4.12.2016

Vichy France

Vichy France (in French, Régime de Vichy) is the common name of the French State (État français) headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. In particular, it represents the southern, unoccupied "Free Zone" (zone libre) that governed the southern part of the country.

From 1940 to 1942, while the Vichy regime was the nominal government of France as a whole, Germany militarily occupied northern France. Thus, while Paris remained the de jure capital of France, the de facto capital of southern, "unoccupied" France was the town of Vichy, 360 km to the south. Following the Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942, southern France was also militarily occupied by Germany and Italy. 

The Vichy government remained in existence, but as a de facto client and puppet of Nazi Germany. It vanished in late 1944 when the Allies occupied all of France.

France under German occupation (Nazis occupied the southern zone starting in November 1942—Operation Case Anton). The yellow zone was under Italian administration.









At that point, the Third Republic was dissolved. Calling for "National Regeneration", the French Government at Vichy reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy, with central planning a key feature. 

Labour unions came under tight government control. The independence ofreversed, with an emphasis put on motherhood. Conservative Catholics became prominent. Paris lost its avant-garde status in European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and stressed virulent anti-Semitism, and, after June 1941, anti-Bolshevism.


                            Frenchmen arresting Frenchmen to please Germans
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Vichy France Full story
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Vichyn Ranska (1940–1944) oli natsi-Saksan ohjaaman nukkehallituksen hallitsema Ranska. Vichyn Ranska hallitsi nimellisesti sekä Saksan miehittämää pohjoisosaa että ”vapaata” eteläosaa, käytännössä kuitenkin vain jälkimmäistä sekä siirtomaita. Vichyn Ranskaa johti marsalkka Philippe Pétain ja sen pääkaupunki oli Vichy. Käytännössä maata kuitenkin hallitsi natsi-Saksa.


Kesäkuussa 1940 Saksan armeija miehitti Pohjois-Ranskan, muun muassa Pariisin. Tappion jälkeen marsalkka Pétain nimitettiin pääministeriksi laajoin valtaoikeuksin. Ranska allekirjoitti 22. kesäkuuta antautumista merkinneen aseleposopimuksen, jonka mukaan Ranskan pohjois- ja länsiosat, Pariisi mukaan luettuna, jäivät Saksan miehittämiksi, mutta eteläosa jäi itsenäisen hallinnon alaisuuteen. 

1940 Photo Ww2 Military Darius Paul Bloch General Vichy France Jew Government

Tämän jälkeen Ranskan kansalliskokous (Assemblée nationale) ja senaatti kokoontuivat 10. heinäkuuta hätäistuntoon, jossa ne päättivät luovuttaa sekä lainsäädäntä-, toimeenpano- että tuomiovallan Pétainin hallitukselle, ja antoivat tälle tehtävän säätää uusi perustuslaki. Tämä merkitsi kolmannen tasavallan perustuslain kumoamista ja teki Pétainista diktaattorin.


Vichyn Ranska kutsui itseään nimellä État Français eli Ranskan valtio. Nimitys République katosi virallisista dokumenteista vallansiirron yhteydessä. Se oli myös yleisesti tunnustettu. Yhdysvaltain lähettiläänä Ranskassa toimi amiraali William D. Leahy. Myös Neuvostoliitto piti yllä suhteita Vichyyn aina heinäkuun 1941 loppuun.

Vichyn Ranskaa kutsutaan nykyisin Ranskassa nimellä Régime de Vichy, Gouvernement de Vichy tai Vichy.


Vichy otti käyttöön uuden Pétainia ylistävän kansallislaulun Maréchal, nous voilà ! sekä esitti marsalkka Pétainin maan pelastajana, jolla kaikkien valtion virkamiesten piti vannoa vala. Vichy pani toimeen ”kansallisen vallankumouksen”, jonka tavoitteeksi nimettiin paluu moraaliseen järjestykseen.

Marraskuussa 1942 liittoutuneet nousivat maihin Ranskalle kuuluneessa Marokossa ja Algeriassa (operaatio Soihtu). Tämän jälkeen Saksa miehitti myös Ranskan eteläosan. Tällöin Vichyn hallitus käytännössä menetti valtansa, mutta hallitsi sen jälkeenkin vielä nimellisesti Ranskaa.

