German Occupation of France

Hi. I've gotten bogged down in a discussion with a friend of mine about the German occupation of France. Specifically we are interested in how active and wide spread the French resistance was, and to what extent the French population collaborated with the Germans. (We're also interested in what capability the French had to continue fighting the Germans after the collapse of the front in Belgium, and why they surrendered so suddenly) Any opinions on these issues, or books that you can recommend on these topics will be greatly appreicated. Thanks.

Brendan W. Guy

Try 'France under the Germans', a relatively new book. The French have to be divided into those occupied directly by Germany and those in Vichy France prior to the German's complete occupation of France.

Vichy France cooperated with the Germans but not much more than that, with the glaring exception of french Jews. The Vichy government was only too happy to ship off their jews and didn't ask any inconvenient questions about destinations. Many later prominent French politicians had inconvenient histories of service with the Vichy government. Mitterand was perhaps the most prominent.

In occupied France, there was of course the Resistance, led mostly by the Communists. While every Frenchman was a resistance leader after the liberation of Paris, the resistance never caused the Germans undue loss of sleep. France was considered fully pacified and was treated as a rest area for troops, unlike Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav partisans tied down more troops than opposed the allied landings in Normandy.

The French faced major problems after the German breakthrough in the

Well, yes and no. During the Vichy period, most of the Jews that were shipped east were not *French*. They were Jews of other nationalities who had fled to France to get away from the Nazis and found themselves trapped anew. While I have no wish to paint Vichy as a bunch of nice guys, they were a bit more prickly when it came to 'relocating' Jews who actually were French citizens. Not prickly enough, and when the rest of the country was occupied, that - as they say - was that.

There was an article in the smithsonian magazine on one particular resistance fighter. I don't know the date, but the cover had a picture of two red oxen.

Nils K. Hammer

Major point: the Vichy government under Petain, that negotiated deals with the victorious Germans, was the legal and constitutional government of the country (and led by WW1's most famous living general, the Savior of Verdun.) In other words 'resisters' were rebels against their own government. This was serious. (If I remember right, the majority of French military personnel who reached British ports in 1940 actually returned to Vichy France via North Africa, rather than serve under the 'rebel' organization of Gen. de Gaulle.

Minor point: up to June 1941 (Barbarossa) there was no French Communist resistance because the USSR government was allied with Nazi Germany and the French CP followed the Russian party line that the war was simply German defence against British imperialism, in which good Communists had no interest. (French Communists were much more disciplined (or slavish) than the British or American CPs. It appears a few British Communists tried to organize strikes or industrial delays, but most were willing to fight or work for national self-defence. American Communists were very seriously divided, cf. Lend-Lease to Britain. Just why the French followed the Moscow line so closely is the topic of several recent books.)

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After Dunkirk, the French were in an untenable possition. Not only had they lost the B.E.F. forces, but more than a 100,000 French trrops also left during that evacuation. When you add that to the not inconsiderable losses they had already incurred, and the fact that their lines were now longer, it doesn't take much to understand how bleak their position was. Adding to that was the now obvious fact that the current organization of their army was incapable of stopping the Germans, and everyone in the French military knew it. They did try to create defensive lines, especially along rivers, but their man-power was so low that these generally only amounted to isolated hedgehogs that were simply by-passed by the more mobile German forces.

Lou Ransdell

The best book I've ever read about the fall of France is titled 'To Lose A Battle' by Alistair Horne, an English writer. His most recent book is 'Montgomery: The Lonely Leader.' The French resistance seems to become stronger every year. The reality, in my opinion, is that a majority of the French passively collaborated with the Germans. Of the rest, a sizeable minority actively helped the Germans, and a sizeable minority fought them at every step. Some of the bravest, most courageous people in the war were the French who resisted. Jean Moulin, of course, is a prime example. A very good book about the French resistance in Normandy is titled 'Agents for Escape' by Andre Rougeyron. Andre took great risks to hide downed Allied airmen. Eventually, he was picked up by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz. He survived only to be killed when his son lost control of a car about 15 years after the war. I've stayed at his house in Domfront, which is called the 'Maison de Resistance.' The story of France in World War II is a complex one that is not easily categorized. Another fascinating part of it is what happened when the Allies invaded French North Africa in November, 1942.

In order to gain a picture of 'France under German occupation', one should first look seriously at 'France before the occupation.' All during the 1930s France was a divided country, with minority governments coming and going every few years. There was even a strong right-wing French party, as well.

To cut to the chase, there was not much of a French Resistance until it was obvious that the Germans were going to lose the war. The French were defeatists and caved in to the Germans in 1940. Afterwards, the French attempted to collaborate with Hitler, so that they could be left alone as much as possible. Vichy France did, however, refuse to hand over the French Fleet to Hitler in 1940, but otherwise they did not interfere too much in Hitler's affairs.

The French had no choice but to surrender after the Ardennes was breached, thereby rendering the Maginot Line completely useless. The collapse of the Belgian front just further magnified the problems. French surrender was the only option available once the Germans reached the English Channel and cut the country in half. What other options were there at that point???

Yours truly,

Ron Bereznicki

They can establish a government in North Africa which could wage war with complete French fleet, French Air force could escape towards Africa without problem also. Many troops could be evacuated towards Africa also. There were more than 100000 French soldiers in Britain after Dunquerque.

They have all options. There was only one thing missing. A will to fight.

And Drax replied: [snipped other good points]

They could also have accepted Churchill's offer of a political union with the UK, though technically that dates from the month after Ron's critical moment.

Gerhard Weinberg points out that the idea that the French wouldn't fight is a myth