Vichy France

For other uses of "Vichy", see Vichy (disambiguation).

Vichy France, or the Vichy regime was the French government of 1940-1944 during the Nazi Germany occupation of World War II. It started when the parliament, except for 80 of its members, gave full power to Henri Philippe Pétain. Now known in French as the Régime de Vichy or Vichy, during its existence it referred to itself as L'État Français (The French State).

Vichy France was established after France surrendered to Germany in 1940, and took its name from the government's capital in Vichy, southeast of Paris near Clermont-Ferrand and comprising Southern France, commonly known as Occitania. While officially neutral in the war, it was essentially a Nazi puppet state that collaborated with the Nazis, including with the Nazis' racial policies. Initially it ruled an unoccupied zone in Southern France and some French colonies, but Nazi Germany invaded the zone under Vichy control on November 11, 1942, in operation Case Anton.

The Vichy government's claim to be the de jure French government was challenged by the Free French Forces of Charles de Gaulle, based first in London and later in Algiers, and French governments ever since have held that the Vichy regime was an illegal government run by traitors. At the time, the Vichy regime was acknowledged as the official government of France by the United States, though other nations often varied in their choice.

The collaborationist and counterrevolutionary Vichy France regime was headed by France's World War I hero Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain Concerning Vichy's counterrevolutionary nature, refer to René Rémond's classic opus on The Right-Wings in France ; after the end of World War II, Pétain was convicted and sentenced to death for treason, which was commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle.

Within France, the Second World War and the Vichy Regime were intertwined with an internal civil war; one faction opposed the Communist and Republican elements of society, while reactionary elements supported a fascist or similar regime in the mould of Francisco Franco's. This civil war can be seen as the continuation of a fracture that divided French society since the 19th century or even the French Revolution, illustrated by events such as the Dreyfus Affair and the February 6, 1934 riots.

The fall of France and the establishment of the Vichy regime

France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 following the German invasion of Poland. After the eight month Phony War the Germans launched their offensive in the west on 10 May 1940. Within days, it became clear that French forces were overwhelmed and that military collapse was inevitable. Government and military leaders, deeply shocked by the debacle, engaged in debate over how to proceed. Many officials, including the Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, wanted to move the government to French territories in North Africa, and continue the war with the French naval fleet and the resources of the French empire. Others, particularly the vice-premier Henri Philippe Pétain and the commander-in-chief General Maxime Weygand, insisted that the responsibility of the government was to remain in France and share the misfortune of her people. The latter view called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

While this debate continued, the government was forced to relocate several times, finally reaching Bordeaux, in order to avoid capture by advancing German forces. Communications were poor and thousands of civilian refugees clogged the roads. In these chaotic conditions, advocates of an armistice gained the upper hand and overwhelmed the resistance of those who wished to continue the war. The Cabinet agreed on a proposal to seek armistice terms from Germany, with the understanding that, should Germany set forth dishonorable or excessively harsh terms, France would retain the option to continue to fight. In reality, this was probably a pretextual understanding. Once the government breached the psychological barrier of seeking terms from Germany, the armistice was virtually inevitable.

France's Armistice with Hitler

France capitulated on June 22, 1940. The United States had not yet entered the war. The Soviet Union was still in its period of rapprochement with Nazi Germany under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The United Kingdom was left as the only country in Europe at war with the Axis powers.

Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned over the decision and, on his recommendation, President Albert Lebrun appointed the 84-year-old Pétain to replace him on June 16. The Armistice with France (Second Compiègne) agreement was signed on June 22. A separate agreement was reached with Italy, which had entered the war against France on June 10, well after the outcome of the battle was beyond doubt.

Hitler was motivated by a number of reasons to agree to the armistice. He feared that France would continue to fight from North Africa, and he wanted to ensure that the French naval fleet was taken out of the war. He could not know, of course, that the tide of opinion within the French government had turned decisively against this course of action. Also, leaving a French government in place would relieve Germany of the considerable burden of administering French territory. Finally, he hoped to direct his attentions toward Britain, where he anticipated another quick victory.

