Congratulations 

France during the Second World War. France fought on the side of Nazi Germany in World War II

The aggravation of contradictions between the powers in the 1930s led to the formation of two warring blocs: the Anglo-French-American and the German-Italian-Japanese. The German-Italian-Japanese bloc took shape in the form of an “anti-Comintern pact” and pursued the goal of not only redistributing the world, but also establishing fascist regimes throughout the world, which posed a great danger to humanity. England, USA And France set themselves the task of weakening the dangerous imperialist rivals by directing their aggression against the Soviet Union.

Having attacked Poland, Nazi Germany sent 53 divisions, 2500 tanks and 2000 aircraft to the front. The Polish army, despite the heroic resistance of individual military units (in the battle of Bzura, in the defense of Warsaw), was unable to withstand the onslaught of the German troops, who were rapidly moving inland. Poland was defeated.

England and France, which were allies of Poland, declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. But, having entered the war, they still hoped to send fascist troops against the USSR and did not conduct active operations, although only 23 German divisions opposed 110 French and 5 British divisions on the Western Front. On September 12, 1939, at a meeting of the Anglo-French Supreme Military Council, it was decided to pursue passive defense tactics in the war with Germany.

Thus began the "strange war", which lasted during September 1939 - May 1940. Neither side launched active hostilities. This allowed Germany to quickly defeat Poland and prepare for new military campaigns, naval battles were somewhat more active. German submarines sank the British battleship RoyalOk, the aircraft carrier Koreydzhes, and a large number of English and French merchant ships.

At the beginning of the war, the United States declared its neutrality. The US ruling circles hoped to use the situation in the interests of their enrichment and strengthening their power. At the same time, they encouraged the advance of Germany to the east. However, the growing contradictions with the fascist bloc forced the United States to focus on rapprochement with Britain and France.

Germany, building up its armed forces, developed plans to capture the countries of Western Europe.

On April 9, 1940, she launched an invasion of Denmark and Norway. Denmark immediately capitulated. The population and army of Norway resisted the German armed forces. England and France attempted to help Norway with their troops, but they failed, and Norway was occupied.

France was next. Nazi Germany developed a plan to capture it through neutral states: Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg. The German military command, resorting to provocation, organized a raid on the German city of Freiburg, blaming the Dutch and Belgian aviation for this. On May 10, 1940, the German government ordered the invasion of German troops into Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. At the same time, the German offensive against France began. The period of the "strange war" is over.

The short-sighted policy of the ruling circles of England and France led to grave consequences. On May 14, the Netherlands capitulated. Large formations of French, Belgian and British troops were pressed to the sea near Dunkirk. Only a part of them managed to evacuate to the British Isles. Belgium surrendered with its troops on 28 May.

Occupation of France by Nazi Germany

March 21, 1940 became head of government Paul Reynaud. During the German offensive against France that began on May 10, 1940, the government showed complete inability to organize a rebuff to the aggressor: on June 14, without any resistance, Paris was surrendered to the enemy. Reynaud resigned two days later. The new government was headed by Marshal petin On June 22, France accepted the terms of surrender dictated to her by Germany. As a result of the defeat in the war, two-thirds of the territory of France, and since November 1942, the entire country was occupied by Nazi troops.

Under the terms of the surrender, the government Petain supplied fascist Germany with raw materials, food, industrial goods, labor, paying her 400 million francs daily.

The Petain government, whose residence was in the city of Vichy, ceased the activity of representative institutions, dissolved all former political parties and public associations, and allowed the creation of fascist organizations. Germany was provided with military bases, ports, airfields in the territories of the Middle East and North Africa that belonged to France.

The struggle of the French people

The French people did not accept the fate that the new rulers of the country prepared for them. As the well-known historian A. 3. Manfred, "the national forces turned out to be superior to their leaders."

The country has resistance movement united the patriotic forces of France.

Along with the resistance movement inside the country outside of France, the patriotic anti-fascist movement "Free France" arose. It was headed by emigrated to England General de Gaulle, which was part of the last government of the Third Republic. On June 18, 1940, in a speech on London radio, de Gaulle called for resistance and the unification of all the French who, for various reasons, found themselves outside their country. On August 7, 1940, de Gaulle received Churchill's consent to the formation of volunteer French armed forces in England. In France, de Gaulle's supporters also began to create their own organizations.

After the German attack on the USSR in France in early July 1941, a National Front, which included communists, socialists, Christian Democrats, radical socialists and representatives of other parties. The National Front set itself the task of expelling the fascist invaders from French territory, punishing war criminals and their accomplices, restoring sovereignty and ensuring democratic government elections. The creation of a new organization gave mass character to the resistance movement.

At the same time, an armed struggle was unfolding in the country between the franchisors (“free shooters”) and partisans, led by the communists. By the summer of 1944, the number of detachments of freelancers and partisans amounted to 250 thousand people. Tens of thousands of them were arrested, imprisoned in concentration camps, many were executed, including eight members of the PCF Central Committee. In total, 75 thousand French communists fell for the freedom and independence of their homeland, for which it was called the “party of the executed”.

