Vichy France
Vichy France, or the Vichy regime, was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. It succeeded the Third Republic. The "French state" (L'État Français), as it called itself in contrast with the "French Republic", was proclaimed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, following the military defeat of France by Nazi Germany during World War II, and the vote by the National Assembly on July 10, 1940, to grant extraordinary powers to Pétain, who held the title of "President of the Council" instead of President of France. Pétain headed the reactionary program of the so-called "Révolution nationale", aimed at "regenerating the Nation."
Vichy France had legal authority in both the northern zone of France, which was occupied by the German Wehrmacht, and the unoccupied southern "free zone", where the regime's administrative center of Vichy was located. The southern zone remained under Vichy control until the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942.
Pétain and the Vichy regime willfully collaborated with Nazi Germany to a high degree. The French police organized raids to capture Jews and others considered "undesirables" by the Germans in both the northern and southern zones.
The legitimacy of Vichy France and Pétain's leadership was challenged by General Charles de Gaulle, who claimed to instead incarnate the legitimacy and continuity of France. Following the Allies' invasion of France in Operation Overlord, de Gaulle proclaimed the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) in June, 1944. After the Liberation of Paris in August, the GPRF installed itself in Paris on August 31. The GPRF was recognized as the legitimate government of France by the Allies on October 23, 1944.
With the liberation of France in August and September, the Vichy officials and supporters moved to Sigmaringen, a French enclave in Germany and there established a government in exile, headed by Pétain, until April 1945.
Overview
In 1940, Marshal Philippe Pétain was known mainly as a World War I hero, the winner of Verdun. As last President of the Council of the Third Republic, Pétain suppressed the parliament and immediately turned the regime into a non-democratic government collaborating with Germany.
Vichy France was established after France surrendered to Germany on June 22, 1940, and took its name from the government's administrative center in Vichy, central France. Paris remained the official capital, to which Pétain always intended to return the government when this became possible. While officially neutral in the war, Vichy actively collaborated with the Nazis, including, to some degree, with their racial policies.
It is a common misconception that the Vichy regime administered only the unoccupied zone of southern France (incorrectly named "free zone", zone libre, by Vichy), while the Germans directly administered the occupied zone. In fact, the civil jurisdiction of the Vichy government extended over the whole of metropolitan France, except for Alsace-Lorraine, a disputed territory which was placed under German administration (though not formally annexed). French civil servants in Bordeaux, such as Maurice Papon, or Nantes were under the authority of French ministers in Vichy. René Bousquet, head of French police nominated by Vichy, exercised his power directly in Paris through his second, Jean Leguay, who coordinated raids with the Nazis.
On 11 November 1942, the Germans launched Operation Case Anton, occupying southern France, following the landing of the Allies in North Africa (Operation Torch). Although Vichy's "Armistice Army" was disbanded, thus diminishing Vichy's independence, the abolition of the line of demarcation made civil administration easier. Vichy continued to exercise jurisdiction over most of France until the collapse of the regime following the Allied invasion in June 1944.
Until August 1945, the Vichy regime was acknowledged as the official government of France by the United States and other countries, including Canada, which was at the same time at war with Germany. Even the United Kingdom maintained unofficial contacts with Vichy for some time, until it became apparent that the Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval intended full collaboration with the Germans.
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. Historians in particular have debated the circumstances of the vote of full powers to Pétain on July 10, 1940. The main arguments advanced against Vichy's right to incarnate the continuity of the French state were based on the pressure exerted by Laval on deputies in Vichy, and on the absence of 27 deputies and senators who had fled on the ship Massilia and could thus not take part in the vote.
Within Vichy France, there was a low-intensity civil war between the French Resistance—drawn from the Communist and Republican elements of society—against the reactionary elements who desired a fascist or similar regime as in Francisco Franco's Spain. This civil war can be seen as the continuation of a division existing within French society since the 1789 French Revolution, illustrated by events such as the Bourbon Restoration and the White Terror enforced by the Chambre introuvable; the 1825 vote of the Anti-Sacrilege Act by the ultra-royalist comte de Villèle; the 1871 Paris Commune and the violent repression which followed, including the creation of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in expiation of the "Commune's sins"; the May 16, 1877 crisis; the Dreyfus Affair; the conflict during the application of the 1905 law on the separation of the Church and the State; the 6 February 1934 riots, etc. A part of French society had never accepted the Republican regime issuing from the Revolution, and wished to re-establish the Ancien Régime. This was made apparent by the glee of the leader of the monarchist Action française, Charles Maurras, who qualified the suppression of the French Republic as a "divine surprise".[1]
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