Conditions of armistice

The armistice divided France into occupied and unoccupied zones. Germany would occupy northern and western France including the entire Atlantic coast. The remaining two-fifths of the country would be governed by the French government with the capital at Vichy under Pétain. Ostensibly, the French government would administer the entire territory. The French Army was reduced to an "Armistice Army" of 100,000 soldiers and French prisoners of war would remain in captivity. The French had to pay the occupation costs of the German troops and prevent any French people from leaving the country.

France was also required to turn over to German custody anyone within the country whom the Germans demanded. Within French deliberations, this was singled out as a potentially "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 were unsuccessful, and the French decided not to allow it to prevent signing the Armistice, though they hoped to ameliorate the requirement in future negotiations with Germany after the Armistice.

The French government broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on July 5 1940 after the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir by British naval forces.

The Third Republic was voted out of existence by a majority of the French National Assembly on July 10, 1940. The assembly met in Vichy, a city in central France, which was used as a provisional capital. The Vichy regime was established the following day, with Pétain as head of state, with the whole powers (Constitutive, Legislative, Executive and Judicial) in his hand. Pétain was given the power to write a new Constitution but this was never done. He instead put forth three Constitutional Acts that suspended the Constitution of the Third Republic of 1875. These Acts suspended Parliament and transferred all powers to himself. On July 12, Pétain designated Pierre Laval as Vice-President and his designated successor, and appointed Fernand de Brinon as representative to the German High Command in Paris. Pétain remained as the head of the Vichy regime until August 20 1944. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood), the French national motto, was replaced by Travail, Famille, Patrie (Work, Family, Fatherland). Pétain's vice-premiers were successively Pierre Laval and François Darlan. Paul Reynaud, who had not officially resigned as Prime Minister, was arrested in September 1940 by the Vichy government and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1941.

Vichy composition and policies

The composition of the Vichy cabinet, and its policies, were mixed. Many Vichy officials such as Pétain, though not all, were reactionaries who considered that France's unfortunate fate was a kind of divine punishment for its Republican character and the actions of its left-wing governments of the 1930s (see Popular Front). Reactionary writer Charles Maurras judged that Pétain's accession to power was, in that respect, a "divine surprise"; and many people of the same political persuasion judged that it was preferable to have an authoritarian, Catholic government similar to that of Francisco Franco's Spain, albeit under Germany's yoke, than have a Republican government. Others, like Joseph Darnand, were strong anti-Semites and overt Nazi sympathisers. A number of these joined the Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme (legion of French volunteers against bolshevism) units fighting on the Eastern Front, or even the Waffen SS.

On the other hand, technocrats such as Jean Bichelonne or engineers from the Groupe X-Crise used their position to push various reforms that had been postponed during the Third Republic. Many of these (for example, the foundation of the statistics office, which would become INSEE after the war, or Alexis Carrel's "French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems" — Alexis Carrel supported eugenics — which became the National Institute of Demographic Studies - INED -, led by Alfred Sauvy, after the war) were retained and reinforced under France's post-war dirigisme.

Furthermore, some members of the Vichy Government, such as young François Mitterrand, claimed to have used their official positions as "insiders" to further the goals of the internal resistance.

Pétain's regime was highly authoritarian.

Fascist paramilitaries

In order to enforce the régime's will, some paramilitary organizations with a fascist leaning were created. A notable example was the "Légion Française des Combattants" (L.F.C.) (French Legion of Fighters), including at first only former combatants, but quickly adding "Amis de la Légion" and cadets of the Légion, who had never seen battle, but were supporters of his dictatorial regime. The name was then quickly changed to "Légion Française des Combattants et des volontaires de la Révolution Nationale" (French Legion of Fighters and volunteers of the National Revolution). Then, Joseph Darnand created a "Service d'Ordre Légionnaire" (S.O.L.), which consisted mostly of French supporters of the Nazis, of which Pétain fully approved.

