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The Vichy regime stands as one of the most shameful episodes in the country's history, the repercussions of which still reverberate throughout French society today. But what happened to turn France into a quasi-police state, and who were those responsible for doing so? Click through and revisit one of the most shocking and disgraceful chapters of the Second World War.
Vichy France was the regime established by Marshal Philippe Pétain and Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. An armistice signed on June 22, 1940 effectively divided France into two zones: one to be under German military occupation and one to be left to the French in full sovereignty. But the Vichy government quickly became a collaborationist state, its leaders working openly with the Third Reich to suppress political dissent, gag free speech, and counter a burgeoning resistance movement. Notably, it was also complicit in the roundup of thousands of French and foreign Jews, expediting their deportation to concentration camps in Germany and certain death.
On May 10, 1940, France, as the Third French Republic, was invaded by Nazi Germany. Within weeks, the country had been overrun. Pictured are German troops entering the town of Arras.
At 10 pm on June 18, 1940, General Charles de Gaulle broadcast to German-occupied France from London, and rallied the French Resistance to him. De Gaulle led the Free French Forces from England and later from Algiers throughout the occupation.
With Belgium and Luxembourg already in enemy hands, and the German army now closing in on Paris, the military situation of the French was dire. Pictured are French prisoners of war in a prison camp near Bastogne in Belgium.
De Gaulle refused to accept that the fight for his country was over. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud (pictured) agreed, urging his countrymen to defend the nation. However, the majority of government officials felt otherwise, and talks began to discuss the possibility of an armistice. Reynaud promptly resigned in protest.
On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. The Third Republic was abandoned and parliament voted to give Chief of State Marshal Philippe Pétain full legislative and executive powers. Symbolically, the exchange of signatures took place in Compiègne Forest in the same railway carriage used to sign the 1918 Armistice with Germany that signaled the end of the First World War with Germany's surrender. In this photograph, Adolf Hitler is second from right.
The day after the French surrender and the signing of the Second Armistice, Hitler visited Paris where the iconic photograph of the Nazi dictator posing in front of the Eiffel Tower was taken.
Though Paris was ostensibly the capital, Marshal Philippe Pétain (pictured), a hero of the First World War, chose to base his government in the resort town of Vichy, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France.
Vichy, famed as France's Capitale Thermale for its baths and curative spring waters, and just four hours away from Paris by train, lent Pétain's regime its name: Vichy France.
The terms of the armistice saw France effectively divided into two zones: one to be under German military occupation and one to be left to the French in full sovereignty, at least on paper. This "free zone," identified in the photograph as the darker region, comprised the southeastern two-fifths of the country.
Under Pétain, Vichy France adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany. Its leaders also began looking everywhere for an explanation for their country's defeat.
Pierre Laval served as prime minister during the German occupation. A lawyer by profession, he became the main architect of the Vichy regime and pointed the finger directly towards communists, socialists, and Jews as reasons for France's downfall. Laval is pictured in 1943 with Hitler at Berghof, the Nazi leader's alpine retreat in Bavaria.
The leaders of the main collaborationist parties in France operating under the Vichy regime were profiled in an October 10, 1941 edition of Le Matin. From left to right: Pierre Costantini (French League), Marcel Déat (National Popular Rally), Eugène Deloncle (Social Revolutionary Movement), and Jacques Doriot (French Popular Party).
A little over a month after German military occupation, French Jews became victims of hostility and ill-treatment. Here, a notice in a restaurant window bans Jews from entering. Life for French Jews only worsened under Nazi rule, and collaborators in both the occupied part of the country and the area controlled by the Vichy regime co-operated enthusiastically in their persecution.
Pithiviers internment camp was the first concentration camp in Vichy France designed to imprison Jews during the Holocaust. Opened in May 1941, it was located 80 km (50 mi) south of Paris and was operated by the gendarmerie and the French police. Designed as a transit facility, most of the Jewish deportees arriving at Pithiviers ended up in Auschwitz.
The Vichy regime followed the German order of September 27, 1940 on identifying all Jews in the occupied zone. To this end, it also operated an internment and transit camp at Beaune-la-Rolande, in north-central France. By the summer of 1942, the Vichy regime had negotiated an agreement with German police officials to offer up 10,000 Jews from the free zone and 20,000 Jews from the occupied zone.