In November 1942, an agreement on joint action was concluded between the PCF and de Gaulle's supporters. In May 1943, the National Council of the Resistance was created, which was a significant step in uniting all the anti-Hitler forces in France. On June 3, 1943, the French Committee of the National Liberation (headed by de Gaulle and Giraud) was formed in Algiers, which essentially became the Provisional Government of France.

The rallying of anti-fascist forces into a united front made it possible to start preparing an armed uprising against the invaders. At the beginning of 1944, all the fighting organizations of French patriots - participants in the Resistance, merged into a single army of "French internal forces" with a total number of 500 thousand people.

In the summer of 1944, armed uprisings began in France, covering 40 departments of the country. Almost half of the occupied territory was liberated by the forces of the rebellious patriots. The fighters of the Resistance detachments helped the detachments of the Anglo-American troops to land and gain a foothold in and liberated the cities of Clermont-Ferrand and others on their own.

On August 19, 1944, French patriots raised an anti-fascist armed uprising in Paris, and on August 25, the leaders of the uprising accepted the surrender of the German commandant. Soon the Provisional Government led by de Gaulle arrived in Paris.

On the eve of World War II, the French army was considered one of the most powerful in the world. But in a direct clash with Germany in May 1940, the French were enough for a few weeks of resistance.

Useless superiority

By the beginning of World War II, France had the 3rd largest army in the world in terms of the number of tanks and aircraft, second only to the USSR and Germany, as well as the 4th navy after Britain, the USA and Japan. The total number of French troops numbered more than 2 million people.
The superiority of the French army in manpower and equipment over the forces of the Wehrmacht on the Western Front was undeniable. For example, the French Air Force included about 3,300 aircraft, of which half were the latest combat vehicles. The Luftwaffe could only count on 1,186 aircraft.
With the arrival of reinforcements from the British Isles - an expeditionary force in the amount of 9 divisions, as well as air units, including 1,500 combat vehicles - the advantage over the German troops became more than obvious. However, in a matter of months, there was no trace of the former superiority of the allied forces - the well-trained and tactically superior army of the Wehrmacht forced France to capitulate in the end.

The line that didn't defend

The French command assumed that the German army would act as it had during the First World War - that is, it would launch an attack on France from the northeast from Belgium. The entire load in this case was to fall on the defensive redoubts of the Maginot Line, which France began to build in 1929 and improved until 1940.

For the construction of the Maginot Line, which stretches for 400 km, the French spent a fabulous amount - about 3 billion francs (or 1 billion dollars). The massive fortifications included multi-level underground forts with living quarters, ventilation systems and elevators, electrical and telephone stations, hospitals, and narrow gauge railways. Gun casemates from air bombs were supposed to be protected by a concrete wall 4 meters thick.

The personnel of the French troops on the Maginot Line reached 300 thousand people.
According to military historians, the Maginot Line, in principle, coped with its task. There were no breakthroughs of German troops on its most fortified sections. But the German army group "B", having bypassed the line of fortifications from the north, threw the main forces into its new sections, which were built on swampy terrain, and where the construction of underground structures was difficult. There, the French could not hold back the onslaught of the German troops.

Surrender in 10 minutes

On June 17, 1940, the first meeting of the collaborationist government of France, headed by Marshal Henri Petain, took place. It lasted only 10 minutes. During this time, the ministers unanimously voted for the decision to turn to the German command and ask him to end the war on French territory.

For these purposes, the services of an intermediary were used. The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, P. Baudouin, through the Spanish Ambassador Lekeric, transmitted a note in which the French government asked Spain to turn to the German leadership with a request to stop hostilities in France, and also to find out the terms of the armistice. At the same time, a proposal for a truce was sent to Italy through the papal nuncio. On the same day, Petain turned on the radio to the people and the army, urging them to "stop the fight."

Last stronghold

At the signing of the armistice (act of surrender) between Germany and France, Hitler was wary of the vast colonies of the latter, many of which were ready to continue resistance. This explains some of the relaxations in the treaty, in particular, the preservation of part of the French navy to maintain "order" in their colonies.

England was also vitally interested in the fate of the French colonies, since the threat of their capture by German forces was highly valued. Churchill hatched plans for a French government in exile that would grant de facto control of Britain's French overseas possessions.
General Charles de Gaulle, who created a government in opposition to the Vichy regime, directed all his efforts to seizing the colonies.

However, the North African administration turned down an offer to join the Free French. A completely different mood reigned in the colonies of Equatorial Africa - already in August 1940, Chad, Gabon and Cameroon joined de Gaulle, which created the conditions for the general to form the state apparatus.

Fury of Mussolini

Realizing that the defeat of France from Germany is inevitable, Mussolini on June 10, 1940 declared war on her. The Italian Army Group "West" of Prince Umberto of Savoy, with forces of over 300 thousand people, with the support of 3 thousand guns, launched an offensive in the Alps. However, the opposing army of General Aldry successfully repelled these attacks.

