Figure 1.--Now tourists enjoy the sunshine and have fun at the Juno Beach D-Day landing zone, where the Canadians came ashore at Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. Rarely mentioned was the fact that few French Canadins joined the fight. Most French people today know about the German World war II occupation and the extent vto which Vichy cooprated with the Germans. Very few, however, know about what Hitler and Himmler planned for France and the French people after the Germans won the War. Click on the image to see the same place after the World War II landings.

We are struck with the modern images of Normandy and the normality of life. We wonder to what extent the French people are aware of how much they owe America, Britain, and Canada for their freedom and the ability to enjoy modern life. Based on our internet conversations, few French people, especially younger people, are aware of what the Germans had in store for them after they won the War. The French had to rely on the Americans, British, and Canadians to save them from the Germans not only in World War II, but in World War I as well. And the same as true after World War II during the Cold War when America provided a security umbrella for Western Europe to prevent further Soviet advances. No one can fault France for its massive sarifice in World War I, but its conduct in World War II and the Cold War is a very different matter. And now again France is making deals with tyrants and not standing up to aggressor nations. the French Government today is not only resisting sanctions on Russia, but actually selling aircraft carriers to Russia and training Russian sailors. This is the same Russian Government that is attempting to supress the freedom of the Ukranian people. And the same French Government is standing up for French banks (particularly BNP Paribas) who were laundered money for the Iranian Mullhas to help the country avoid sanctions attempting to prevent the country from building a nuclear weapon.

France and Freedom

Few countries have a stronger tradition of promoting freedom than France. Even so, France developed the idea of absolute monarchy, epitomized by King Louis XIV apparently declaring "L'État, c'est moi" (I am the state). It was France, however, that was at the heart of the Enlightenment. The Enlightemnt along with the Renaissance and Reformation were critical steps in the development of Western civilization and the modern concept of freedom. French authots like Montesquieu, Rosseau, and Voltaire made huge contributions to Western thought, stronly influencing the american founding fathers. The French Revolution began with an ethos of freedom. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was one of the great documents in the historyof freedom (1789). Unlike the American Revolution, however, the French Revolution morphed into first terror and than Bonapartist authorutarianism. Still the ringing ideals of the Revolution persisted. With the creation of the French Republic (1870), France became a refuge for all manner of European peole seeking liberty and freedom. Pais was awash with Poles and Russians opposing Tsarist oppression. It was France that sent the Statue of Liberty to America (1886), surely the most recognizable momument to freedom in the world. It was under the Third Republic that quality education was first offered to all French children. And with the rise of Fascism following World War I, France offered refuge to those persecuted for belief in freedom or for their race.

Vichy Collaboration

World War I hero, Field Marshal Philippe Philippe Pétain replaced Paul Renaud as premier on June 17, 1940. His first objective was to end the War and bloodshed. His larger goal was to establish a long-term political relationship with NAZI Germany. Stunned with the collapse of the French Army, Pétain saw an armistice as necessary to stop further bloodshed and to begin the creation of a relationship with a Germany. Pétain, Laval, and other Vichy associates believed that the NAZIs would quickly defeat Britain and establish Germany as the dominant country in Europe. Some Vichy politicans used the term "une Europe allemande--a Europe dominated by Germany. Despite the humiliating defeat, Pétain and his Vichy associates convinced themselves that France, as a colonial power and a major European power would be potentially useful ally to Germany in the new NAZI-dominated European order, un nouveau ordre européen. Pétain spoke to the French people made a speech on the radio October 11, 1940. He mentioned the possibility of France and Germany working together once the War ended. (At the time only Britain was actively fighting the NAZIs.) Pétain in his speech used the term 'collaboration', associating the word with the idea of working with Germany in the post-War era. This was the origin of the word collaborationist that had such negative connotations after liberation in 1944. Pétain and Laval saw collaboration with the NAZIs as the way in which France might secure a place at the table with Germany in Europe once the War was over. Collaboration for Pétain was a way that France could establish it's good faith and willingness to accept Germany's role as the dominant force in Europe. Pétain saw collaboration as the only way of advancing France's interests. Pétain's primary concerns were the return of 1.6 million French POWs, the safety of the French population, a reduction in the war indemnity, and Vichy's sovereignty over Occupied and Unoccupied zones. Collaboration for Pétain was needed to ensure that his Government was given time to rebuild France based on the principles of Vichy's National Revolution. The French people were shocked by the defeat of the French Army. The Popular Front and the Third Republic were thoroughly discredited. Thus Pétain and his right-wing allies were able to initiate their ideological reforms of French society. Vichy persued collabration as a matter of policy. Pétain and his Vichy Government, however, were not an entirely free agent. The German having defeated the French army had insisted on provisions in thar armistace convention that compeled French cooperation ith occipation authorities. Article 3 required France to cooperate with the German military authorities. The Germans had the right and ample power in the Occupied zone. Vichy under Pétain collaborated with the Germans both economically and militarily.