The biggest single mass arrest of French and foreign Jews by French police and gendarmes at the behest of the German authorities took place in Paris on July 16–17, 1942. In what became known as the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, 12,884 Jews, including 4,051 children, were all taken to the Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande camps as well as a third, Drancy, located in a northeastern Paris suburb. They were subsequently deported to Auschwitz.
The man responsible for 'resolving' the Jewish 'problem' in France was Louis Darquier de Pellepoix. Commissioner-General for Jewish Affairs under the Vichy regime, de Pellepoix, a committed anti-Semite, signed off on the deportations of thousands of Jews during his tenure.
In this mid-1942 photograph, Pétain, François Darlan (commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces), Laval, and de Pellepoix are seen in front of the Hôtel du Parc in Vichy. The whole basis of the regimes' position, however, was about to be transformed.
On November 8, 1942, US and British forces landed in North Africa. In response, Germany occupied the whole of France and disbanded the "armistice army" of Vichy. Pictured are the main units of the French fleet scuttled by their crews at Toulon to prevent their falling into German hands.
The German takeover of the previously unoccupied "free zone" in southern France saw units of the Wehrmacht patrolling cities such as Marseille (pictured) and Nice.
A leading figure in the Vichy regime, Joseph Darnand actively collaborated with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. In January 1943 and despite the collapse of the Vichy government, Darnand formed the collaborationist militia known as Milice. While Pierre Laval was its official president, Darnand was the de facto leader of what became one of the most feared and despised organizations to operate in occupied France.
The Milice was the Vichy regime's most extreme manifestation of fascism. Its primary target was the French Resistance, and participated in the summary executions and assassinations of numerous résistants. The Milice also helped round up Jews for deportation.
The French Resistance considered the Milice more dangerous than the Gestapo and SS because they were native Frenchmen familiar with the land, its people, and locals customs and dialect. In this image, a member of the Maquis, rural guerrillas of the French Resistance, is questioned by the French Vichy government militia
Formed to counter the actions of the Milice, the Maquis were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters who operated out of remote or mountainous areas of Brittany and southern France. Pictured is a Maquis raiding unit.
A high profile casualty of the German occupation in France was Jean Moulin (1899–1943). Moulin was the first president of the National Council of the Resistance throughout mid-1943. On June 21, 1943, he was arrested in Lyon along with fellow resistance leaders, one of whom was René Hardy.
Everyone except René Hardy was sent to Montluc prison. Moulin was tortured by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo and known as the "Butcher of Lyon." He later died of his injuries. It's been speculated that Hardy betrayed Moulin and his colleagues, although he denied this for the rest of his life. Hardy is pictured imprisoned at the barracks of Reuilly, before his release in 1950 after being acquitted of involvement in the murder of the resistance hero.
The liberation of Paris took place on August 25, 1944 after the French Forces of the Interior—the military structure of the French Resistance—staged an uprising against the German garrison, which resulted in Nazi capitulation.
General Charles De Gaulle made a point of joining triumphant resistance members during his tour of the liberated French capital. His famous walk along the Champs-Élysées in September was captured on newsreel and in numerous press photographs.
A very different walk awaited those suspected of collaborating with the Nazis. Here, two women accused of assisting the enemy are led through the streets of Paris barefoot, their heads shaved and painted with swastikas, as a punishment for their betrayal of their country.
In August 1945, Philippe Pétain stood trial in Paris accused of treason. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle. Pierre Laval was found guilty of plotting against the security of the state and of collaboration with the enemy. He was executed. Joseph Darnand met a similar fate. Louis Darquier de Pellepoix was sentenced to death in absentia, having fled to Spain. Protected by the fascist regime of Francisco Franco, he died in 1980 aged 92.
Sources: (Smithsonian Magazine) (BBC) (The History Press) (AP News)
Examining a grim and often overlooked chapter of WWII
The shame and betrayal that was Vichy France
LIFESTYLE History
The Vichy regime stands as one of the most shameful episodes in the country's history, the repercussions of which still reverberate throughout French society today. But what happened to turn France into a quasi-police state, and who were those responsible for doing so? Click through and revisit one of the most shocking and disgraceful chapters of the Second World War.