By June 20, the offensive of the Italian divisions became more fierce, but they managed to advance only slightly in the Menton area. Mussolini was furious - his plans to seize a large piece of its territory by the time of France's surrender had failed. The Italian dictator has already begun to prepare an airborne assault, but has not received approval for this operation from the German command.
On June 22, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, and two days later France and Italy signed the same agreement. So, with a "victorious embarrassment" Italy entered the Second World War.

Victims

During the active phase of the war, which lasted from May 10 to June 21, 1940, the French army lost about 300 thousand people killed and wounded. Half a million were taken prisoner. The tank corps and the French Air Force were partially destroyed, the other part went to the German armed forces. At the same time, Britain will liquidate the French fleet in order to avoid its falling into the hands of the Wehrmacht.

Despite the fact that the capture of France took place in a short time, its armed forces gave a worthy rebuff to the German and Italian troops. For a month and a half of the war, the Wehrmacht lost more than 45 thousand people killed and missing, about 11 thousand were injured.
The French sacrifices of German aggression could not have been in vain if the French government had made a series of concessions put forward by Britain in exchange for the entry of the royal armed forces into the war. But France chose to capitulate.

Paris - a place of convergence

According to the armistice agreement, Germany occupied only the western coast of France and the northern regions of the country, where Paris was located. The capital was a kind of place of "French-German" rapprochement. Here, German soldiers and Parisians coexisted peacefully: they went to the cinema together, visited museums, or simply sat in a cafe. After the occupation, theaters also revived - their box office receipts tripled compared to pre-war years.

Paris very quickly became the cultural center of occupied Europe. France lived as before, as if there were no months of desperate resistance and unfulfilled hopes. German propaganda managed to convince many French people that capitulation is not a disgrace to the country, but a road to the “bright future” of a renewed Europe.

Not so long ago, a documentary film “Sleeping with the Enemy” was shown on TV screens - about French women who cohabited with the occupiers. We will return to them at the end of the article, but before that we will flip through the pages of recent French history.

The destruction of the French gene pool began with the Great Revolution of 1789, continued during the years of the empire, reached its climax in the massacre of 1914-1918 and, as a result, led to a steady trend of continuous national degradation. Neither the genius of Napoleon nor the victory in the First World War could stop the stratification of society, corruption, the thirst for enrichment at any cost, the growth of chauvinism and blindness in the face of the growing German threat. What happened to France in 1940 is not just a military defeat, but a national collapse, a complete loss of morale. The army did not resist. Under Napoleon and for many years after him, the concept honour was perceived differently by the French soldier. Stendhal (himself a participant in the Napoleonic wars) recalls in his diaries: wounded soldiers, having learned that they would not be able to take part in the next campaign, were thrown out of the windows of hospitals - life without an army lost its meaning for them. What happened to the great nation that so recently - just two centuries ago - made Europe tremble?

The French fascists (there were many of them in the army elite) saw and waited for the Germans as deliverers from the "Reds". Much can be said about the French generals. Among them were frank monarchists who did not forgive the hated Republic for the lost cause of Dreyfus. The aged, incapable of thinking generals, in whose brains the ossified doctrine of the First World War froze, did not learn a lesson from the just ended "blitzkrieg" in Poland. After the first German attacks, the army under their command turned into a demoralized mass.

The Communists, following the order of their leadership (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact also applied to them), passively waited, no different from the shopkeepers and the bourgeois, whose thoughts were constantly occupied by rent and inheritance.

Little Finland had the courage to fight steadfastly against Russia. Not for the first time, doomed Poland fought without a chance of victory. France capitulated a year before the start of the war - in Munich.

The defeat in June 1940 is only the result, the result. And it all started much earlier.

Goebbels' propaganda machine worked with maximum efficiency, using every opportunity to morally corrupt the future enemy.

The German unions of World War I veterans invited the French to visit Germany. In France, there were many such unions, both right-wing and left-wing political orientations: the disabled, the blind, just participants in the war. In Germany, they were greeted friendly, sparing no expense. Nazi bosses and the Fuhrer himself assured the French guests that there were no more reasons for enmity. The effect of the campaign exceeded all expectations - French veterans with surprising ease believed in the sincerity of German propaganda. Former enemies (regardless of political beliefs) became comrades in arms, members of the international "trench brotherhood".

The German ambassador, Otto Abetz, gave lavish receptions. The Parisian elite was fascinated by the tact, taste, erudition and personal charm of the German ambassador, his impeccable French, blinded by the brilliance of revues and concerts, intoxicated with exquisite menus.

So it was before the First World War, when the major Parisian newspapers were openly financed by the government of Tsarist Russia. But in those years, Russia, at least, was an ally of France. In the mid-1930s, the secret services of Italy and Germany became sources of funding for the "free" press. Millions of francs in cash were paid to the leading journalists of such newspapers as Le Figaro, Le Temps and many lesser ranks for pro-German publications. And publications were met quite in the Goebbels style, at the level of "Volkischer Beobachter" and "Der Sturmer". The cynicism of corrupt newspapers is striking: they, among other things, write about the “Jewish origin of Roosevelt”, who “wants to start a war in order to restore the power of the Jews and give the world to the power of the Bolsheviks.” And this is on the eve of the war!

