‘The Idea Of Any Sort Of Genuine Collaboration Between Pétain's Vichy Regime And Nazi Germany Was Always Belied By The Facts'. Discuss

After the German invasion of France in 1940, the Nazis set up a puppet government in Paris, the Vichy government, who, under President Pétain, were nominally in charge of running the country, but worked very closely with the Nazi leadership in Berlin. However, whether the regime and its population actually genuinely collaborated with the Nazis is a subject open for debate. In order to come to a conclusion, one must, first and foremost, evaluate whether the actions of Pétain’s government were genuine attempts at collaboration, or whether they were to shield France, and protect the population from the Nazis. To this question, I will argue that Pétain did in fact genuinely collaborate, whilst also going beyond what was asked of him by the German government, particularly when dealing with the Jews. Second, one must also evaluate whether the general population collaborated with, and supported, the Nazis. In contrast, I will argue that the majority of the French population was in opposition to collaboration and the Vichy regime.

There is a strong argument supporting the fact that there was indeed a genuine collaboration between the Vichy government itself and Nazi Germany. To start with, Pétain, in a speech to the nation having just agreed the terms of the German occupation and the Vichy government, said ‘une collaboration a été envisagé entre nos deux pays… j’entre aujourd’hui dans la voie de la collaboration… cette collaboration doit être sincère’ (Discours du Maréchal Pétain, 1940). This constant reference to the collaboration, especially calling it ‘sincere’, certainly suggests that Pétain was initially committed to genuine collaboration. There are a number of examples of the Vichy government’s actions that show the regime continued its commitment to collaboration. The government put in place compulsory state unions instead of the existing free trade unions that dictated policy without concern for the want and needs of the workers themselves, and continued to implement this law even after this bureaucratic system did not work. Furthermore, there is evidence that the regime went above and beyond what the Germans wanted and expected them to do: the Vichy government did not get enough volunteers to send to Germany to work in big industries, such as Krupp, so, in September 1942 the government passed a law decreeing that they could forcefully recruit workers into the Forced Labour Service.

It was the action taken by the Vichy regime against the Jews, however, that provides the best evidence for the argument in favour of genuine collaboration. The Vichy regime embarked upon a system of extermination, executing those groups the Nazis considered to be the ‘undesirables’, such as the gypsies, the communists, but in particular, the Jews. Over the course of the Vichy regime 77,500 Jews were killed, in order to support the Nazi’s ‘Final Solution’. One particular example highlights the collaboration of the Vichy government: the Vel d’Hiv Roundup. In July, under German orders, the Vichy-controlled French police force rounded up 13,152 Jews (including 4,051 children arrested without specific orders from the Gestapo), who were then taken to be gassed at Auschwitz. This is clear evidence, not only of collaboration, but also of the French government going above and beyond to satisfy the Nazis and Hitler. There was some evidence of the Vichy government protecting the France and its population, when collaboration, according to research carried out by Simon Kitson, did not stop the arrest, and sometimes execution, of German spies in Vichy-controlled territory. However, despite this, I am more inclined to support the view of Jane F. Fulcher, who argues that ‘Vichy’s purported French nationalism and intent to serve as a buffer against the Germans were clearly more rhetoric than reality’ (2006; p.263), because of the regime’s anti-Jewish policies, as well as economic and social laws that were put in place to appease the

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