Encyclopedia > German occupation of France during World War II
Location of Vichy France (green). The red represents German occupied France (extended to Vichy France in November 1942), and the blue the Alsace-Lorraine region annexed by the Third Reich.
A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940.
German signs of occupied Paris The German occupation of France in World War II occurred during the period between May of 1940 to December of 1944. As a result of the disastrous defeat of the Allied armies in the Battle of France, the French Cabinet sought a cessation of hostilities. The armistice was signed 22 June 1940 at Compiègne. Under its terms the north and west of France were occupied by the German Army, the remaining one third of the country was ruled by a French government located at Vichy and headed by aging Marechal Philippe Pétain. Image File history File links Merge-arrow. ...
Motto Travail, famille, patrie French: Unoccupied zone of Vichy France (until November 1942) Capital Vichy Capital-in-exile Sigmaringen (1944-1945) Language(s) French Religion Roman Catholic Government Dictatorship Chief of state - 1940 — 1944 Philippe Pétain President of the Council - 1940 — 1942 Philippe Pétain - 1942 — 1944 Pierre Laval...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Imperial Province of Elsaß-Lothringen Alsace-Lorraine (German: , generally Elsass-Lothringen) was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. ...
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 745 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2648 × 2131 pixel, file size: 831 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Description: A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 745 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2648 × 2131 pixel, file size: 831 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Description: A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixels Full resolution (2048 × 3072 pixel, file size: 861 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Work by Rama File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): German occupation...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 400 × 600 pixels Full resolution (2048 × 3072 pixel, file size: 861 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Work by Rama File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): German occupation...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
This article is about the independent states that comprised the Allies. ...
Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III H.G. Winkelman Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di...
This article is about the governmental body. ...
The Second Armistice at Compiègne, France was signed on June 22, 18:50, 1940, between Nazi Germany and France. ...
Compiègne is a commune in the Oise département of France, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ...
Vichy (Occitan: Vichèi) is a French commune, situated in the département of Allier and the région of Auvergne. ...
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French general, later Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de lÉtat Français), from 1940 to 1944. ...
When the Allies invaded North Africa 8 November 1942, the Germans and Italians immediately occupied the remaining free part of France. The liberation of France began on 6 June 1944 with the Allied forces landing on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy and ended in December. Paris itself was liberated 25 August 1944. Combatants United States United Kingdom Free French Forces Vichy France Commanders Dwight Eisenhower Andrew Cunningham François Darlan Strength 73,500 60,000 Casualties 479+ dead 720 wounded 1,346+ dead 1,997 wounded Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in...
is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Land on Normandy In military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. ...
This article is about the assault phase of Operation Overlord. ...
This article is about the capital of France. ...
is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Shortages The life of the French during the German occupation was marked, from the beginning, by endemic shortages. They are explained by several factors: - German requisitions and purchases were made with an occupation Deutschmark currency whose artificial rate of exchange against French Francs was highly unfavourable, in fact a form of organised plundering.
- The utter disorganisation of transport, except for the railway system which relied on French domestic coal supplies.
- The extreme shortage of petrol and diesel fuel. France had no indigenous oil production and all importations had stopped.
- Labour shortages, particularly in the countryside, due to the large number of French prisoners of war held in Germany.
Lack of food Supply problems quickly affected French stores which lacked most items. Faced with these difficulties in everyday life, the government answered by creating food charts and tickets which were to be exchanged for bread, meat, butter and cooking oil. Hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops. In the absence of meat and other foods including potatoes, people ate unusual vegetables, such as Swedish turnip and Jerusalem artichoke. Products such as sugar were replaced by substitutes (saccharin). Coffee was replaced by toasted barley mixed with chicoree. Some people benefitted from the black market, where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and barter against cigarettes were also frequent practices during this period. Those activities were strictly forbidden however and thus carried out at the risk of confiscation and fines. Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. In the more remote country villages, however, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products somehow permitted better survival.
Lack of raw materials Ersatz replaced many rare products; gas generators ("gazogenes") on trucks and automobiles burned charcoal or wood pellets as a substitute to gasoline, chicory took the place of coffee, and wooden soles for shoes were used instead of leather. Soap was rare and made in households from fats and caustic soda. Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement. ...
The dictatorship
The Service of Obligatory Work During the German occupation, the Service of Obligatory Work (Service du Travail Obligatoire or STO ) consisted of requisitions and transfer of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Germany against their will, for the German war effort (factories, agriculture, railroads, etc) in work camps.
Curfew During the night, inhabitants had to close their shutters or windows. Without Ausweis (authorization), it was forbidden to go out during the night. During the day, numerous regulations, censorship and propaganda made the occupation increasingly unbearable.
Education Schoolchildren were made to sing Maréchal, nous voilà ! The portrait of Marshal Pétain adorned the walls of classrooms, thus creating a personality cult. Propaganda was present in education to train the young people with the ideas of the new Vichy regime. However, there was no resumption in ideology as in other occupied countries, for example in Poland, where the teaching elite was liquidated. There were no imprisonments of teachers and the programs were not modified overall. In the private Catholic sector, many establishment chiefs hid Jewish children by providing education for them until the liberation. Maréchal, nous voilà ! (Marshal, here we are!) is a French song dedicated to Marshal Petain. ...
Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French soldier and Head of State of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944. ...
Jews - Discrimination: In the occupied zone, from 1942 Jews were required to wear the yellow badge. On the Paris métro Jews had to take the last carriage.
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 599 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1255 × 1257 pixel, file size: 214 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Work by Rama File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Yellow badge German...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 599 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1255 × 1257 pixel, file size: 214 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Work by Rama File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Yellow badge German...
Vichy France (French: now called Régime de Vichy or Vichy; called itself at the time État Français, or French State) was the French state of 1940-1944 which was a puppet government under Nazi influence, as opposed to the Free French Forces, based first in London and later...
Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Compulsory Jewish badge under the Nazi occupation of Europe: the Star of David with the word Jew inside (this one in German) A yellow badge, also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a mandatory mark or a piece of cloth of specific geometric shape, worn on the outer garment...
This article is about the capital of France. ...
The Resistance Although the majority of the occupied French did not partake in active resistance, many resisted passively through acts such as listening to the banned BBC, or giving collateral or material aid to Resistance members. Others assisted in the escape of downed US or British airmen who eventually found their way back to Britain, through Spain. Beginning in 1942, many others refused to be drafted into the factories and farms of Germany by the "STO" organization, going underground to avoid imprisonment and subsequent deportation to Germany. For the most part, these "refractaires" eventually joined the Resistance. Armed underground groups in the field (generally known at the time as the "Maquis") begun to organise in the more remote parts of France in late 1942 and 1943. They received weapons (Bren guns, Sten submachineguns, Enfield rifles, US M1 carbines), plastic explosives, ammunitions and funds from thousands of parachute drops and solo landings at night by RAF Lysander aircraft. After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the French armed resistance groups (FFI, FTP and others) systematically sabotaged the railway lines, destroying bridges and providing general intelligence that was communicated directly to London via radio within hours. For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ...
See also |
Feeds |
Contact