[85] The United States also resented the Free French taking control of St Pierre and Miquelon on 24 December 1941, because, Secretary of State Cordell 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. [30] As early as February 1936, Pétain had told the Italian Ambassador to France that "England has always been France's most implacable enemy"; he went on to say that France had "two hereditary enemies", namely Germany and Britain, with the latter being easily the more dangerous of the two; and he wanted a Franco-German-Italian alliance that would partition the British Empire, an event that Pétain claimed would solve all of the economic problems caused by the Great Depression. Vichy imposed no restrictions on black people in the Unoccupied Zone; the regime even had a mulatto cabinet minister, the Martinique-born lawyer Henry Lémery. France, praising itself for having remained an independent state (as opposed to other occupied countries) "decided to cooperate. [8] Alsace-Lorraine was officially still part of France, as the Reich never annexed the region. At his trial Pétain proclaimed that while Charles de Gaulle had represented the "sword" of France, Pétain had been the "shield" which protected France.[171]. However, during the war the Vichy government was internationally recognized,[10] notably by the United States[11] and several other major Allied powers. note], The president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France-Côte d'Azur, a Jewish association group, issued a strong condemnation labelling it "the utmost horror" when one of the inhabitants of such a condominium qualified this as an "anachronism" with "no consequences". The centralised, bureaucratic control of the French economy was not a success, as German demands grew heavier and more unrealistic, passive resistance and inefficiencies multiplied, and Allied bombers hit the rail yards; Vichy made the first comprehensive long-range plans for the French economy. After Darlan signed an armistice with the Allies and took power in North Africa, Germany violated the 1940 armistice with France and invaded Vichy France on 10 November 1942 (operation code-named Case Anton), triggering the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon. "The history of the Holocaust in France's three North African colonies (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) is intrinsically tied to France's fate during this period. Historians have since the 1970s rejected that position and argued, "Vichy had a political agenda of its own, which it pursued without the slightest pressure from Germany. [58], The Soviet Union maintained full diplomatic relations with the Vichy government until 30 June 1941. Darlan was neutralised within 15 hours by a 400-strong French resistance force. It was the intelligence they provided he felt was priceless. [133] Thus both teams of wartime and early postwar planners repudiated prewar laissez-faire practices and embraced the cause of drastic economic overhaul and a planned economy. Pétainistes, on the other hand, were direct supporters of Marshal Pétain rather than of Germany (although they accepted Pétain's state collaboration). "Workers, farmers and Catholicism: A history of political class coalitions and the south-European welfare state regime". Ben Cohen - 16 Adar 5781 – February 28, 2021. In October 1940, the military forces of Thailand attacked across the border with Indochina and launched the Franco-Thai War. Philippe Pétain was charged with treason in July 1945. The French regarded this as a "dishonorable" term since it would require France to hand over persons who had entered France seeking refuge from Germany. The exact strength of the Vichy French Metropolitan Army was set at 3,768 officers, 15,072 non-commissioned officers, and 75,360 men. The Free French, concerned that the Allies might decide to put France under administration of the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories, strove to establish quickly the Provisional Government of the French Republic. The Vichy regime was the French government which succeeded the Third Republic from July 1940 to August 1944. As the last premier of the Third Republic, being a reactionary by inclination, he blamed the Third Republic's democracy for France's sudden defeat by Germany. More Jews lived in France at the end of the Vichy regime than had approximately ten years earlier. The Germans did their part by being polite to the French populace, giving up Métro seats to old people, handing candy to children and spending freely at Paris cabarets, restaurants and couturiers. Resisters ultimately had as much to fear from countrymen-turned-informants as they did from the Nazis. [56] Reynaud was arrested in September 1940 by the Vichy government and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1941 before the opening of the Riom Trial. [citation needed], Whatever the Vichy government's intent initially or subsequently, the numerical outcome was that less than 15% of French Jews, vs. nearly twice