Fear was skillfully pumped up: better Hitler than the "Reds", than "that Jew Leon Blum" - the main motive of the inhabitants of all ranks frightened by the "People's Front". During the period of the "People's Front", a popular song appeared "All is well, beautiful marquise!" (in the USSR it was performed by Leonid Utyosov). It ridiculed the pro-naphthalene aristocracy, who did not understand what was happening around. If only the aristocracy didn't understand! Harmless at first glance, the song turned out to be a satirical mirror of French history between the two wars.

War has been declared, but almost no shots are heard on the Western Front: a “strange war” is underway, or, as the Germans themselves began to call it before May 10, 1940, “sitzkrieg”. Along the front line from the German side there are posters: "Don't shoot - and we won't shoot!". Concerts are broadcast through powerful amplifiers. The Germans arrange a magnificent funeral for the deceased French lieutenant, the orchestra performs the Marseillaise, film reporters wind up spectacular shots.

On May 10, the Wehrmacht breaks into Holland, Denmark, Luxembourg and then, bypassing the “impregnable” Maginot Line through Belgium, into France. The steadfast (everyone would have it!) defense of Lille allowed the British to evacuate from Dunkirk a significant part of the divisions pressed to the sea. The Germans do not miss the opportunity to get a propaganda effect and arrange a parade of the brave defenders of the city, allowing them to pass for the last time with fixed bayonets before capitulation. In front of the correspondents' cameras, German officers salute the marching prisoners of the French. Then they will show: look - we are waging war like knights.

In those tragic June days, the first attempts at resistance also appeared: in rare cases, when the French army nevertheless intended to protect small towns or villages, the townsfolk violently protested to save their own skins and even tried to provide armed resistance ... to their own army!

On June 14, the Germans entered Paris, declared an "open city".

It took them only five weeks to do so. Newsreel footage that is hard to watch without shuddering. Wehrmacht columns pass by the Arc de Triomphe. The touched German general, almost falling off his horse from an excess of feelings, greets his soldiers. The Parisians silently look at their shame. Without wiping his tears like a child, an elderly man is crying, and next to him is an elegant lady - a wide-brimmed hat and gloves to her elbows - shamelessly applauding the marching winners.

Another plot: not a soul on the streets - the city seems to have died out

The cortege of open cars is slowly advancing along the deserted streets of the defeated capital. In the first, the winner is the Fuhrer (on the day of the capture of Paris, he received a congratulatory telegram from Moscow!). In front of the Eiffel Tower, Hitler with his retinue stops and, arrogantly raising his head, contemplates his prey. On Place de la Concorde, the car slows down slightly, two policemen - “azhans” (what kind of faces! - you involuntarily take your eyes off the screen - it’s a shame to look at them!), bowing obsequiously, salute the winner, but, except for the camera lens, no one is looking at them . But the German cameraman did not miss the moment and tried to save these faces for history - he gave them in full screen - let them see!

In battles (or rather, in a disorderly flight in the summer of 1940), the French army lost 92,000 people and by the end of the war another 58,000 (in 1914-1918, almost 10 times more).

France is not Poland. Fulfilling specially designed instructions, the “boches” behaved with the defeated in the highest degree correctly. And in the very first days of the occupation, Parisian girls began to flirt with the winners who turned out to be so polite and not at all terrible. And in five years, cohabitation with the Germans took on a massive character. The command of the Wehrmacht encouraged this: cohabitation with a Frenchwoman was not considered "desecration of the race." There were also children with Aryan blood in their veins.

Cultural life did not stop even after the fall of Paris. Scattering their feathers, the girls danced in the revue. As if nothing had happened, Maurice Chevalier, Sacha Guitry and others shamelessly clowned around in front of the invaders in the music halls. The winners gathered for the concerts of Edith Piaf, which she gave in a rented brothel. Louis de Funes entertained the invaders by playing the piano, and during intermissions he convinced German officers of his Aryan origin. Those whose names are difficult for me to mention in this article were not left without work: Yves Montand and Charles Aznavour. But, the famous guitarist Django Reinhard refused to play in front of the occupiers. But there were few like him.

Artists exhibited their paintings in salons and galleries. Among them are Derain, Vlaminck, Braque and even Picasso, the author of Guernica. Others made a living by painting portraits of the new masters of the capital in Montmartre.

In the evenings the curtains were raised in the theatres.

Gerard Philip played his first role - Angel in the play "Sodom and Gomorrah" in the Jean Vilar Theater in 1942. In 1943, director Marc Allegre shot 20-year-old Gerard in the film "Babies from the Embankment of Flowers." The father of the young actor Marcel Philip after the war was sentenced to death for collaborating with the invaders, but with the help of his son he managed to escape to Spain.

A native of Kyiv, the star of the "Russian Seasons" in Paris, the director of the "Grand Opera" Sergei Lifar was also sentenced to death, but managed to sit out in Switzerland.