Implementation of Nazi racial, anti-Semitic laws

As soon as it had been established, Pétain's government took measures against his real or supposed opponents, like "Francs Maçons" (the Freemasons). It also created racist laws of Hitlerian inspiration against Jews even more quickly than Hitler had done after his ascent to power in Germany. These racist laws were more severe than the 1938 Italian Fascist ones, and they were made even stricter in July 1941.

The French police collaborated in the following events:

In October 1940, it registered all French Jews in the police offices, and added the mention "Jews" on their identity cards (as Giorgio Agamben has pointed out, it is these documents and photos which later helped the police in its raids )
Two raids took place on May 14 and August 20, 1941.
It imposed the specific curfew on Jews starting from February 1942.
It made sure that Jews gave back their TSF radios
It made sure that Jews wear the "yellow star" which had been imposed to them
It made sure that Jews who had telephones gave back their machines to them
It attentively monitored the Jews who didn't respect the prohibition according to which they were not supposed to appear in public places and had to travel in the last car of the Parisian metro

Furthermore, foreign Jews staying in France were handed over to Germany. In total, the Vichy government helped in the deportation of 76,000 Jews to German extermination camps; only 2,500 survived the war. During the July 16, 1942 rafle du Vel'd'Hiv ("Vel'd'Hiv raid"), French police officers rounded up 12, 884 Jews — including 4,051 children which the Gestapo hadn't asked for — and imprisoned them in the Winter Velodrome, in unhygienic conditions, from which they were led to Drancy transit camp (run by French constabulary police) and then to the concentration camps. The Gestapo hardly had ordered it to act so; the police eagerly participated in the raid. On July 16, 1995, president Jacques Chirac officially recognized the active participation of French police forces to the July 16, 1942 raid. "There was no effective police resistance until the end of Spring of 1944", wrote historians Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus J.-L. Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, p.27 of Les silences de la police — July 16, 1942 and October 17, 1961, L'Esprit frappeur, 2001, ISBN 2844051731 (Rajsfus is an historian of the French police, the second date refers to the 1961 Paris massacre under the orders of Maurice Papon, who would later be judged for his role during Vichy in Bordeaux); The part on the French police's collaboration, including the numbers of 76, 000 Jews, also come from this book

While it is certain that the Vichy government and a large number of its high administration collaborated in such policies, the exact level of such cooperation is still debated. Compared with the Jewish communities established in other countries invaded by Nazi Germany, French Jews suffered proportionately lighter losses. Former Vichy officials later claimed that they did as much as they could to minimize the impact of the Nazi policies, although mainstream French historians contend that the Vichy regime went beyond the Nazi expectations, which originally concerned only foreign Jews staying in France, not French Jews. Maurice Papon, who became Paris' police prefect and was later responsible for the 1961 Paris massacre, was judged in the 1980s, as well as Klaus Barbie, who worked after the war for the CIA.

Contribution of French fascists

A number of French individuals found fascist philosophies attractive and were advocating them even before the founding of the Vichy regime. Their far-right organizations, such as the Cagoule, had greatly contributed to the destabilization of the French Third Republic in the 1930s, particularly when the left-wing Popular Front had been in power. Some of them had worked as a kind of fifth column in order to ease the German invasion. After Nazi control was established, some of these sympathisers actively assisted the Vichy regime, and in some cases, directly assisted the Nazis, in taking Jewish private property, destroying synagogues and other Jewish monuments, and in shipping Jews to Nazi concentration camps. A prime example is the founder of L'Oréal, Eugène Schueller, and his associate Jacques Corrèze.

The Vichy regime also implemented compulsory work in Germany for young Frenchmen (service du travail obligatoire or STO), a move which pushed some of these young men to join the Resistance instead.

Relationships with the Allied powers

The United States granted Vichy full diplomatic recognition, sending Admiral William D. Leahy to France as American ambassador. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull hoped to use American influence to encourage those elements in the Vichy government opposed to military collaboration with Germany. The Americans also hoped to encourage Vichy to resist German war demands, such as for air bases in French-mandated Syria or to move war supplies through French territories in North Africa. The essential American position was that France should take no action not explicitly required by the armistice terms that could adversely affect Allied efforts in the war.

