German occupation of France during World War II

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Location of Vichy France (green). The red represents German occupied France (extended to Vichy France in November 1942), and the blue the Alsace-Lorraine region annexed by the Third Reich.

German signs of occupied Paris

The German occupation of France in World War II occurred during the period between May of 1940 to December of 1944. As a result of the disastrous defeat of the Allied armies in the Battle of France, the French Cabinet sought a cessation of hostilities. The armistice was signed 22 June 1940 at Compiègne. Under its terms the north and west of France were occupied by the German Army, the remaining one third of the country was ruled by a French government located at Vichy.

When the Allies invaded North Africa 8 November 1942, the Germans and Italians immediately occupied the remaining free part of France. The liberation of France began on 6 June 1944 with the Allied forces landing on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy and ended in December. Paris itself was liberated 25 August 1944.

1 The Life of the French under German Occupation

[edit] The Life of the French under German Occupation

The life of the French under the German Occupation was characterized by shortages and dictatorship. Like all of the occupied countries, France was the subject of an economic, human and financial plundering on behalf of the Germans. On the other hand, it was the only country where raids of Jews took place in territory not occupied by the Germans.

[edit] Shortages

The life of the French was initially marked by shortages. They are explained by various factors:

German requisitions
The disorganization of transport and an allied blockade of fuel
The shortage of primary labour and energy.

[edit] Lack of Food

Supply problems quickly affected French stores which lacked everything. Faced with these difficulties in everyday life, the government answered by founding food charts and tickets which were to be exchanged for bread and meat. The hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops. In the absence of meat and other foods, people ate vegetables a little at a time, such as Swedish turnip and Jerusalem artichoke. Products such as sugar or coffee were replaced by substitutes. Some benefitted from the black market, where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Flights and barter were also frequent practices during this period.

[edit] Lack of Raw Materials

Ersatz replaced many rare products; gas generators took the place of gasoline, chicory the place of coffee, and wooden soles for shoes were used instead of leather. Soap was saved.

[edit] The Dictatorship

[edit] The STO

During the German occupation, the Service of Obligatory Work (Service du Travail Obligatoire) consisted of requisitions and transfer of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Germany against their will, for the German war effort (factories, agriculture, railroads, etc) in work camps.

[edit] Curfew

During the night, inhabitants had to close their shutters or windows. Without Ausweis (authorization), it was forbidden to go out during the night. During the day, numerous regulations, censorship and propaganda made the occupation increasingly unbearable.

[edit] Education

Schoolchildren were made to sing Maréchal, nous voilà ! The portrait of Marshal Pétain adorned the walls of classrooms, thus creating a personality cult. Propaganda was present in education to train the young people with the ideas of the new Vichy regime. However, there was no resumption in ideology as in other occupied countries, for example in Poland, where the teaching elite was liquidated. There were no imprisonments of teachers and the programs were not modified overall. In the private Catholic sector, many establishment chiefs hid Jewish children by providing education for them until the liberation.

[edit] Jews

Yellow badge made mandatory by the Vichy regime in France

Discrimination: In the occupied zone, from 1942 Jews were required to wear the yellow badge. On the Paris métro Jews had to take the last car.

Raids

[edit] The Resistance

Although the majority of the occupied French did not partake in active resistance, many resisted passsively such as by listening to the banned BBC, by hiding resistance members, or by being refractory from the STO.