…<\/p>\n
Defeat in 1940 had cost the French more than\u00a0their freedom; it cost them their identity.<\/p>\n
Hitler’s brutal terms of the June 22nd armistice stripped France of little actual territory – only the long fought over Alsace-Lorraine region changed hands (and even that wasn’t actually annexed). \u00a0Most of the northern half of the country, and the Atlantic coastal region, was deemed the “occupied zone”, allowing for German troops to remain stationed against any potential Allied invasion, but\u00a0be civilly administered by the new French government based out of Vichy.<\/p>\n
![\"Petain](\"http:\/\/jssnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/petain.jpg\" "\\"petain")
Petain assumes command. The Victor of Verdun immediately blamed democracy for the fall of the Third Republic and adopted a quasi-fascist government model<\/p><\/div>\n
At the helm was a man hailed as a French national hero. \u00a0Marshal Philippe\u00a0P\u00e9tain had rallied French troops amid the slaughter of Verdun in World War I and was widely credited at home as having turned the tide of the war against the Germans. \u00a0P\u00e9tain’s patriotism and anti-German credentials were seen as beyond question. \u00a0It was little wonder then that as\u00a0Prime Minister Paul\u00a0<\/a>Reynaud resigned (his cabinet refused to support his intention of relocating the government to North Africa and continuing the war),\u00a0P\u00e9tain was tapped to succeed him as PM. \u00a0At 84 years of age,\u00a0P\u00e9tain took charge of a nation reeling from a shocking German offensive. \u00a0Six days into his government, with still more than half the nation free of German occupation,\u00a0P\u00e9tain chose surrender to resistance.<\/p>\n His choice set the stage for the next 2 1\/2 years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Hero of WWI; the Villain of WWII – Marshal Petain shakes hands with the man who destroyed France<\/p><\/div>\n The French had little leverage at the Second\u00a0Compi\u00e8gne – so named as it was the site of the initial German armistice in 1918. \u00a0The 1.6 million French who had surrendered to German forces would not go home but remain a permanent slave workforce. \u00a0The French government might have civil control of the “occupation zone” but had to pay for the 300,000+ German troops stationed in the north and west – to the tune 20 million\u00a0Reichmarks a day. \u00a0And the French were expected to assist the Germans at every turn. \u00a0From preventing civilians escaping the country to rounding up French Jews, \u00a0the newly formed government at Vichy might be French in purpose but German in nature.<\/p>\n There were no shortage of collaborators. \u00a0When the new Vichy government met on July 1st, former 4-time Prime Minister\u00a0Pierre\u00a0<\/em>Laval twisted arms to ensure that\u00a0P\u00e9tain was given absolute power. \u00a0Laval defend the move to despotism, stating:\u00a0“parliamentary democracy has lost the war; it must disappear, ceding its place to an authoritarian, hierarchical, national and social regime.”<\/em> \u00a0P\u00e9tain agreed. \u00a0The French motto of\u00a0Libert\u00e9, Egalit\u00e9, Fraternit\u00e9<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0(Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood), was replaced by\u00a0Travail, Famille, Patrie<\/em>\u00a0(Work, Family, Fatherland). \u00a0The national anthem became\u00a0Mar\u00e9chal, nous voil\u00e0!<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>or Marshal, here we are!<\/em>\u00a0 Even poor\u00a0Paul\u00a0<\/a>Reynaud, now stripped of any power, was thrown in jail for life in a sham trial.<\/p>\n All Hitler wanted was France out of the war; he cared little what style of governance the Vichy had as long as they stayed out of the way. \u00a0All the German General Staff wanted was access to French ports and the French navy out of the fight. \u00a0It had taken German troops to occupy Paris. \u00a0But it took French collaborators to bring fascism to France.<\/p>\n The Waffen-SS Charlemagne Division – an SS Division of French recruits<\/p><\/div>\n Collaboration took many aspects. \u00a0The\u00a0Parti Populaire Fran\u00e7ais<\/em>, a nationalist group that predated the war, took a greater role in politics even as they decried\u00a0P\u00e9tain’s “moderation.” \u00a0Action Fran\u00e7aise<\/em>, a right-leaning political party, described the German victory as a\u00a0“divine surprise.”\u00a0 The L\u00e9gion des Volontaires<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>took recruits to fight in Russia while some joined the German Army directly such as the\u00a0Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS\u00a0Charlemagne<\/em> – a unit that finished the war in the ruins of Berlin.<\/p>\n Worst was the French collaboration\u00a0with Nazi racial policies. \u00a015,000 French Jews were “denaturalized” – stripped of their citizenship as to make it easier for them to be arrested and hauled off to Germany. \u00a0Thousands more “undesirable” persons including gypsies, homosexuals, and political prisoners found their way onto French trains en route to German concentration camps. \u00a0Some didn’t have to travel that far – the\u00a0Natzweiler camp<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0was opened on French soil and included a gas chamber. \u00a0An estimated 90,000 Jews died after being captured by the French. \u00a014,000 of them in French concentration camps.<\/p>\n None of these actions damped the Allies’ attitude towards Vichy, which they regarded as the legitimate French government. \u00a0History has Gen.