The United Kingdom viewed the Vichy government with suspicion and, shortly after the armistice, attacked a large French naval contingent in Mers-el-Kebir, killing 1,297 French military personnel. Unsurprisingly, Vichy severed diplomatic relations. Britain feared that the French naval fleet could wind up in German hands and be used against her own naval forces, which were so vital to maintaining world-wide shipping and communications. Under the armistice, France had been allowed to retain the French Navy, the Marine Nationale, under strict conditions. Vichy pledged that the fleet would never fall into the hands of Germany, but refused to send the fleet beyond Germany's reach, either by sending it to Britain, or even to far away territories of the French empire, such as the West Indies. This was not enough security for Winston Churchill. French ships in British ports were seized by the Royal Navy. The French squadron at Alexandria, under Admiral Godfroy, was effectively interned until 1943 after an agreement was reached with Admiral Cunningham, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Creation of Free France

To counter the Vichy regime, General Charles de Gaulle created France Libre (Free France) after his Appeal of June 18, 1940 radio speech. Initially Winston Churchill was ambivalent about de Gaulle and he dropped links with Vichy only when it became clear they would not fight. Even so, the Free France headquarters in London was riven with internal divisions and jealousies.

The additional participation of Free French forces in the Syrian operation was controversial within allied circles. It raised the prospect of Frenchmen shooting at Frenchmen, raising fears of a civil war. Additionally, it was believed that the Free French were widely reviled within Vichy military circles, and that Vichy forces in Syria were less likely to resist the British if they were not accompanied by elements of the Free French. Nevertheless, De Gaulle convinced Churchill to allow his forces to participate, although De Gaulle was forced to agree to a joint British-Free French proclamation promising that Syria and Lebanon would become fully independent at the end of the war.

However, there were still French naval ships under French control. A large squadron was in port at Mers El Kébir harbour near Oran. Vice Admiral Sommerville, with Force H under his command, was instructed to deal with the situation in July 1940. Various terms were offered to the French squadron, but all were rejected. Consequently, Force H opened fire on the French ships. Over 1,000 French sailors died when an old French battleship blew up in the attack. Less than two weeks after the armistice, Britain had fired upon forces of its former ally. The result was shock and resentment towards the UK within the French Navy, and to a lesser extent in the general French public.

Tensions with Britain in Syria, Madagascar

The next flashpoint between Britain and Vichy came in June 1941 when a revolt in Iraq had to be put down by British forces. Luftwaffe aircraft, staging through the French possession of Syria, intervened in the fighting in small numbers. That highlighted Syria as a threat to British interests in the Middle East. Consequently, British forces, as well as troops from the Australian Army invaded Syria and Lebanon, capturing Damascus on June 17.

One other major operation against Vichy French territory took place using British forces. It was feared that Japanese forces might use Madagascar as a base and thus cripple British trade and communications in the Indian Ocean. As a result, Madagascar was invaded by British and South African forces in 1942. It fell relatively quickly, but the operation is often viewed as an unnecessary diversion of British naval resources away from more vital theatres of operation.

German invasion, November 1942

President Roosevelt continued to cultivate Vichy and promoted General Henri Giraud as a preferable alternative to de Gaulle, despite the poor performance of Vichy forces in North Africa—Admiral François Darlan had landed in Algiers the day before Operation Torch with the XIXth Vichy Army Corps, only to be neutralised within 15 hours by a 400-strong French resistance force. Nonetheless, Admiral Darlan was accepted by Roosevelt and Churchill as the French leader in North Africa, rather than de Gaulle. The United States also resented the Free French taking control of St Pierre and Miquelon on December 24, 1941 because, Secretary of State Hull believed, it interfered with a U.S.-Vichy agreement to maintain the status quo with respect to French territorial possessions in the western hemisphere. ^*^*

After Darlan signed an armistice with the Allies and took power in North Africa, Germany violated the 1940 armistice and invaded Vichy France on 10 November 1942 (operation code-named Case Anton).