that proportion of non-citizen Jews residing in France, died. After the assassination of Darlan on 24 December 1942, Washington turned again towards Henri Giraud, to whom had rallied Maurice Couve de Murville, who had financial responsibilities in Vichy, and Lemaigre-Dubreuil, a former member of La Cagoule and entrepreneur, as well as Alfred Pose, general director of the Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (National Bank for Trade and Industry). Under the armistice, France had been allowed to retain the French Navy, the Marine Nationale, under strict conditions. Frenchmen who made their way to England often discounted resisters as those who had cravenly “stayed behind,” while the resisters considered the expatriates Frenchmen who had “fled to safety.” Few understood or respected the other’s motive. Stanley Hoffmann in 1974,[127] and after him, other historians such as Robert Paxton and Jean-Pierre Azéma have used the term collaborationnistes to refer to fascists and Nazi sympathisers who, for ideological reasons, wished a reinforced collaboration with Hitler's Germany. [173] Henceforth, on its own Vichy decided, within the homeland, to implement the "National Revolution" ("Révolution nationale"). The operation also encompassed the expulsion of an entire neighbourhood (30,000 persons) in the Old Port before its destruction. "[5] Germany kept two million French soldiers prisoner, carrying out forced labour (service du travail obligatoire). They were joined by the French mandate of Cameroun on 27 August 1940. By contrast, when the Germans invaded Greece and flew their garish banner from the Acropolis, resisters tore it down within days. [52] Countries recognised the Vichy government despite de Gaulle's attempts in London to dissuade them; only the German occupation of all of France in November 1942 ended diplomatic recognition. Pétain excluded fascists from office in his government, and by and large his cabinet comprised "February 6 men" (i.e. Among others, Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld spent part of their post-war effort trying to bring them before the courts. The Germans seized about twenty percent of the French food production, causing severe disruption to the French household economy. It was directed by Xavier Vallat until May 1942 and then by Darquier de Pellepoix until February 1944. He was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad, but Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. German soldiers were stunned when some of the French they captured in June 1940 danced jigs and sang folksongs, delighted to be done with warfighting. [17] French historian Olivier Wieviorka rejects the idea that Vichy France was fascist, noting that "Pétain refused to create a single party state, avoided getting France involved in a new war, hated modernization and supported the Church. A few had fled to England to join Brig. "Nationalism, Collaboration, and Resistance: France under Nazi Occupation.". Mirroring the Reich Association of Jews, the Union Générale des Israélites de France was founded. [21], Summarising Pétain's speeches, the British historian Christopher Flood wrote that Pétain blamed la décadence on "political and economic liberalism, with its divisive, individualistic and hedonistic values—locked in sterile rivalry with its antithetical outgrowths, Socialism and Communism". Those who had engaged in the black market were also stigmatised as "war profiteers" (profiteurs de guerre), and popularly called "BOF" (Beurre Oeuf Fromage, or Butter Eggs Cheese, because of the products sold at outrageous prices during the Occupation). This occurred through a series of consultations between Giraud and de Gaulle. Charged with the "study, in all of its aspects, of measures aimed at safeguarding, improving and developing the French population in all of its activities", the Foundation was created by decree of the collaborationist Vichy regime in 1941, and Carrel was appointed as "regent". What the Resistance didn’t have was military professionals; most of the French army had been captured and imprisoned—1,540,000 men were in German captivity. To Jodl, the French Resistance was irrelevant. After negotiations with Japan, the French allowed the Japanese to set up military bases in Indochina. "Collaboration in wartime France, 1940–1944". Compared with the Jewish communities established in other countries invaded by Germany, French Jews suffered proportionately lighter losses (see Jewish death toll section above); although, starting in 1942, repression and deportations struck French Jews as well as foreign Jews. The Allies recognised Darlan's self-nomination as High Commissioner of France (head of civil government) for North and West Africa. [134], Nazi Germany kept French POWs as forced labourers throughout the war. The enclave had its own radio station (Radio-patrie, Ici la France) and official press (La France, Le Petit Parisien), and hosted the embassies of Axis powers Germany and Japan, as well as an Italian consulate.