\u00a0Charles de Gaulle leading the French in exile. \u00a0In practicality, de Gaulle was despised by the Allies. \u00a0FDR remarked that de Gaulle was an\u00a0“apprentice dictator.” \u00a0Recognition of de Gaulle’s Free French Army as the official government of France didn’t happen until October of 1944 – four months after Paris had been liberated and nearly two years after Vichy had been overthrown by the Nazis.<\/p>\n Sieg, uh, Petain? The French sport Nazi salutes<\/p><\/div>\n Resistance abroad may have been the face of Charles de Gaulle, but resistance at home was rarely seen outside the shadows. \u00a0La R\u00e9sistance<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>captured hearts and minds and the attention of the German Army, but initially fought little against Vichy. \u00a0The courtesy was not returned. \u00a0<\/em>The Milce<\/em> (militia) was Vichy’s response to the Resistance. \u00a0Tens of thousands of Milce<\/em> joined the hunt for Resistance members, torturing and murdering to extract information. \u00a0The result was a simmering civil war, with political leaders on both sides being assassinated, including\u00a0Philippe Henriot<\/span><\/a><\/span>, the Vichy regime’s Minister of Information and Propaganda. \u00a0Such bloodshed during the war was slight by comparison to what followed after liberation. \u00a025-35,000\u00a0miliciens<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>serviced Vichy. \u00a0Most of those who survived the war found death at the hands of the new French government.<\/p>\n The famed French Resistance: they rarely targeted Vichy forces despite Petain most certainly targeting them<\/p><\/div>\n The real French Civiil War wasn’t happening in France but in the overseas colonials that had defined the nation as an Imperial power. \u00a0In the months and years that followed the fall of France, the choice for each colonial outpost became stark – join the Free French or submit to Vichy.<\/p>\n Such a choice almost didn’t happen. \u00a0In the immediate aftermath of the French surrender, Winston Churchill hoped that he could convince the new Vichy government to somehow continue the war or at least give in to British demands regarding the French Mediterranean Fleet or bases in French colonial territory. \u00a0Seeing that Vichy had no stomach for a fight, Churchill reluctantly turned to de Gaulle, despite holding similar views as Roosevelt about the rebellious French general.<\/p>\n Some regions, especially Central Africa, quickly joined the Free French. \u00a0Others, such as North Africa, the Middle & Far East regions, remained loyal to Vichy and were eventually invaded and occupied by Allied troops. \u00a0These campaigns, largely forgotten to history, have not been forgotten by the French.<\/p>\n The “Armistice Army.” France was allowed to keep a minimal army to defend principally their colonial outposts from Allied invasion<\/p><\/div>\n The Battle of Mers-el-K\u00e9bir in French Algeria – a British operation to sink the French fleet to prevent their use by the Germans – killed nearly 1,300 French sailors. \u00a0The campaigns against Vichy Syria and Lebanon, where French troops made up the majority of troops on both sides, killed at least 12,000. \u00a0The invasion of Madagascar was minor by comparison – only a few thousand killed or wounded. \u00a0The death toll might pale against the backdrop of a conflict that killed millions, but the significance of Frenchmen fighting each other for (at the time) vague political concerns, hinted at the chasm that awaited France at the end of the war.<\/p>\n Vichy of Arabia: Vichy camel-mounted troops in Syria. The civil war in French colonial territories is largely forgotten today<\/p><\/div>\n The Allied invasion of North Africa prompted the beginning of the end for the Vichy regime. \u00a0Worried about a potential invasion from southern France, German and Italian forces launched Case Anton<\/a>\u00a0– the invasion of Vichy-held France.\u00a0 Unsure whether to resist or lay down their arms, the Armistice Army did both. \u00a0Vichy was already in panic from the Allied invasion which had inadvertently managed to capture the government’s Prime Minister, former head of the Navy\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Darlan. Now Vichy found themselves as nothing more than a Puppet government; a shell corporation to pay for a German occupation of all French territory.<\/p>\n Yet the principles of Vichy seemed as though they might live on. \u00a0Despite being a major collaborator, Darlan was viewed as necessary to get Vichy forces on the Allied side in North Africa. \u00a0Securing Darlan’s release from Free French forces, the Allies placed Darlan at the head of the French African colonial government – and promoted Darlan as the head of the Free French resistance. \u00a0In less than 72 hours, the Free French saw themselves capture one of their biggest opponents and then be told their prisoner was to become their commander.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/allezfrancais.wikispaces.com\/file\/view\/r0000530.jpg\/143635935\/r0000530.jpg\" "\\"petain\\"")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/4sfPrHL4v94\/hqdefault.jpg\" "\\"traitors\\"")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.moonbattery.com\/archives\/French-Nazis.jpg\" "\\"vichy")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wittworldwide.com\/images\/FrenchMGGrpPhotox.jpg\" "\\"army\\"")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-LF1mCGrroMU\/Tvjk-Rh3-qI\/AAAAAAAACYo\/-5TbI5FpnsA\/s1600\/Vichy_camel_troops_in_Syria_03.jpg\" "\\"Vichy")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.executedtoday.com\/images\/Milice_executed.png\" "\\"executed\\"")