of Vichy, it broke them because the mode of Vichy supported the Opération Barbarossa.

The the United States granted their diplomatic recognition to the mode of Vichy and sent in France, until November 1942 (invasion of the Free Zone by the troops of 3rd Reich), the admiral William D. Leahy as an ambassador of the United States. The president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Secretary of State Cordell Hull hoped to use of the American influence to encourage the resistance of the elements of the Vichy government opposed to military collaboration with Germany. They wanted to also encourage the mode of Vichy to resistance towards German military requests like the use of French air bases in Syria, or wanted to make him move weaponries of the metropolitan territory in North Africa. The American position was that the mode of Vichy was to take any measurement not being explicitly required by the terms of the Armistice and/or being able to compromise the efforts of the Alliés in the war. The Canada maintained, until the beginning of November 1942, its diplomatic relations with the mode of Vichy, it did it as well its own initiative as at the request of the British government which wished to preserve a transportation route. It broke them with the entry of the German troops in the free zone managed by the mode of Vichy. The Australia maintained, until the end of the Second world war, its diplomatic relations with the mode of Vichy and also maintained the diplomatic relations with the free France of the Général de Gaulle; quotation of the embassy of France with Canberra: “Of June 1940 in July 1944, the French diplomatic representation based in Sydney was dual, a representation officiating for the Vichy government and the other for the de Gaulle general”.

French colonial empire (1940-1945)

The “Franco-French” war

The period 1940-1944 sees to clash certain French the ones against the others:

Two capacities dispute legitimacy: the Vichy government and the authority of London are brought to direct confrontations to dispute the pieces of the French Empire. In Dakar, in September 1940, the forces faithful to Pétain push back the free free intervention - British, and in Syria, the troops of free France face at the sides of the British the troops faithful to Vichy in fatal combat.
In metropolis, one sees to clash the interior Résistance (rejoined overall with the de Gaulle General, but partly influenced by the Communist party) and which is packed considerably as from 1943, to the French Milice, created in January 1943 to fight against “terrorism”, i.e. against the Résistance, and which operates under the orders of the occupants.

The business Syria-Lebanon (June-July 1941)

The Syria and the Lebanon were territories placed under French supervision by a mandate of SDN that the French thus regarded as belonging to their Empire. At the beginning of 1941, the Dentz general ordered an army there of: 40000 men. While escaping from it a few front months to join the Free French Army in Palestine, the general of Larminat had succeeded in involving only 300 men.

April 1st, 1941, it occurred in Iraq (country under British influence) a coup d'etat antibritannic supported by the German services. The oil stake is obviously of first importance. While negotiating the protocols of Paris from which one is relating to the Raising (name then given to the Middle East), Darlan, with the personal agreement of the Pétain marshal, looks further into collaboration with the enemy while granting to him in Syria a technical support, like, with the planes of Luftwaffe, the base of Alep from where they are authorized to use the aerodromes of Syria to go to bombard the British in Iraq. Darlan meets Hitler on May 14th, 1941, then Abetz with which it signs the agreements of Paris which envisage, inter alia, explicitly, the use of the French bases in Syria. This new situation does nothing but worsen the concern of the British and the Americans. When the British finished some with the rebellion of Rachid Ali, they tackle the French forces of Syria and Lebanon on June 8th, 1941. : 30000 British soldiers supported by a division of free French attack them: 40000 men of the Dentz general. Far from limiting itself to a “last-ditch struggle”, the French of the Dentz general resist. The engagements last until July 14th and show: 1066 killed and: 5400 wounded for the French from the general Dentz, 650 killed and wounded for the French Free S and: 4060 killed and wounded for the British. The large one of the troops regains France, but, in spite of the hardness of the combat which have just opposed them: 5500 men join in free France. However the British perhaps who did not wish the maintenance of an important French force in the Middle East, had made difficult the contact between free French officers and the prisoners Vichyist.

Resistance

Unloadings and Release

For the French, 1944 will be one year of great joy thanks to the Libération. It will be also a year of sufferings and tears because of the bombardments which precede and accompany the two unloadings by Normandy (June 6th) and of Provence (August 15th).

The authorities of Vichy, adopting a frontage of neutrality, try to divert the French of resistance: “We are not in the war” declares Pétain suddenly while asking the civils servant to remain at their stations. On his behalf, the admiral Auphan tries to contact the allies and even with de Gaulle. He is gotten rid of while Laval is with the research solution members of Parliament and invents political combinations where Queuille would be in the Elysium and Herriot in Matignon. Finally, it holds on August 17th a show of the Council with four ministers and joined Belfort where it is dealt with by the Germans. Three days later, it is Pétain which is taken along of force by the Germans. Both find on September 7th with the castle of Sigmaringen (Bade-Wurtemberg) where a certain number of survivors of the mode of Vichy and Collaboration are gathered.

The Americans had threatened to put France under military administration. De Gaulle managed to turn over the situation. When it arrives on June 14th at Bayeux, it is accommodated by ovations of crowd and there installs a police chief of the Republic. Thereafter de Gaulle goes in Paris released by the Résistants and Leclerc division, and receives a triumphal walkabout there. Its provisional government is finally recognized by all the Allies on October 23rd, and Roosevelt gives up definitively the installation in metropolis released from a military government of AMGOT - certain historians even estimate that the Americans had never really thought of it as seriously as he was believed a long time. De Gaulle then returns visit to the US president, which affects to have given up its preventions in its connection.

France, released and again sovereign, takes again its place in the combined camp, and the Vichyist prefects not having made any difficulty to pass their capacities to the new police chiefs of the Republic, the administration joins in block at the new provisional government without major jolts.

End of the mode of Vichy

The ordinance of the Provisional government of the French Republic (GPRF) of August 9th, 1944 relating to the re-establishment of republican legality on the continental territory affirms permanence in right of the French Republic. For that it must deny the legality of its act and Vichy government (constitutional or not).

The Article first precise:

The shape of the government of France east and remains the Republic. In right, this one did not cease existing.

From which article two rises:

Are consequently, null and of no effect all the constitutional, legislative or lawful acts, as well as the decrees taken for their execution, under some denomination that it is, promulgated on the continental territory subsequently to June 16th, 1940 and until the re-establishment of the Provisional government of the French Republic.

Here is for republican continuity and the “obliteration” of the legislation of the mode of Vichy. Article seven of the ordinance baptizes the mode of Vichy like authority in fact saying government of the French State , denying in fact its legality.

Legally, after the ordinance of August 9th, 1944, the mode of Vichy is not any more, it is summarized with an authority in fact.

References

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