Brief overview of WWII in France plus highlights of Paxton's Vichy France Old Guard and New Order

1. September 1, 1939:
Nazi Germany invades Poland

2. September 2, 1939: Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, announces that all men in the U.K. between
ages 18-41 will be drafted to fight the Nazis

3. 1940
• May 10, 1940 : The Nazi
army invades Holland
and Belgium
• June 14, 1940 : the Nazi
army enters Paris (photo,
right)

4. June 16, 1940
Marshal Philippe Pétain,
a hero of World War I, is
named President of the
Council of Ministers (a
position with functions
very similar to those of a
prime minister)

5. June 18, 1940: General de Gaulle, in London, uses the BBC radio to
launch a call to resist the occupation
English translation of de Gaulle's Appeal of June 18, 1940

6. From de Gaulle’s Appeal of
June 18, 1940
“Whatever happens, the flame of the French
resistance must not be extinguished and will not
be extinguished.”

7. June 22, 1940
The clearing of Rethondes, in the forest of Compiègne. France signs an armistice with
Germany—the same place where Germany had signed the armistice ending World War I.
Now, France has been defeated and Germany is the victor.
November 11, 1918 June 22, 1940

8. July 1, 1940
France divided into occupied and unoccupied zones. The unoccupied zone is under
the control of a new government, headed by Pétain, known as the Vichy
government, after the city where its headquarters are located. Pétain and his
ministers actively seek to collaborate with Nazi Germany—so “unoccupied” is a
misnomer.

9. July 11, 1940
Pétain is proclaimed Chief of the French State.
The poster reads: Frenchmen! You have not been sold out, betrayed, or abandoned.
Come to me with confidence

10. October 24, 1940: Pétain meets Hitler
Link to video of Pétain meeting with Hitler
Excerpt from Pétain’s speech: The armistice, in the end, is not peace. France has
numerous obligations toward the victor. At least France remains sovereign.
This sovereignty requires her to defend her land, to extinguish divergent
opinions, to put an end to dissidence in her colonies.
This policy is mine. The government ministers are responsible only to me. It
is I alone who shall be judged by history.
I have spoken to you as a father until now. Today I speak to you as a leader.
Follow me. Keep your confidence in eternal France.

11. Under the Vichy government, the new national motto is “Work,
Family, Fatherland.” This motto replaces “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity,” which dates back the French Revolution of 1789.
In other words, the Vichy government rejects the
republican values of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

12. What does “republican values” mean in a French context?
The French Republic arose in 1792 after the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in
1789.
Her foundations and principles: The French Republic is "one and indivisible", meaning that she
is made up of equal citizens, not separate communities. The Republic thus enables unity to be
combined with diversity, the "me" with the "we".
The two resulting principles are those of national sovereignty (top-down sovereignty, that of
the nation-states) and popular sovereignty (bottom-up sovereignty, that of the people).
National sovereignty corresponds to the idea that every Nation, that assembly of citizens
united by a common history, language and culture, retains control of the decisions which it has to
make for the common good.
Popular sovereignty is the essence of democracy: power proceeds from the people, who
delegate it temporarily to their elected officials. Popular sovereignty is delegated but remains
inalienable. The people are free to decide, to do and undo.
Her values: The Republic is not only indivisible but secular, democratic and social. "Social" refers
to Equality, "democratic" to Liberty and "Secular" to Fraternity. She assigns priority to the general
interest by relying on the public service to afford all the French, wherever they be in France, the
benefit of the same access to knowledge, security and mobility. Education, the police and transport
are public services.
Source: http://www.france-republicaine.fr/french-republic.php

13. • December 7, 1941: the Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor
• December 8, 1941 : The USA declares war on
Japan
• December 11, 1941 : Germany and Italy declare
war on the USA; the USA declares war on them

14. Holding camps for Jews, Gypsies, and
other “undesirables”

15. July 16, 1942
The Vélodrome d’hiver (Vel d’hiv) Roundup: the largest mass arrest of Jews in France
during the war. 13,152 people were arrested, including 4,115 children, and held in an
indoor bicycle arena. No bathrooms were made available. 5 bathrooms were sealed to
prevent escape, 5 others were blocked. Extreme heat. One water tap. Food & water
brought in by the Quakers. 5 days and then deportation. Less than a hundred survived.