Sodan jälkeen Vichyn hallitukseen kuuluneet saivat syytteet maanpetoksesta. Valtionpäämiehenä toimineen Philippe Pétainin kuolemantuomio muutettiin elinkautiseksi vankeudeksi, mutta pääministeri Pierre Laval teloitettiin.
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French State
État Français
Client state of Germany (1940–42)
Puppet government of Germany (1942–44)
1940–1944
FlagEmblem of the
Chief of State
Motto
"Travail, Famille, Patrie"
"Work, Family, Fatherland"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise" (official)
MENU
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"Maréchal, nous voilà!"
Marshal, here we are!  (unofficial)
The French State in 1942:
  •   French State
  •   French State, German military occupation zone
  •   French protectorates
The gradual loss of all Vichy territory to Free France and the Axis. Click on map for color legend
The gradual loss of all Vichy territory to Free Franceand the Axis powers. Legend.
CapitalVichy (de facto)
Paris (de jure)
Capital-in-exileSigmaringen1944–45
LanguagesFrench
GovernmentOne-party fascistrepublic
Chief of State
 • 1940–1944Philippe Pétain
Prime Minister
 • 1940–1942Philippe Pétain
 • 1942–1944Pierre Laval
LegislatureNational Assembly
Historical eraWorld War II
 • Second Compiègne22 June 1940
 • Pétain given full powers10 July 1940
 • Operation Torch8 November 1942
 • Case Anton11 November 1942
 • German retreatsummer 1944
 • Disestablished1944
 • Capture of the Sigmaringen enclave22 April 1945
CurrencyFrench franc
Preceded by
Succeeded by
French Third Republic
Provisional Government of the French Republic
a.Paris remained the formal capital of the French State, although the Vichy government never operated from there.
b.Although the French Republic's institutions were officially maintained, the word "Republic" never occurred in any official document of the Vichy government.

The French State maintained nominal sovereignty over the whole of French territory, but had effective full sovereignty only in the unoccupied southern zone libre ("free zone"). It had limited and only civil authority in the northern zones under military occupation. The occupation was to be a provisional state of affairs, pending the conclusion of the war, which at the time appeared imminent. The occupation also presented certain advantages, such as keeping the French Navy and the colonial empire under French control, and avoiding full occupation of the country by Germany, thus maintaining a meaningful degree of French independence and neutrality. The French Government at Vichy never joined the Axis alliance.
Germany kept two million French soldiers prisoner in Germany, carrying out forced labour. They were hostages to ensure that Vichy would reduce its military forces and pay a heavy tribute in gold, food, and supplies to Germany. French police were ordered to round up immigrant Jews and other "undesirables" such as communists and political refugees. Much of the French public initially supported the government, despite its undemocratic nature and its difficult position vis-à-vis the Germans, often seeing it as necessary to maintain a degree of French autonomy and territorial integrity. 

In November 1942, however, the zone libre was also occupied by Axis forces, leading to the disbandment of the remaining army and the French sinking of its remaining fleet and ending any semblance of independence, with Germany now closely supervising all French officials.



Two French SS men in Berlin street.
These france troops volunteers are the last wehrmacht men, who defended Hitler's bunker. Change options they have not been, from the future...

Most of the overseas French colonies were originally under Vichy control, but with the Allied invasion of North Africa it lost one colony after another to Charles de Gaulle's Allied-oriented Free France. Public opinion in some quarters turned against the French government and the occupying German forces over time, when it became clear that Germany was losing the war, and resistance to them increased. Following the Allied invasion of France in June 1944 and the Liberation of France later that year, the Free French Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) was installed by the Allies as France's government, led by de Gaulle. 
And most importantly, shame for their nation cooperating with the Nazis so wholeheartedly, with the creation of Vichy France.

Under a "national unanimity" cabinet uniting the many factions of the French Resistance, the GPRF re-established a provisional French Republic, thus apparently restoring continuity with the Third Republic. Most of the legal French government's leaders at Vichy fled or were subject to show trials by the GPRF, and a number were quickly executed for "treason" in a series of purges (épuration légale). Thousands of collaborators were summarily executed by local communists and the 'Resistance' in so-called "savage purges" (épuration sauvage).


                                                 French tank in north africa


                                              French soldiers in russia

The last of the French State exiles were captured in the Sigmaringen enclave by de Gaulle's French 1st Armoured Division in April 1945. Pétain, who had voluntarily made his way back to France via Switzerland, also endured a sensational show-trial for "treason" by the new Provisional Government, and received a death sentence, but this was commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle. 

Only four senior Vichy officials were tried for crimes against humanity, although many more had participated in the deportation of Jews for extermination in Nazi concentration camps, abuses of prisoners, and severe acts against members of the Resistance.
                                           French colonial troops        
                                                  French Far East (Vietnam) troops


                      Anzac troops, and captured Vichy government planes, north africa

2 kommenttia:

  1. A sad episode of our story told and illustrated brilliantly!

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. One of the worst traitors are they who betray their own country
      This will hurt a lot and deep so many people

      Like they
      Norway: Vidkun Quisling
      Finland: Otto Wille Kuusinen (Terijoki Government 1940) Stalin's man.

      Poista

Any explosive ammunition or empty cores, you can put in this.