Critical Vichy Error

The critical error of Vichy was that Pétain and his colleagues did not appreciate the full depravity of Hitler and the NAZIs. Pétain thought he could carve out a role for France in a NAZI-dominated Europe. It does not seem to have occured to them that a regime capable of killing Jews could just as easily kill French Christians. One can ask what the options were. One option of course was colaboration which is what Vichy did. They even cooperate in the Holocaust. And Vichy did this. Vichy not only did not object to the rouding up of Jews, but passed anti-Semetic laws modeled on the NAZI Nuremberg laws and put the French police at the disposal of the German authorities to track down and deport Jews. The other option was to form a government-in exile. The French fleet would have been a major aid to the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic. France coukld have resisted from its colonies. Vichy chose not to do so and essentially left France at the mercy of the NAZIs. And we know that mercy was not a strong point of the NAZIs. The demand for French workers showed that Vichy could not really protect the French people. The NAZIs looted and exploited France during the occupation. Again Vichy was powerless to prevent this, but it did not have to cooperate in the process. What would have happened to France had the NAZIs won the War we can not know for sure. Continued and perhaps expanded economic exploitation as as a colony is France's likely fate. It is also likely that France would have been broken up into several smaller states on as regional basies such as Britainy and other regions. The NAZIs early on seized Alsaise-Loraine and reincorporated it into the Reich. What the NAZIs had in mind for France began in Belgium abd northern France: Reichsgau Flandern, Reichsgau Wallonien, District of Brusselsm and the (Reichskommissariat Belgien und Nordfrankreich. The French département of Moselle, renamed 'CdZ-Gebiet Lothringen', was added to the Gau Saarpfalz (November 30, 1940) and was renamed Gau Westmark (December 7, 1940). We do know that the NAZIs viewed France differently than the British and Scandinavians. The Jews were the obvious targets during the occupatipon. There most probably would have been further racial actions in a NAZI controlled Europe. We know what the NAZIs had in mind for Eastern Europe--Generalplan Ost. Precisely what they would have done in Western Europe is less clear. It probably would not have been as draconian as the fate planned for the Slavs and Balts, but there is little doubt that it would have been dreadful. Vichy may have provided some relief from NAZI oppression, but the cost for the French had the NAZIs won the war would have been very high indeed. Hitler would have dictated France's future. It would be up to Britain and America to save France while the French themselves colaborated with the NAZI.