16. September 4, 1942: First law passed concerning the STO, le Service de travail obligatoire.
Thousands of Frenchmen deported (against their will) to work in German factories. Many
choose to join the Resistance instead.
Propaganda posters: “Youth of France: Make the right choice!” (L); “Bad days are over; Papa’s earning
money in Germany! (R)

17. July 8, 1943: Resistance leader Jean
Moulin dies in captivity

18. 1944
• June 6, 1944 : D-Day, “Operation Overlord”—
Allied invasion of German-occupied France
via the Normandy beaches
• August 25, 1944 : Paris is liberated
• December 16, 1944: the Battle of the Bulge, a
last-ditch counteroffensive by the German army

19. May 2, 1945:
the Soviet army takes Berlin

20. May 8, 1945:
the end of the war in Europe

21. Robert O. Paxton, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University.
Paxton is a leading historian of fascism and Vichy France.
Here he receives the Grand Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris, May 11,
2011

22. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-
1944. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
According to Robert Aron, Histoire de Vichy (Paris:
Fayard, 1954)
– The politics of the Vichy government were due to a Nazi
Diktat or order
– Vichy served as a shield against this Diktat
– Vichy played a secret double game, working with the Allies as
well as the Germans
Problem: The only sources available to Aron were
transcripts from post-war purge trials

23. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• According to Paxton, Aron’s thesis only applies
to the circumstances and mentality surrounding
the end of the Occupation
• It does not apply to the period of June 1940—
end of 1942
• Paxton stresses the fact that he sees Aron’s book
as “pioneering” despite its reliance on limited
sources

24. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• Counterpoints to the claim that Vichy policies
resulted from Nazi Diktat:
– The German archival sources show that Hitler had
always wanted to spend as little as possible on the
occupation of France
– The French archival sources show that the Vichy
government actively sought to collaborate with the Nazis
Paxton’s sources: German military archives; the
archives of the Vichy government’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs

25. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• Counterpoints to the “shield” claim
– All throughout the Occupation, the Vichy government
sought to make concessions to the Germans
– Vichy’s pursuit of a “National Revolution” in France:
The Armistice did not stipulate such a policy and the
Nazis did not instigate or want it
– Of the foreigners deported to Germany for forced
labor, the number of French men was second only to
the number of Russians—there were no special
protections for French men

26. The Law of August 16, 1940: “no one may practice medicine in
France if he does not have French nationality as a native as a result
of being born of a French father”

27. The Vichy government sought a National Revolution.
Left side: “laziness, demagoguery, internationalism” undermine the metaphorical
house that is France. Note the Star of David.
Right: Work, Family, Fatherland (instead of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)

28. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• Counterpoints to the claim of a double game:
– No proof in the archives of this
– The German authorities were aware of the
agreements negotiated between the Vichy
government and the USA

29. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• The Sorrow and the Pity, a French documentary
about the Occupation, comes out in 1971
• Paxton’s Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order is
published in 1972 and in French translation in
1973
• Henry Rousso, Le Syndrôme de Vichy: 1944—198-.
Paris: Seuil, 1987. First major French historian to
tackle the Vichy period.

30. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
Why did people collaborate with the Nazis?
• Because they agreed with the Nazi/ fascist
ideology
• Collaboration d’état: out of national interest
• For personal gain and/or advancement

31. Je Suis Partout (« I Am Everywhere »), a fascist French newspaper
April 30, 1943 issue
« Do We in France Finally Want to Protect our Race? »

32. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• Beginning in the 1970s, Holocaust survivors
began to talk more openly about their
experiences
• The first anti-Jewish measures undertaken by the
Vichy government date from 1940. They
originated with the Vichy government and its
program of « national revolution. »

33. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. [1972]
• Since the 2nd edition of Vichy France: Old Guard
and New Order was published, more research has
been done on the effects of the Occupation on
daily life
• What kind of choices did ordinary people have
to make under the Occupation? How were they
forced to accept it? What made people resist?