In occupied Europe, it was forbidden not only to perform jazz, but even to pronounce the word itself. A special circular listed the most popular American tunes that were not allowed to be played - the imperial propaganda ministry had something to do. But resistance fighters in Parisian cafes quickly found a way out: banned plays were given new (and surprisingly vulgar) titles. He crushed, crushed the German boot of the French - how could he not resist!

Films were being made in film studios in full swing. The favorite of the public Jean Marais was already popular then. His unconventional sexual orientation did not bother anyone (even the Germans). At the personal invitation of Goebbels, such famous French artists as Daniel Darier, Fernandel and many others made creative trips to Germany to get acquainted with the work of the UFA film concern. During the years of the occupation, more films were made in France than in all of Europe. The film "Children of Paradise", for example, was released in 1942. In this film abundance, the New Wave was born, which had yet to conquer the world.

Groups of leading French writers on trips to German cities got acquainted with the cultural life of the winners, visiting universities, theaters, and museums. In the city of Liege, a young employee of the local newspaper published a series of nineteen articles, in the spirit of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, under the general title "The Jewish Threat." His name is Georges Simenon. The well-known Catholic writer, playwright and poet Paul Claudel spoke in the same tone. Without any restrictions on the part of the invaders, many books were published - more than before the war - books.

No one interfered with the exploration of the sea depths, which Jacques Yves Cousteau was just starting. At the same time, he experimented with the creation of scuba gear and equipment for underwater filming.

Here it is impossible to enumerate (the author did not set such a task for himself) all those who lived a normal life, did what they loved, not noticing the red flags with a swastika over their heads, not listening to the volleys coming from the Mont Valérien fort, where the hostages were shot. The guillotine tapped: in a paroxysm of loyal servility, the French Themis sent even unfaithful wives to the guillotine.

“Workers can afford to strike or sabotage,” this public justified itself rather aggressively after liberation. “We, people of art, must continue to create, otherwise we cannot exist.” They just could exist, and the workers had to carry out full economic integration with the Third Reich with their own hands.

True, the working class also did not particularly suffer - there was enough work and the Germans paid well: the Atlantic Wall was built by the hands of the French.

70 thousand Jews were sent to Auschwitz

And what happened behind the scenes of this idyll? 70 thousand Jews were sent to Auschwitz. Here's how it happened. Fulfilling the order of the Gestapo, the French police carefully prepared and on June 17, 1942 carried out an operation code-named "Spring Wind". 6,000 Parisian policemen participated in the action - the Germans decided not to get their hands dirty and gave the French high confidence . The bus drivers union eagerly responded to the offer of additional income, and capacious Parisian buses stopped at the intersections of the Saint-Paul quarter, waiting for "passengers". Not a single driver refused this dirty work. With rifles over their shoulders, police patrols went around the apartments, checking the presence of tenants according to the lists, and gave them two hours to pack. The Jews were then taken to the buses and sent to the winter velodrome, where they spent three days without food or water, waiting to be sent to the Auschwitz gas chambers. During this action, the Germans did not appear on the streets of the quarter. But the neighbors responded to the action. They burst into empty apartments and carried away everything that came to hand, not forgetting to fill their mouths with the remains of the deportees' last meal, which had not yet cooled down. Three days later, it was the turn of the French railway workers (we saw their heroic struggle with the "boches" in Rene Clement's film "Battle on the Rails"). They locked up Jews in cattle cars and drove trains to the German border. The Germans were not present at the time of dispatch and did not guard the echelons along the way - the railway workers justified their trust and closed the doors securely.

Maki - that's who tried to wash away the shame of defeat. The losses of the Resistance - 20,000 killed in battle and 30,000 executed by the Nazis - speak for themselves and are commensurate with the losses of the two millionth French army. But can this resistance be called French? The majority in the Maki detachments were descendants of Russian emigrants, Soviet prisoners of war who had escaped from concentration camps, Poles living in France, Spanish Republicans, Armenians who had escaped from the genocide unleashed by the Turks, and other refugees from countries occupied by the Nazis. An interesting detail: by 1940, Jews made up 1% of the population of France, but their participation in the Resistance is disproportionately high - from 15 to 20%. There were both purely Jewish (including Zionist) detachments and organizations, as well as mixed ones - of various political spectrums and directions.

But even in the Resistance, not everything was so simple.

The communists not only spent the first year of the occupation in hibernation, but even offered their services to the Germans. The Germans, however, refused them. But after June 22, 1941, the communists hurried to take over the overall leadership of the Resistance. Where they succeeded, they hampered the actions of insufficiently leftist and national groups in every possible way, entrusting them with the most dangerous tasks and at the same time restricting the supply of weapons, communications, ammunition, as well as the freedom to choose the most secure deployment. In other words, the Communists did everything possible to make such groups fail. As a result, many underground fighters and partisans died.