Even though he was now in the Allied camp, Darlan maintained the repressive Vichy system in North Africa, including the maintenance of concentration camps in southern Algeria. He was killed on December 24, 1942 in Algiers by the young monarchist Bonnier de La Chapelle, with the real power in mainland France devolving into the hands of Laval. Darlan was then succeeded by Giraud who maintained the Vichy regime in North Africa for months, until the unification of French fighting forces and territories by the Comité français de Libération nationale, and the taking of power by de Gaulle, who re-established democracy. The Roosevelt administration was notably cool, if not hostile to de Gaulle, especially resenting his refusal to cooperate in the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944. With the Vichy leaders gone from French territory due to the US and British invasion and advance, on October 23, 1944 the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union formally recognized the de Gaulle regime as the provisional government of France.

Independence of the S.O.L

In 1943, the S.O.L. became independent and was transformed into the "Milice française" (French Militia), and Joseph Darnand was appointed head of that Vichy Milice, the wartime police. He held an SS rank and took an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Under Darnand and his sub-commanders, such as Paul Touvier and Jacques de Bernonville, the Milice was responsible for helping the German forces and police in the repression of the French Resistance and Maquis. In addition, the Milice participated with area Gestapo head Klaus Barbie in seizing members of the resistance and minorities including Jews for shipment to detention centres, such as the Drancy deportation camp, en route to Auschwitz, and other German concentration camps, including Dachau and Buchenwald.

Liberation of France and aftermath

Following the Allied invasions of France, Pétain and his ministers were taken to Germany by the German forces where they established a government in exile at Sigmaringen.

In 1945, many members of the Vichy government were arrested and charged with high treason and other crimes. Trials ensued and some, including Laval and Darnand, were executed. Pétain was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment due to his achievements during World War I. Others fled or went into hiding, such as Jacques de Bernonville who went to Québec, while some were not prosecuted for their crimes until much later, or not at all. In 1993, former Vichy official René Bousquet was murdered while he awaited prosecution in Paris following a 1989 complaint for crimes against humanity; he had been prosecuted after the war, but had been acquitted in 1949.^* In 1994 former Vichy official Paul Touvier was convicted of crimes against humanity.

The official point of view of the French government is that the Vichy regime was an illegal government distinct from the French Republic, established by traitors under foreign influence. Indeed, Vichy France eschewed the formal name of France ("French Republic") and styled itself the "French State". While the criminal behavior of Vichy France is acknowledged, and some former Vichy officials prosecuted, this point of view denies any responsibility of the French Republic. However, on July 16, 1995, president Jacques Chirac, in a speech, recognized the responsibility of the French State for seconding the "criminal folly of the occupying country". article from Le Monde

References

Bibliography

Le régime de Vichy et les Français (sous la direction de Jean-Pierre Azéma et François Bédarida, Institut d'histoire du temps présent), Fayard, 1992, ISBN 2213026831
Pr Yves Maxime Danan, La vie politique à Alger, de 1940 à 1944, L.G.D.J., Paris 1963.
Pr François-Georges Dreyfus, Histoire de Vichy, Éditions de Fallois, 2004, ISBN 2877064891
Robert Gildea. 2002. Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation. Picador. ISBN 0312423594.
Julian Jackson. France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2001. ISBN 0198207069.
Megan Koreman. The Expectation of Justice: France, 1944-1946. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1999.
William Langer, Our Vichy gamble, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1947.

George E. Melton. Darlan: Admiral and Statesman of France, 1881-1942. Westport, CT: Praeger. 1998. ISBN 0275959732. (defending the collaborator)
Henri Michel, Vichy, année 40, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1967.
Général Albert Merglen, Novembre 1942: La grande honte, L'Harmattan, Paris 2000, ISBN 2738420362
Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (London, 1972) edition, 2000: ISBN 0231124694
John F. Sweets, "Choices in Vichy France : The French Under Nazi Occupation" (New York, 1986), translated into French as, "Clermont-Ferrand à l’heure allemande" (Paris, 1996)

External links

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