The Occupation Case

In recent years, new analysis and studies of the interconnected topics of fascism, collaborationism and resistance in France during the interwar period have shaped a remarkable shift in interpretation of this period. Previously, fascism had been considered by many French historians as an exceptionally alien phenomenon in France following the armistice in June 1940. Where French historians had proven that fascism did exist in France, it was described as an imported commodity, somewhat foreign to French culture, due to the fact that France was viewed as being an infertile grounding on which fascism could thrive. More recently, however, marked works such as Robert Paxton's book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, has shed light on the subject and crushed the myth of France as a nation of resisters during the interwar period, and has suggested that collaboration was not essentially a policy imposed on France by Nazi Germany, but an idea that was born and bred in the country itself.

In this essay, I will consider the terms of collaboration and resistance when applied to the French population during the period of Occupation, and will endeavour to conclude that the French Nation were more so a nation of collaboration, rather than a nation of resisters. To do so, I will closely follow the work of Robert Paxton, alongside other texts. I will also consider the role of the resistance movement with reference to the French film, Au Revoir Les Enfants, in which the role of the resistance plays heavily, and will also refer to the work of Phillip Burrin.

Following the armistice of June 1940, France was divided into numerous zones of occupation; a small and lesser known zone in the north-east of France named the 'Forbidden Zone', an Occupied Zone in the Northern areas of France and an Unoccupied Zone in the southern areas, separated by an internal boarder, known as the Demarcation Line. In a bid to keep the newly acquired territory of France out of Allied powers hands, Adolf Hitler decided the best course of action was for the nation to defend itself. And thus, the Vichy government that controlled the southern territories of France was born, governed under Marshal Pétain.