The Gallic rooster started up as the allies approached Paris. Tricolor flags fluttered over the capital. Armed with anything, the Parisians went to the barricades, just like they once did in 1830, 1848, 1871. The brave Parisian police officers instantly got their bearings and, leaving the hunt for Jews, joined the rebels in unison. The demoralized remnants of the Wehrmacht did not actually resist and sought to leave the city as quickly as possible. Of course, there were victims, and considerable ones, but mostly among the civilian population: crowds of jubilant Parisians came under fire from snipers who had taken refuge in the attic and on the roofs. Those 400 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers who did not manage to escape, together with the commander (General von Choltitz), surrendered to the Parisians.

There was a diplomatic incident: Moscow, which had been waiting for the opening of a second front for years, did not miss the opportunity to taunt and reported that on August 23, 1944, the Resistance forces liberated Paris on their own, without waiting for the allies (so it, in fact, was). However, after the protest of the allies, a refutation had to be published, in which “according to updated data” it was reported that Paris was nevertheless liberated by the combined forces of the coalition, and not on the 23rd, but on the 25th of August. In fact, everything was much simpler: long before the barricades, long before the arrival of the allies, the Germans themselves liberated the French capital from their presence.

And so, in 1944, the Boches left, leaving their French lovers in the claws of the angry Gallic rooster. Only then did it become clear how many true patriots there are in France. Preferring not to disturb the big fish, they boldly dealt with those who slept with the enemy.

Cohabitation with the occupiers causes nothing but disgust. But what is it compared to the mass betrayal of the generals, the corrupt press, the right-wing party leaders, who saw Hitler as a deliverer, and the left, for whom (until 1941) Hitler was an ally of Moscow? What is it compared to the servile Vichy regime, which supplied Hitler with volunteers? What is it compared to denunciation, direct cooperation with the Gestapo and in the Gestapo, the hunt for Jews and partisans? Even President Mitterrand is a personality of this level! - was a diligent official in the Vichy government and received the highest award from the hands of Pétain himself. How did this affect his career?

From the French volunteers, the Waffen SS division "Charlemagne" (Charlemagne) was formed. By the end of April 1945, all that was left of the division - the SS battalion of French volunteers, desperately bravely (so it would be with the Germans in 40!) Fought with the Red Army on the streets of Berlin. The few survivors were shot on the orders of the French General Leclerc.

What happened after the war? The scale of the betrayal turned out to be so grandiose that the French Themis (who also had a stigma in fluff) could only helplessly shrug. Prisons would not accommodate the guilty (something similar happened in defeated Germany, where punishment for the Nazis was replaced by the formal procedure of “denazification” - repented and free). But in little Belgium, for example, where the level of betrayal was incomparably lower, they argued differently and condemned three times more collaborators than in France.

However, immediately after the release, thousands of collaborators were still shot. But soon after the end of the war, the leader of the "Fighting France" - the unbending General Charles de Gaulle decided to cross out the shameful pages of the recent past, saying: "France needs all her children." In principle, one can understand de Gaulle: even the Gestapo would not be able to shoot such a number of traitors, and there is nothing to say about the guillotine. Thus, the former collaborators not only went unpunished, but rather quickly integrated into industry, business, and even government structures.

5,000 active members of the Resistance initially joined the "restored" French army, but regular officers - those who are guilty of defeat - after a few months restored the military hierarchy and returned to their places, sending most of the former partisans to the reserve. It is characteristic that the theme of the Resistance in French films is covered quite widely and, perhaps, even in too much detail, but you will not see what happened in 1940 at the front in any of them. In the French Millenium collection, the following is literally said about the defeat of 1940: “ After the fall of France, resistance was strong in Brittany, in the zone controlled by the Vichy government, and in the Italian-occupied southeast.". (Italy occupied three narrow strips, several kilometers deep along the common border with France - where, and against whom was the guerrilla war to unfold there?). It's hard to believe, but more - not a word! What follows is an explanation of the four photographs of the Maki fighters.

Of course, there were collaborators in all the occupied countries of Europe, but in none of them did this unfortunate phenomenon reach such proportions. It is characteristic that after the war in France there were almost no publications about cooperation with Germany. The documents were kept, but they became inaccessible to historians and journalists. Even the most popular in the entire Western world reference book "Who is who" was not published - the list of collaborators would have turned out too immense.

The bloodthirsty common people were allowed to recoup those from whom there was nothing to ask, for whom there was no one to intercede. Yes, he, most likely, did not need serious victims: after all, it is much easier to pull a defenseless woman out into the street than a staff officer, a newspaper editor or an official - “the children of France”, whom de Gaulle took under his wing. The daughters of France who slept with the enemy were not among them. The newsreel left us evidence of these massacres. On the streets of small towns and villages, scenes took place that resembled a medieval witch hunt or the “September massacres” of 1792 - the massacre of prisoners in Parisian prisons. But even in this level it was lower, without bonfires or, at worst, a guillotine, although in some places there were still some victims.

Through a raging crowd of patriots, the offenders (some carried children in their arms) were led to the square, where the village hairdresser cut them bald under the typewriter. Then, on the forehead, and sometimes on the bare chest, a swastika was drawn with black paint. Against the backdrop of the screaming masses, these women behaved surprisingly dignified - without a shadow of remorse, they calmly walked through spitting, calmly stood during the execution ...

