Who is vichy french

The name was taken from the administrative capitol of the new government located in Vichy, France located in the central part of the country.

Reynaud lost the vote and resigned. President Albert Lebrun appointed Philippe Petain as the new premier. Right away he started negotiations with Adolf Hitler and by June 22nd they had agree to, and signed, the armistice. The remainder of the country would be governed by the French government at Vichy with Henri-Philippe Petain as its head. Marshal, here we are! The armistice also stipulated the surrender of all the Jews located in France to Germany. France's Catholics are scandalised by the poster depicting a cross and a swastika as symbiotically linked.

Costa-Gavras, under fire, tells the Vatican, "If you'd behaved better during the war, then I wouldn't need to make this film. After the service, I join the old men for a drink. Only Rabbi Cohen, who does not live in Vichy, wants to talk about history. We discuss France's revisionists and I mention the most notorious, Robert Faurisson, academic and Holocaust-denier, who is reputed to live in Vichy.

The Rabbi from Lyon is amazed at this news. What do Vichy residents at large think of their town's past? In a smart dress shop, Les Enfants d'Edouard, the year-old proprietor tells me, "Vichy. It's like a lead weight pressing on us. They whisper as if there is some terrible secret. Over breakfast in my hotel in rue Callou, the owner, Jean Paul Belabed, tells me, "When visitors come to my hotel, they are amazed there is no museum on the Vichy years.

The town wants to wipe out the past, but I say history is history. I say you shouldn't forget that, among 40m French people, only 2 per cent were in the Resistance. I came here when I was From Algeria. That's another story of amnesia. He is a graphic artist who also runs a poetry cafe in Vichy. The talk was of how Vichy was for the jet-setters, for kings and queens. It always had a reputation for sexual freedom.

Vichy was rich; its taxes were low. To many, it was known as Little Paris. Today, it is known as an old people's town. People come here to retire. What of the younger generation? Leca's year-old son, Alexandre, believes a war museum can exorcise "the bad ghosts" from the town.

Whenever he meets people from other towns, "They always say, 'Ah, you come from Vichy, you must have some pretty extreme ideas. Alexandre says his generation can't identify with Vichy and wants to get out as soon as possible.

His school history lessons "neglected" to detail occupied France, but he is only too aware of the town stigma. Alexandre came here as a seven-month-old baby, but insists, "I am not from Vichy. The question of a museum has been a matter of debate in the town for the past decade.

Visitors to Vichy expect to find one, but the municipality, which is rightwing dominated and fears encroachment from Le Pen's FN, opposes the idea. He wants to separate the town Vichy from the period "Vichy".

If Charasse loses his seat in the parliamentary elections on May 26 and June 2, his bill will surely disappear.

And as for his attacks on Dakar and Syria, I will never forgive him for those. Le Groignec is furious. This has become a shrine utterly hidden from the public gaze. What will the municipality admit? I take an official guided tour. The guide, Jacques, is primed to tell "only the facts". Without irony, he says, "Officially, there is no official point of view.

Jacques gets excited and can't stick to the official line. Placing his hand first on his heart, Jacques dramatically moves it to the centre and then the right. Needless to say, it marked the end of U. The invasion of North Africa—a joint venture between the United Kingdom and the United States known as Operation Torch—was intended to open up another front of the war, but the colonial power in the region was France, purportedly a neutral party in World War II.

After all, France had signed an armistice with Adolf Hitler on June 22, , within weeks of being overrun by German soldiers. But what exactly was the Vichy regime? Were they hapless puppets of the Nazis, or genocidal collaborators? Was it the lesser of two evils—the choice between partial and total occupation—or a government that reflected the will of the people?

To answer these questions and more, dive into the story of Vichy France, the government that ruled from June till August How did Vichy France come to be? When France declared war on Germany on September 3, , following the German invasion of Poland, the French military spent eight months watching and waiting for the first strike. Meanwhile, a French colonial battalion formed the Free French 1st "Bataillon d'infanterie de marine" BIM and campaigned in the Western Desert as a motor battalion under British control during the first offensive into Libya.

General de Gaulle ordained formation of the first Free French division in Palestine just in time to take part in Operation Exporter, the Allied invasion of the Vichy-controlled French Levant. This campaign is often referred to as a tragedy of Frenchman against Frenchman.

More exactly, the majority of Free French battalions in the operation were composed of Senegalese troops who were reluctant to kill their Senegalese countrymen serving with the Vichy defenders; as a consequence, the Free French brigades earned a poor reputation with the British.

Although the Gaullists had anticipated a healthy influx of recruits from among the defeated Vichy army in the Levant, the vast majority of officers and troops chose not to join Free France. Indeed, both Free French brigades were disbanded for a time at the end of the campaign. When the brigades were reformed, they were stronger and better supported with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, artillery, and tanks.

Although considered brigade groups by the British, the French liked to think of their new formations as light divisions. Both reconstituted brigades fought in the Western Desert. The 1st fought gallantly and with great propaganda value at Bir Hakeim. The inexperienced 2nd saw no action and failed to cover itself with glory in the withdrawal to Alamein. Following the Tunisian campaign came the difficult process of merging the forces of the Free French with those forces formerly loyal to the Vichy regime.

This was a distinction never entirely forgotten in the ensuing years. With the rallying of French North Africa and the subsequent allegiance of French West Africa and most of the remainder of the French colonial empire, a large pool of manpower became available for rebuilding the French army. However, the army could be rebuilt only at the pace of the Allied largely American rearmament program.

French desires and demands were consistently greater than Allied abilities and willingness , and the rearmament program was a bureaucratic jungle which saw many partially formed French formations sacrificed and cannibalized. The program eventually produced eight very useful Allied divisions: 1st Free French and 2nd Armored both with Gaullist lineage , 1st and 5th Armored, 2nd Moroccan, 3rd Algerian, 4th Moroccan Mountain, and 9th Colonial. These divisions served variously in Italy, France, and Germany.

Other divisions were being formed as the war ended. Ex-FFI troops were also used to "whiten" the battalions of divisions formed in Africa, such replacement "imposed by the climatic conditions. Many non-divisional formations also served with French forces from to , including 1st Spahi Brigade, 9th Zouaves, the "Choc" battalion, "France" and "Africa" commando battalions, and, especially, the four "Groupes Tabors Marocains.

Those two brigades were reconstituted in December and March , and they were officially formed into the new 1st Free French Division on 1 February outside Tobruk. French 4th Brigade, forming in Egypt in February, became the division's third brigade but did not join the division until after the campaign in Tunisia. Meanwhile, elements of the division originally detached for the pursuit from Alamein , continued to operate with the advancing 8th Army as the "French Flying Column.

It was transported to southern France in August and took part in operations in Provence and Alsace. En route to the Atlantic coast in December to help assault German-held ports, the division was rushed back to the Rhine in response to the German counter-offensive and threat to Strasbourg. As with the other French divisions with roots in Africa, the 1st underwent "whitening. The French 2nd Armored Division had already commenced formation from May but, when it was decided to convert General Leclerc's command to tanks, the original 2nd Armored was redesignated 5th Armored Division.

Leclerc's unit assumed the 2nd Armored designation on 24 May by right of seniority. Earmarked for the task based on political considerations, the division landed in Normandy in August and liberated Paris.