Holocaust

France is unique among all the countries which experienced the Holocaust. France was the only defeated Allied country whose government actively assisted the NAZIs. After the French surrender. The Vichy authorities actively assisted the NAZIs track down and deport Jews. [Eizenstat] The first action taken against French Jews after the 1940 invasion was the expulsion from Alsace. To my knowledge, this was one of the very few non-lethal expulsions conducted by the NAZIs. Presumably the master plan for killing the Jews had not yet been fully worked out. Another early action involving German Jews was deporting Jews in Western Landen (Baden, the Saar, and the Palatinate), including some of the oldest German Jewish families, in October 1940 to camps in the French Pyrenees (Gurs, Noé, Récébédou, and Rivesaltes). Gurs was the largest. The death rate was very high because there were not even the most basic facilities. The camps were run by Vichy authorities. The killing of Dutch, Belgian and French Jews began in July 1942 when the death camps in Poland became operational. Vivian Fry, before American entered the War, worked tirelessly in Vichy to build up a rescue network working with the Emergency Resue Committee, a private relief organization. The NAZIs had inserted a "surrender on demand clause" in Article 5 of the Franco German Armistice of 1940. Fry succeeded in rescuing more than 1,500 artists, musicians, politicians, scientists, and writers, many but not all Jewish. The Germans make life a nightmare for French Jew, both in Vichy as well as the occupied area. Many French people risked their lives to protect Jews, including French people that were anti-semitic. One French girl recalls a priest who helped save her and her family describe how he disliked Jews, but saving them from the Germans was the "Christian thing" to do. [Cohn] Others assisted the Germans.

General DeGualle

French General Charles DeGualle is one of the great figures of World War II. He is one of those gallant few who decided to resist the Germans come what may. And for that he will go down in history as one of the great champions of freedom in Westrn history. The full story is, hoever, much more complex. His relationship with the two other principal Allied leaders (Primeminister Churchill and Presidnt Roosevelt) is a fascinating part of World war II diplomcy. Primeminister Chuchill lifted him out of obscurity to lead French resistance to the Germans. Yet DeGualle was never as committed to the war as Churchill and Roosevelt. And this caused problems, espcially with Roosevelt. DeGaualle declared in mettings ith the British that his primary gol ws not winning the War, in facthe sid he 'did not care who won the War.' His central concern was the 'Honor of France' Even before the war was won, DeGualle was talking about relations with the Germans and Soviets to oppose the Anglo-Americans.

Cold War

President DeGualle became an important player in the Cold War. Rather than forming part of a unified Western reponse to Soviet aggression, Presidenbt DeGualle attempted to cut a special deal with the Soviets. As part of the arangement he decided to withdraw from NATO. This was a done in a number of drscrete steps. His first step was to withdrew its Mediterranean Fleet from NATO command (February 1959). The majpr steps occurred during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. President Kennedy's Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France attending a NATO meeting. Preident DeGaulle told him that he wanted all U.S. military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk famously responded "Does that include those who are buried here?"

President Hollande (2014)

And now again France is again making deals with tyrants and not standing up to aggressor nations. President Hoolande campaigned on reviltaizing the French economy by using socialist policies. Of course socialist policies are at the hear of why the French economy is in trouble. nd predictably, Hollande's policies have simply weakened the economy. Increasingly unable to compete in the world Market Frnce is forced to deal with tyrants to crete jobs. The French Government today is not only resisting sanctions on Russia, but actually selling aircraft carriers to Russia and training Russian sailors. This is the same Russian Government that is attempting to supress the freedom of the Ukranian people through both military action and covert internal subversion. And the same French Government is standing up for French banks (particularly BNP Paribas) who were laundered money for the Iranian Mullhas to help the country avoid sanctions attempting to prevent the country from building a nuclear weapon. It is painfully the case that on the occassion of the D-Day anniversay commenorating the great Allied effort to dave Frnce and the deaths of thousabds of young American, British, and Canadian servicemn, President Hollande used the occassion to raise both these issues involving French support for tyranny (June 2014). Britain and France cravenly abandoned the Czech people to the tender mercies of the NAZIs which almost cost the French and British people their national lives. Now President Hoolande has gone a step further. He is actually helping arm an agressor nation in the process of supressing a people struggling to be free after more than a millenium of subgegation by foreign powers. And it is not just President Hollande, there appear to be little or no objection from the French people..

Sources

Cohn, Marthe with Windy Cohn. Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany (Harmony), 282p.

Eizenstat, Stuart. Imperfect Justice.

Created: 2:09 AM 6/6/2014
Last updated: 2:32 AM 6/7/2014