Often, wars don’t just involve countries fighting one another on an international
level. Sometimes, they lead to civil divide and infighting that rips a country in half.
One of the best examples of this was France during World War II. The 1940 armstice with
Nazi Germany saw the country divided between two political entities, both of which claimed
to be the legitimate French government. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss these
two French states, what they stood for, and why they hated one another so much.
In July of 1940, France signed an armistice with Nazi Germany following her total defeat in the
trenches. This agreement ended the war, but it also brought an end to the Third Republic,
the French state that had governed France and her colonies since 1870.
As part of the armistice, a French World War I veteran named Marshal Philippe Benoni
Omer Pétain took the country’s reins. He established an authoritative state
based out of the city of Vichy, known as Vichy France. In this new government,
the Marshal had complete power. Every pre-existing administrative body, including parliament,
were now puppets of Pétain, who turned France into a quasi-police state. German soldiers
occupied the northern half of the country, and 2 million Frenchmen were taken as prisoners of war.
Not everyone accepted this new French state, however. The renowned French
general Charles de Gaulle was in London when the armistice was signed. On June 18,
1940, he issued an appeal to the world and his countrymen known as the June 18
Appeal, or the Appel du 18 juin. Under this appeal, he declared this new French state
illegitimate, and claimed they were traitors to France. He encouraged those who were loyal
to her to resist this new regime and take back control of their country.
Most of France and her territories supported the new state of Vichy France, but some allied
themselves to de Gualle’s cause. De Gaulle and his supporters created a government-in-exile in London
that claimed to be the legitimate government of France, known as Free France, or France Libre.
This political entity continued to fight in the war alongside the Allies under the
Free French Forces. It also supported the resistance back in occupied France,
known as the French Forces of the Interior.
This political clash divided the French. Initially, few joined de Gaulle’s Free France.
By late July 1940, only 7,000 French soldiers rallied to de Gaulle’s side in England. Alongside
these forces, 3,600 sailors on 50 ships belonging to the French Navy joined Britain’s Royal Navy,
creating the core of the Free French Naval Forces. As for the colonies,
only St. Helena and the New Hebrides immediately joined de Gaulle, though by the end of August,
Free France had gained significant support in French Equatorial Africa.
However, most of France’s military personnel initially supported Pétain’s Vichy France.
When the armistice was signed, 75% of France’s military forces in England requested to return
to France to serve the new regime. Those already on the mainland defaulted to serving the new
regime because they couldn’t escape. Most of the French Navy also stayed loyal to Vichy France.
The political conflict between Free France and Vichy France created division and hatred
in the French people. There was no space for neutrality; everyone had to pick a side, and these
choices tore friends and families apart. Many were imprisoned for their beliefs, exiled, or executed.
At the core of this conflict was the question of each government’s legitimacy,
and the values each supported. Let’s break down each political entity’s claim to power,
and what values rallied people to their side.
First, we have Vichy France, the one-man state instituted after the armistice of June,
1940. By July 9, 1940, the French parliament voted to abandon the Third Republic and give
Marshal Philippe Pétain complete control of the country. Pétain used his extensive
power to implement many new policies that served his agenda, best summarised as “work,
family, fatherland,” or “travail, famille, patrie.”
In many ways, the Vichy government collaborated directly with the Nazis. Pétain’s regime saw the
persecution of Jews and communists, many of whom were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
The way in which the Pétain regime came into being earned most of the
French people’s support. Because this was a decision supported by parliamentary vote,
most people saw Petain’s as the new legitimate government.
By default, this meant they viewed de Gaulle’s government-in-exile as a usurper government.
French admiral René-Émile Godfroy summed this point of view up very well in June 1940:
"For us Frenchmen, the fact is that a government still exists in France,
a government supported by a Parliament established in non-occupied territory and which in consequence
cannot be considered irregular or deposed. The establishment elsewhere of another government,
and all support for this other government would clearly be rebellion."
Another reason why the French people supported Petain and his Nazi collaborationist government
was that they didn’t believe Britain could take on Germany. Many believed Britain would
fall in a matter of weeks, so supporting de Gaulle’s London-based government would
only result in more grief for France. Surrendering was the lesser of two evils.