Here is another impressive story: the execution is over and a truck with a group of girls in the back makes its way through the cheering crowd. A resistance fighter with a rifle in his hand laughs at the top of his lungs and with his free hand pats the shaved head of the delinquent girl. Where was this brave man in 1940? Why does he need a rifle now?

But who is around? What, for example, did the same brave hairdresser do for four years in a row? What did you do just a week ago? Didn't Monsieur the commandant shave and cut his hair, put German marks into his pocket, kindly escort him to the exit and, bowing his head, opened the door for him? What about the elegant gentleman who, holding his hands far away, diligently draws a swastika on the girl's forehead? He also carefully polished glasses and wiped the tables in front of the German guests - since the autumn of 1940, his restaurant at the crossroads has not been empty. The swastika itself asks for his sparkling bald head. Or the fat man on the right - he is shouting something, waving his arms angrily. How many cases of wine did the invaders buy in his store? On the side, the girls grin maliciously. But if the "bosh" is prettier, they could also be in the place of the accused. But let's not delve into this raging crowd. Neither one nor the other causes sympathy - only disgust. Willingly or involuntarily, but the majority of those who gathered on the square served and supported the occupiers for four years. They fed them, watered them, sheathed them, washed them, entertained them, provided many other services, made deals with them and often made good money. But this is only the most harmless - "everyday" collaborationism! Why are German cohabitants worse? Wasn't the whole country sleeping with the enemy? Is there really no one else to show in documentaries?

The army - the color and health of the nation - failed to protect its women, left wives, sisters and daughters to be desecrated by the invaders. And now the French men are taking revenge on them for their cowardice. Such reprisals cannot restore the honor of beautiful France, but they cannot trample deeper into the mud - 60 years have already been at the very bottom.

In general, as the French say: if there is no solution to the problem, if there is no answer to an exciting question, then “look for a woman!” - "Cherchet la femme!"

http://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=15197

The French Resistance Movement is the common name for several national liberation movements that operated on the territory of the occupied country in 1940-1944. The common goal of the Resistance was to fight for the liberation of the republic from the Germans.

Until 1943, there were several leading centers, which were then united under one French Committee of National Liberation.

Members of the Resistance

The exact number of people who took part in the struggle for the liberation of France is still unknown to historians. Archival documents and memoirs of members of the Resistance Movement allow scientists to name data of 350-500 thousand people. These are very approximate figures, since a huge number of organizations, absolutely unrelated to each other, fought against the fascist regime.

Among the main currents that were represented in the Resistance, it is worth noting such as:

  • Communist, represented by members of the Communist Party of France;
  • The partisan movement, which was called "Maki";
  • The Vichy movement, which included supporters of the Vichy puppet government. Members of this direction supported the French resistance, giving it all kinds of support, but officially they were on the side of Vichy;
  • Free French Movement led by General Charles de Gaulle.

Separately, in the Resistance it is necessary to single out representatives of other nationalities:

  • German anti-fascists;
  • Spaniards, who were represented by various national and political forces (Basques, Catalans, supporters of the left, etc.);
  • Former Soviet prisoners of war who organized about 35 partisan detachments in France;
  • Ukrainians;
  • Jews;
  • Armenians;
  • Kazakhs.

People from different countries of the world fell into the Resistance after they managed to escape from German concentration camps. Some representatives of national minorities, for example, Armenians and Jews, living in the country, in response to persecution by the Germans, created their own combat units.

"Poppies" and "Free France"

The key players in the Resistance Movement were the Maquis partisan detachments and the Free French national liberation movement.

The "Maki" partisans were created mainly in the mountains of the country, where the citizens of the republic fled in order not to get into the Vichy labor detachments. At first, people created small, unconnected groups. They had practically no weapons and leaders. After a while, the partisan detachments turned into well-organized structures that fought against the Nazis. Although initially the "poppies" sought to simply preserve personal freedom and life. The detachments included many Jews, Englishmen, as well as those who were persecuted by Vichy supporters or the German occupation authorities.

The main regions of partisan activity were:

  • Alps;
  • Mountainous Brittany;
  • Southern France;
  • Limousin.

The partisans wore the so-called Basque berets, which distinguished them from other members of the Resistance.

French political and military forces organized in 1940 an organization that went down in history under the name "Free France". The patriotic trend was led by the General of the French Army, Charles de Gaulle, who led the detachments from London, where the headquarters of the organization was located. Her task was to liberate the country from the Nazis and the Vichy collaborationist government. Unlike the Maquis partisans, the members of the Free French were well armed, trained, and had combat experience. Charles de Gaulle and his subordinates were officially recognized as member countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, which allowed the general to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, England and the United States. Based on the organization of de Gaulle in 1943-1944. a provisional government of France was formed.

Main stages of activity

  • 1940-1941 - organizational design of the Movement, establishing contacts between the currents. At the same time, the intelligence of the puppet state began to monitor the small groups of the Resistance, which by June 1941 were already more than 100 throughout France. In 1940, a mass demonstration of students and young people took place on the Champs Elysees, who protested against the closure of the university in Paris. The demonstration was also supported by ordinary Parisians, who gradually joined the ranks of the demonstrators. The Germans opened fire on the activists, many of whom were armed. The demonstration ended with mass arrests, the death of civilians and invaders. The next highlight in the Resistance Movement was the miners' strike in Pas de Calais (May 1941);
  • From 1941 to 1943 - the national liberation trend becomes massive, structured, the goals of the Movement begin to change. The liberation of the country from collaborators and Germans comes to the fore. The number of participants in the current grew every day, which was associated with events on the fronts of the Second World War;
  • 1943-1944 - the creation of the Committee of National Liberation, headed by Charles de Gaulle. Military issues were dealt with by a specially created Military Council. Numerous committees were set up throughout France to deal with issues of national liberation. They included representatives from all political forces, parties, military structures and organizations, partisan detachments and the underground.

Fighting methods

  • Attack on German and French soldiers, policemen, representatives of the Vichy government;
  • Numerous actions of sabotage on railways, production;
  • Undermining bridges and railways;
  • Destruction of military materials that the German army needed;
  • Attack on military factories;
  • Actions of civil disobedience were frequent;
  • Help for victims of political, racial and religious persecution;
  • Public strikes.

Members of the French Resistance helped bring down the Vichy regime and liberate France from the invaders. In May 1944 de Gaulle's provisional government was formed. Most members of the Movement then joined the ranks of the regular units of the Allied armies in order to continue the struggle against the fascist regime of Hitler.

all sorts of boobies of the king of heaven, of which 99% are bold repeaters fighters for LiveJournal rating, and 1% of boobies like Starikov or Wasserman, from time to time in spring / autumn they begin to vehemently post that, in their booby opinion, the European Resistance of the Second World War is a "myth" (here's another stream of consciousness)...
it is curious that, as a rule, boobies repost information from my posts ten years ago, which was reposted by other boobies, without links and without a minimum understanding of the essence of the issue ... as evidenced by the photo of our Boulogne heroine, the commander of a mixed Franco-Soviet detachment who participated in the liberation of the department of Pas de Calais, which the boobies, of course, do not know ...

also repost: Original taken from

French losses during World War II:

44 days of war in 1940
army:
123 thousand soldiers were killed (including about 2 thousand Poles)
1.8 million prisoners (of which in 1940-45:
70 thousand fled from captivity (including 30 thousand interned in Switzerland)
221,000 volunteered to work in Germany.
59 thousand released from captivity.
5,000 started families and stayed in Germany after the war.
died in captivity - 70 thousand))

aviation:
594 German aircraft shot down...
losses - 647 French aircraft, 582 pilots were killed, 549 were injured.

population:
21,000 civilians died.
8 million refugees, of which 1.5 million are refugees from the Benelux and Jews from Poland and Germany.

1940-45
French Liberation Army () - 50 thousand killed
army of Fighting France () - 12 thousand
Resistance - 8 thousand
French (Alsatians / Lotaningers) in the German army - 42 thousand.

civilian population:
killed - 412 thousand.
of them:
as a result of the Allied bombing - 167 thousand people.
as a result of allied ground operations - 58 thousand people.
occupiers shot hostages - 30 thousand (according to the Communist Party 200 thousand)
destroyed by punishers - 23 thousand people
shot by partisans for cooperation with the occupiers - 97 thousand people

deported - 220 thousand (of which 83 thousand Jews)

died in captivity
in Germany - 51 thousand.

the number of French in the Wehrmacht according to the Alsatian organization (i.e. Alsace-Lorraine, whom Comrade Stalin and the allies graciously agreed to consider French) -
the total number of mobilized - 200 thousand people.
40,000 of them deserted.
participated in the war in the USSR - 135 thousand people.
taken prisoner in the USSR - 10 thousand people
! (extremely curious compared to the previous figure) - died in captivity in the USSR - 17 thousand (out of 10 captured)
returned from the war - 93 thousand people

according to Soviet data - 19 thousand French prisoners were released from captivity and sent home + 1700 were sent in 1944 as volunteers to the French army.

economic losses
gross national product considering 1939 as 100%
1940 - no data
1941 - 68%
1942 - 62%
1943 - 56%
1944 - 43%

of which, under the terms of the armistice, transferred to Germany
in 1940-42 - 34% of GDP
in 1943-44 - 38% of GDP

paid for the maintenance of the occupying troops on the territory of France:
1940 20 million Reichsmarks per day
1941 - 15 million
1942-44 - 25 million
in total, 32 billion marks were transferred to the occupation authorities.

the number of German prisoners in France in 1944-46.
661 thousand
Of these, 23,000 died in captivity.

the number of Soviet prisoners and fellow citizens driven to work.
about 200 thousand
of them died during the war years and died in captivity - about 40 thousand people.
ROA, etc. - 15 thousand (according to other sources 75 thousand, according to