But support for Vichy France went much deeper than political legitimacy. When France lost to Germany
in eight short months of war, the French people were shocked and humiliated by this humbling
defeat. They needed a scapegoat. As is often the case, marginalised groups took the blame.
Since the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s, animosity towards the Jewish people had been growing
in France. Alongside the Jews, socialists and communists were blamed for the decline of French
society. The Third Republic’s libertarian ways were blamed for promoting these damaging political
beliefs and making France weak. Pétain, a staunch conservative, promised to correct these weaknesses
by bringing back France’s traditional values, such as by prohibiting divorce and banning abortion.
Pétain also censored the press and imprisoned critics of his
regime. This authoritative approach turned France into a quasi-police,
Nazi collaborationist state – all in the name of saving France in her most dire hour.
“If France wants to remain a global and European power; if France wants to remain dignified in
Europe, she has to go to war alongside [Germany] against the Bolsheviks,” said Jacques Doriot, the
leader of the French Popular Party, and a Nazi collaborator. This was the sort of narrative
Pétain and his supporters pushed. Pétain swore to save France, and many Frenchmen believed him.
Free France, on the other hand, stood against everything the Vichy government represented.
Following the French defeat in May of 1940, General Charles de Gaulle appealed to his
countrymen to rally against the Germans and rekindle their faith in the French Empire.
In his June 18 Appeal, he said, "France is not alone! She is not
alone! She has a great empire behind her! Together with the British Empire,
she can form a bloc that controls the seas and continue the struggle.
She may, like England, draw upon the limitless industrial resources of the United States.”
The next day, de Gaulle addressed the people in mainland France directly. According to him,
France’s government had fallen to the enemy, and all French institutions had ceased to function.
This made the Vichy government’s actions illegitimate,
and it was the clear duty of every Frenchman to defend the Republic.
This was the basis of Free France’s claim to legitimacy as a government.
The armistice with the Germans was illegal, and by signing it,
the former French government was committing treason. To de Gaulle and his followers, Pétain's
rise to power was nothing but a coup d'état. Pétain's supporters were traitors to France.
That was why Free France not only fought the Nazis but also the Vichy French
forces. To the Free French, the Vichy French were just as bad as the Nazis.
“There weren’t any Germans in Lyon; the French police did everything – and that
made it especially frightening,” said René Nodot, a Resistance fighter tasked with rescuing French
Jews. “The authorities would turn up at people’s homes and say ‘Open up - police!’ They had
people’s addresses; they had lists of names. They took people straight away, just as they were.”
In light of this blatant breach of human rights,
and against Vichy French military brutality, the Free French made their opinion clear:
the Vichyssoise were as much the enemy as their German occupiers.
Although most Frenchmen initially supported Pétain's regime,
public opinion changed over the next few years. This was mostly
due to Pétain's own policies, which grew more brutal as time went on.
Immediately after coming into power, Vichy officials put anti-Semitic policies in place,
removing Jews from civil service and seizing their property. When the Nazis demanded French
collaboration in the Holocaust, the Vichy regime willingly arrested and deported over 75,000
French and foreign Jews. This often involved ripping children from their parents’ arms.
One of the worst anti-semetic crimes was the Vel D’Hiv Roundup in July of 1942, when
13,000 Jews - including 4,000 children - were sent to Auschwitz. This atrocity,
and others like it, heavily influenced the French public’s opinion of the Vichy government.
Hatred for their German occupiers also grew when, in November 1942, following the Allies’ landing in
Northern Africa, the Nazis invaded France and took over the southern, unoccupied part of the country.
When it became clear that Germany was losing the war, and with living conditions in France
getting more and more difficult thanks to work restrictions like the suspension
of civil liberties, the public took an even stronger stance against the Vichy government.
Following the Liberation of France in 1944, de Gaulle’s Free French Provisional Government of
the French Republic took control of France. It took decades for the French to come to terms
with their willing participation in the Holocaust, however. Even as late as 1980,
historians regarded Vichy France as simply “the lesser of two evils.” Today,
Vichy France is widely acknowledged as a willing Nazi collaborationist state.
But what do you think? Which French state do you believe had a more legitimate claim to power,
regardless of values? Do you think the Vichyssoise were as bad as the Nazis,
or were they just trying to save their country? Would you have joined de Gaulle,
or stayed on the mainland? Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments.