View source for German military administration in occupied France during World War II

{{short description|Interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II}}
{{Redirect2|Occupation of France|Occupied France|other occupations|Military occupation of France (disambiguation){{!}}Military occupation of France}}
{{Distinguish|Allied-occupied Germany{{!}}French occupation zone}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{native name|de|Militärverwaltung in Frankreich}}<br />{{native name|fr|Administration militaire en France}}
| conventional_long_name = Military Administration in France
| common_name            = German-occupied France
| status                 = [[Military Administration (Nazi Germany)|Military administration]]
| empire                 = [[Nazi Germany]]
| status_text            = Territory under [[Military Administration (Nazi Germany)|German military administration]]
| era                    = World War II
| event_start            = {{nowrap|[[Armistice of 22 June 1940|Second Compiègne]]}}
| year_start             = 1940
| date_start             = 22 June
| event1                 = [[Case Anton]]
| date_event1            = 11 November 1942
| year_end               = 1944
| date_end               = 25 August
| p1                     = French Third Republic{{!}}'''1940:'''<br>French Third Republic
| flag_p1                = Flag of France.svg
| p2                     = Vichy France{{!}}'''1942:'''<br>Vichy France
| flag_p2                = Flag of France.svg
| p3                     = Italian occupation of France{{!}}'''1943:'''<br>Italian military administration
| flag_p3                = Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg
| s1                     = Provisional Government of the French Republic
| flag_s1                = Flag of France.svg
| image_flag             = War Ensign of Germany (1938-1945).svg
| flag                   = Flag of Germany#After World War II
| image_coat             = Reichsadler.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
| coa_size               = 100px
| symbol_type            = Emblem
| symbol                 = Coat of arms of Germany#Nazi Germany
| image_map              = FranceOccupee.jpg
| image_map_caption      = The ''{{lang|fr|[[#Occupation zones|zone occupée]]}}'': German (red) and [[Italian occupation of France|Italian]] (yellow) occupation zones of France, the ''{{lang|fr|[[zone libre]]}}'', the ''{{lang|fr|[[zone interdite]]}}'', the [[Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France]], and annexed {{lang|fr|[[Alsace–Lorraine#World War II|Alsace-Lorraine]]}}
| capital                = [[History of Paris|Paris]]
| common_languages       = [[German language|German]]<br>[[French language|French]]<br>[[Occitan language|Occitan]]
| title_leader           = Military Commander
| leader1                = [[Otto von Stülpnagel]]
| year_leader1           = 1940–1942
| leader2                = [[Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel]]
| year_leader2           = 1942–1944
| leader3                =
| year_leader3           =
| footnotes              =
}}
The '''Military Administration in France''' ({{langx|de|Militärverwaltung in Frankreich}}; {{langx|fr|Administration militaire en France}}) was an [[Military Administration (Nazi Germany)|interim occupation authority]] established by [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]] to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western [[French Third Republic|France]]. This so-called ''{{lang|fr|zone occupée}}'' was established in June 1940, and renamed ''{{lang|fr|zone nord}}'' ("north zone") in November 1942, when the previously unoccupied zone in the south known as ''{{lang|fr|[[zone libre]]}}'' ("free zone") was also occupied and renamed ''{{lang|fr|zone sud}}'' ("south zone").
Its role in France was partly governed by the conditions set by the [[Armistice of 22 June 1940]] after the {{lang|de|[[blitzkrieg]]}} success of the {{lang|de|[[Wehrmacht]]}} leading to the [[Battle of France|Fall of France]]; at the time both French and Germans thought the occupation would be temporary and last only until Britain came to terms, which was believed to be imminent. For instance, France agreed that its [[French prisoners of war in World War II|soldiers would remain prisoners of war]] until the cessation of all hostilities.
The "French State" (''{{lang|fr|État français}}'') replaced the [[French Third Republic]] that had dissolved in defeat. Though nominally extending its sovereignty over the whole country, it was in practice limited in exercising its authority to the free zone. As [[Paris]] was located in the occupied zone, its government was seated in the spa town of [[Vichy]] in {{lang|fr|[[Auvergne]]}}, and therefore it was more commonly known as [[Vichy France]].
While the Vichy government was nominally in charge of all of France, the military administration in the occupied zone was a ''{{lang|la|[[de facto]]}}'' [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] dictatorship, where the actual sovereignty of the French government was seriously limited. Nazi rule was extended to the free zone when it was invaded by Germany and Italy during ''{{lang|fr|[[Case Anton]]}}'' on 11 November 1942 in response to [[Operation Torch]], the Allied landings in [[French North Africa]] on 8 November 1942. The Vichy government remained in existence, even though its authority was now severely reduced.
The German military administration in France ended with the [[Liberation of France]] after the [[Normandy landings|Normandy]] and [[Operation Dragoon|Provence landings]]. It formally existed from May 1940 to December 1944, though most of its territory had been liberated by the Allies by the end of summer 1944.
== Occupation zones ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-751-0067-34, Paris, Parade deutscher Soldaten.jpg|thumb|225px|left|German soldiers march by the [[Arc de Triomphe]] on the [[Champs-Élysées|Avenue des Champs-Élysées]] in Paris, June 1940.]]
[[Alsace-Lorraine]] had been annexed after the [[Franco-Prussian war]] in 1871 by the [[German Empire]] and returned to France after the First World War. It was [[Alsace-Lorraine#World War II|re-annexed]] by the [[Third Reich]] (thus [[malgré-nous|subjecting their male population to German military conscription]].)  The departments of [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais|Nord and Pas-de-Calais]] were attached to the [[Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France|military administration in Belgium and Northern France]], which was also responsible<ref>{{cite book|last=Vinen|first=Richard|title=The Unfree French: Life under the Occupation|year=2006|publisher=Allen Lane|location=London|isbn=978-0-713-99496-4|pages=105–6|edition=1st}}</ref> for civilian affairs in the {{convert|20|km|mi|adj=on}} wide ''[[zone interdite]]'' along the Atlantic coast. Another "forbidden zone" were [[zone interdite#Zone of intended German settlement|areas in north-eastern France]], corresponding to [[Lorraine (region)|Lorraine]] and roughly about half each of [[Franche-Comté]], [[Champagne (region)|Champagne]] and [[Picardie (region)|Picardie]]. [[War refugee]]s were prohibited from returning to their homes, and it was intended for German [[settler]]s and annexation<ref name="schottler">{{cite journal|title='Eine Art "Generalplan West": Die Stuckart-Denkschrift vom 14. Juni 1940 und die Planungen für eine neue deutsch-französische Grenze im Zweiten Weltkrieg. |journal=Sozial.Geschichte| year=2003|first=Peter |last=Schöttler|volume=18|issue=3|pages=83–131|language=de}}</ref> in the coming Nazi [[New Order (Nazism)|New Order]] (''Neue Ordnung'').
The occupied zone ({{langx|fr|zone occupée}}, {{IPA|fr|zon ɔkype}}, {{langx|de|Besetztes Gebiet}}) consisted of the rest of northern and western France, including the two forbidden zones.
The southern part of France, except for the western half of [[Aquitaine]] along the Atlantic coast, became the ''[[zone libre]]'' ("free zone"), where the [[Vichy regime]] remained sovereign as an independent state, though under heavy German influence due to the restrictions of the Armistice (including a heavy tribute) and economic dependency on Germany. It constituted a land area of 246,618 square kilometres, approximately 45 percent of France, and included approximately 33 percent of the total French labor force.<ref>{{cite web  |url= http://www.defense.gouv.fr/sga/content/download/46040/457868/file/n7_-_la_ligne_de_demarcation_mc07.pdf  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200124164734/http://www.defense.gouv.fr/sga/content/download/46040/457868/file/n7_-_la_ligne_de_demarcation_mc07.pdf  |url-status= dead  |archive-date= 24 January 2020  |title= "La ligne de démarcation", Collection " Mémoire et Citoyenneté ", No.7  }}</ref> The [[demarcation line (France)|demarcation line]] between the free zone and the occupied zone was a de facto border, necessitating special authorisation and a [[Laissez-Passer|laissez-passer]] from the German authorities to cross.<ref name="jackson247">{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Julian|title=France: the dark years, 1940-1944|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/france00juli/page/247 247]|isbn=978-0-19-925457-6|url=https://archive.org/details/france00juli/page/247}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-017-1065-44A, Frankreich, Demarkationslinie, Kontrollposten.jpg|thumb|German control post on the Demarcation Line,<ref>The name ''ligne de démarcation'' did not figure in the terms of the armistice, but was coined as a translation of the German ''Demarkationslinie''.</ref> 1941.]]These restrictions remained in place after Vichy was occupied and the zone renamed ''zone sud'' ("south zone"), and also placed under military administration in November 1942.
The [[Italian occupation of France during World War II|Italian occupation zone]] consisted of small areas along the [[Alps]] border, and a {{convert|50|km|mi|adj=on}} demilitarised zone along the same. It was expanded to all territory<ref name= rha>[http://rha.revues.org/index187.html Giorgio Rochat, (trad. Anne Pilloud), La campagne italienne de juin 1940 dans les Alpes occidentales, ''Revue historique des armées'', No. 250, 2008, pp77-84], sur le site du Service historique de la Défense, ''rha.revues.org''. Mis en ligne le 6 juin 2008, consulté le 24 octobre 2008.</ref><ref name= resistance>[http://www.resistance-en-isere.com/Commun/docs/1/Doc185.PDF « L’occupation italienne »] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113122431/http://www.resistance-en-isere.com/Commun/docs/1/Doc185.PDF |date=13 January 2019 }}, ''resistance-en-isere.com''. Retrieved 24 October 2008.</ref> on the left bank of the [[Rhône]] river after its invasion together with Germany of Vichy France on 11 November 1942, except for areas around [[Lyon]] and [[Marseille]], which were added to Germany's ''zone sud'', [[Italian-occupied Corsica|and Corsica]].
The Italian occupation zone was also occupied by Germany and added to the ''zone sud'' after [[Armistice of Cassibile|Italy's surrender in September 1943]], except for Corsica, [[Italian-occupied Corsica#Operation Vesuvius|which was liberated]] by the landings of [[Free French forces]] and local Italian troops that became co-belligerents of the Allies.
== Administrative structure ==
After Germany and France agreed on an [[armistice]] following the defeats of May and June, [[Generaloberst|Colonel General]] [[Wilhelm Keitel]] and [[Charles Huntziger|General Charles Huntzinger]], representatives of the [[Third Reich]] and of the French government of Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]] respectively, signed it on 22 June 1940 at the Rethondes clearing in [[Compiègne Forest]]. As it was done at the same place and in the same railroad carriage where the [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|armistice ending the First World War]] when Germany surrendered, it is known as the [[Second Compiègne|Second Compiègne armistice]].
France was roughly divided into an occupied northern zone and an unoccupied southern zone, according to the armistice convention "in order to protect the interests of the German Reich".<ref name=conc>[http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1940armistice.htm La convention d'armistice], sur le site de l'Université de Perpignan, ''mjp.univ-perp.fr'', accessed 29 November 2008.</ref> The [[French colonial empire#Second French colonial empire|French colonial empire]] remained under the authority of Marshal Pétain's Vichy regime. French sovereignty was to be exercised over the whole of French territory, including the occupied zone, Alsace and Moselle, but the third article of the armistice stipulated that French authorities in the occupied zone would have to obey the military administration and that Germany would exercise rights of an occupying power within it:
<blockquote>In the occupied region of France, the German Reich exercises all of the rights of an [[Military occupation|occupying power]]. The French government undertakes to facilitate in every way possible the implementation of these rights, and to provide the assistance of the French administrative services to that end. The French government will immediately direct all officials and administrators of the occupied territory to comply with the regulations of, and to collaborate fully with, the German military authorities.<ref name=conc/></blockquote>
The military administration was responsible for [[civil affairs]] in occupied France. It was divided into ''Kommandanturen'' (singular ''[[Kommandantur]]''), in decreasing hierarchical order ''Oberfeldkommandanturen'', ''Feldkommandanturen'', ''Kreiskommandanturen'', and ''Ortskommandanturen''.  [[Naval regions and districts of the Kriegsmarine#France and the Low Countries|German naval affairs in France]] were coordinated through a central office known as the ''Höheres Kommando der Marinedienststellen in Groß-Paris'' (Supreme Command for Naval Services in the Greater Paris Area) who in turn answered to a senior commander for all of France known as the ''Admiral Frankreich''.  After [[Case Anton]], the "Admiral Frankreich" naval command was broken apart into smaller offices which answered directly to the operational command of [[Organization of the Kriegsmarine#Navy Group Commands|Navy Group West]].
== Collaboration ==
{{see also|Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France|Collaborationism#France}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-720-0318-04, Frankreich, Parade der Milice Francaise.jpg|thumb|Parade of the collaborationist ''[[Milice|Milice Française]]'', 1944.]]
In order to suppress partisans and resistance fighters, the military administration cooperated closely with the [[Gestapo]], the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]] (SD)'', the intelligence service of the [[SS]], and the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]] (SiPo)'', its security police. It also had at its disposal the support of the French authorities and police forces, who had to cooperate per the conditions set in the armistice, to [[Holocaust in France|round up Jews]], anti-fascists and other dissidents, and vanish them into ''[[Nacht und Nebel]]'', "Night and Fog". It also had the help of notable French collaborators like [[Paul Touvier]] and [[Maurice Papon]], along with collaborationists French auxiliaries like the ''[[Milice]]'', the ''[[Franc-Garde]]s'' and the [[Service d'ordre légionnaire|Legionary Order Service]]. The two main collaborationist political parties were the [[French Popular Party]] (PPF) and the [[National Popular Rally]] (RNP), each with 20,000 to 30,000 members.
The ''Milice'' participated with the Gestapo in seizing members of the resistance and minorities including Jews for shipment to detention centres, such as the [[Drancy internment camp]], en route to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]], and other German concentration camps, including [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Buchenwald]] and [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]].
Some Frenchmen also volunteered directly in German forces to fight for Germany and/or against [[Bolsheviks]], such as the [[Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism]]. Volunteers from this and other outfits later constituted the cadre of the [[33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)|33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS ''Charlemagne'' (1st French)]].
[[Stanley Hoffmann]] in 1974,<ref name="S_H">{{cite book |first=Stanley |last=Hoffmann |chapter=La droite à Vichy |title=Essais sur la France: déclin ou renouveau? |publisher=Le Seuil |location=Paris |year=1974 }}</ref> and after him, other historians such as [[Robert Paxton]] and [[Jean-Pierre Azéma]] have used the term ''collaborationnistes'' to refer to fascists and Nazi sympathisers who, for ideological reasons, wished a reinforced collaboration with Hitler's Germany, in contrast to "collaborators", people who merely cooperated out of self-interest. Examples of these are PPF leader [[Jacques Doriot]], writer [[Robert Brasillach]] or [[Marcel Déat]]. A principal motivation and ideological foundation among ''collaborationnistes'' was [[anti-communism]].<ref name="S_H"/>
== Occupation forces ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-295-1560-02A, Nordfrankreich, Turkestani in der Wehrmacht.jpg|thumb|Turkestani soldiers in northern France, October 1943.]]
The Wehrmacht maintained a varying number of divisions in [[France]]. 100,000 Germans were in the whole of the German-zone in France in December 1941.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=histhp&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dpopulation%2Bof%2Boccupied%2Bfrance%2B1942%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26oq%3Dpopulation%2Bof%2Boccupied%2Bfrance%2B1942%26gs_l%3Dheirloom-serp.3...3787.5186.0.5673.9.9.0.0.0.0.135.908.1j7.8.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-serp..2.7.817.cGRBuVZx-Vc#search=%22population%20occupied%20france%201942%22|title=The Civilian Experience in German Occupied France, 1940-1944 |publisher=Connecticut College}}</ref> When the bulk of the Wehrmacht was fighting on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|eastern front]], German units were rotated to France to rest and refit. The number of troops increased when the threat of Allied invasion began looming large, with the [[Dieppe raid]] marking its real beginning. The actions of Canadian and [[British Commandos]] against German troops brought Hitler to condemn them as [[irregular warfare]]. In his [[Commando Order]] he denied them lawful combatant status, and ordered them to be handed over to the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SS security service]] when captured and liable to be [[Summary execution|summarily executed]]. As the war went on, garrisoning the [[Atlantic Wall]] and suppressing the resistance became heavier and heavier duties.
Some notable units and formations stationed in France during the occupation:
* 1940: ''[[Luftflotte 2]]'', ''[[Luftflotte 3]]'' operated from airfields in northern France during the [[Battle of Britain]]. ''Luftflotte 3'' stayed there to defend against the [[Allied bombing of Germany|allied strategic bombings]] until it had to retreat in 1944.
* 1941: Battlecruisers {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}} and {{ship|German battleship|Gneisenau||2}}. The battleship [[battleship Bismarck|''Bismarck'']] was sunk while trying to reach French Atlantic harbors after its commissioning.
* 1942: [[2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich|2nd SS Panzer Division ''Das Reich'']], [[4th SS Police Regiment]]
* 1943: At the height of the [[battle of the Atlantic]], between 60 and over 100 German [[U-boat]]s were [[Submarine pen#France|stationed in submarine pens]] in French Atlantic ports such as [[La Rochelle]], [[Bordeaux]], [[Saint-Nazaire]], [[Brest, France|Brest]], and [[Lorient]].
* 1944: [[8th Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)|157th Mountain (Reserve) Division]], ''[[Panzer Lehr]]'', [[19th Army (Wehrmacht)|XIXth Army]], [[716th Static Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|716th Static Infantry Division]], [[12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend|12th SS Panzer Division ''Hitlerjugend'']].
== Anti-partisan actions ==
{{further|French Resistance}}
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1979-002-26A, Frankreich, Einsatz gegen Resistance.jpg|thumb|Roundup of French civilians in [[Le Faouët, Morbihan|Le Faouët]], [[Brittany]], by German soldiers in July 1944]]
The "[[Appeal of 18 June]]" by de Gaulle's [[Free France]] government in exile in London had little immediate effect, and few joined its [[French Forces of the Interior]] beyond those that had already gone into exile to join the Free French. After the [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]] in June 1941, the [[French communist party]], hitherto under orders from the [[Comintern]] to remain passive against the German occupiers, began to mount actions against them. De Gaulle sent [[Jean Moulin]] back to France as his formal link to the irregulars throughout the occupied country to coordinate [[List of networks and movements of the French Resistance|the eight major ''Résistance'' groups]] into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the [[National Council of the Resistance]] ({{lang|fr|Conseil National de la Résistance}}).
Moulin was eventually captured, and died under brutal torture by the [[Gestapo]]. The resistance intensified after it became clear the tide of war had shifted after the Reich's defeat at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]] in early 1943 and, by 1944, large remote areas were out of the German military's control and free zones for the ''[[Maquis (World War II)|maquisards]]'', so-called after the [[maquis shrubland]] that provided ideal terrain for [[guerrilla warfare]].
The most important anti-partisan action was the [[Battle of Vercors]]. The most infamous one was the [[Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]]. Other notable atrocities committed were the [[Tulle massacre]], the [[Le Paradis massacre]], the [[Maillé massacre]], and the [[Ascq massacre]]. Large maquis where significant military operations were conducted included the [[maquis du Vercors]], the [[maquis du Limousin]], the [[maquis des Glières]], the [[maquis du Mont Mouchet]], and the [[maquis de Saint-Marcel]]. Major round-up operations included the [[Round up of Marseille]] and the [[Vel' d'Hiv Roundup]].
Although the majority of the French population did not take part in active resistance, many resisted passively through acts such as listening to the banned BBC's ''[[Radio Londres]]'', or giving collateral or material aid to Resistance members. Others assisted in the escape of downed US or British airmen who eventually found their way back to Britain, often through Spain.
By the eve of the liberation, [[List of networks and movements of the French Resistance|numerous factions of nationalists, anarchists, communists, socialists and others]], counting between 100,000 and up to 400,000 combatants, were actively fighting the occupation forces. Supported by the [[Special Operations Executive]] and the [[Office of Strategic Services]] that air-dropped weapons and supplies, as well as infiltrating agents like [[Nancy Wake]] who provided tactical advice and specialist skills like [[radio]] operation and [[demolition]], they systematically sabotaged railway lines, destroyed bridges, cut German [[supply line]]s, and provided general intelligence to the allied forces. German anti-partisan operations claimed around 13,000-16,000 French victims, including 4,000 to 5,000 innocent civilians.<ref>[[Peter Lieb]]: ''Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg? Kriegführung und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44'', München, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, {{ISBN|978-3486579925}}</ref>
At the end of the war, some [[World War II casualties#Human losses by country|580,000]] French had died (40,000 of these by the western Allied forces during the bombardments of the first 48 hours of Operation Overlord). Military deaths were 92,000 in 1939–40. Some 58,000 were killed in action from 1940 to 1945 fighting in the [[Free French]] forces. Some 40,000 ''[[malgré-nous]]'' ("against our will"), citizens of re-annexed Alsace-Lorraine drafted into the Wehrmacht, became casualties. Civilian casualties amounted to around 150,000 (60,000 by aerial bombing, 60,000 in the resistance, and 30,000 murdered by German occupation forces). Prisoners of war and deportee totals were around 1.9&nbsp;million. Of this, around 240,000 died in captivity. An estimated 40,000 were prisoners of war, 100,000 racial deportees, 60,000 political prisoners and 40,000 died as slave labourers.<ref>Dear and Foot 2005, p. 321.{{cite book|last1=Dear|last2=Foot|title=The Oxford Companion to World War II|date=2005|page=321}}</ref>
== Propaganda ==
Military propaganda for European countries under occupation was headquartered in [[Potsdam]]. There was one Propaganda battalion in each occupied country, headquartered in the main town or capital.  This was further subdivided at the regional level.
Headquarters for France was at the [[The Peninsula Paris|Hotel Majestic]] in Paris, with propaganda sections ({{lang|de|Staffel}}) in [[Bordeaux]], [[Dijon]], and other towns.<ref name=MIS-1943/>{{rp|23}}
{{Anchor|Propagandastaffel}}<!-- Propagandastaffel redirects here. -->
A '''{{lang|de|Propagandastaffel}}''' ("propaganda squadron") was a service charged by the German authorities with the propaganda and control of the French press and of publishing during the Occupation of France. Sections ({{lang|de|Staffel}}, "squadron") in each important town.<ref name=MIS-1943/>{{rp|23}}
After their victory in [[Fall of France|June 1940]], the occupation authorities first relied on the German embassy in Paris ([[Hôtel Beauharnais]]) to monitor publications, shows, and radio broadcasts. They then set up the {{lang|de|Propaganda-Abteilung Frankreich}} (France Propaganda Department), which developed Nazi propaganda and censorship services called ''Propagandastaffel'' in the various [[regions of France]].<ref name=MIS-1943>{{cite tech report |title=Tactical and Technical Trends |author=Military Intelligence Service |institution=War Department |url=https://archive.org/details/TacticalAndTechnicalTrendsNos21-30 |date=29 July 1943 |number=30 |section=14. German Army Propaganda Units |page=22–24 |access-date=28 August 2019}}</ref>
Each ''Propagandastaffel'' was led by a commander and employed some thirty people.<ref name=MIS-1943/>{{rp|23}}  There were {{lang|de|[[Sonderführer]]s}} (special directors) in charge of particular areas: [[censorship]] of shows and plays, publishing and press, cinematographic works, and public advertising and speeches.<ref name=MIS-1943/>{{rp|23}} The directors, chosen for their skills in civil matters, wore military dress and were subject to military regulation.<ref name=MIS-1943/>{{rp|24}}
== Civilians ==
The census for 1 April 1941 show 25,071,255 inhabitants in the occupied zone (with 14.2m in the unoccupied zone). This does not include the 1,600,000 prisoners of war, nor the 60,000 French workers in Germany or the departments of Alsace-Lorraine.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1942_num_51_286_11939 |title=Statistiques récentes [La population de la France d'après le recensement du 1er avril 1941] |journal=Annales de Géographie |volume=51 |issue=286 |pages=155–156 |year=1942 |last1=g |first1=J. }}</ref>
===Daily life===
The life of the French during the German occupation was marked, from the beginning, by endemic shortages. They are explained by several factors:
# One of the conditions of the armistice was to pay the costs of the 300,000-strong occupying German army, which amounted to 20&nbsp;million [[German Reichsmark|''Reichsmark'']] per day. The artificial exchange rate of the German currency against the [[French franc]] was consequently established as 1 RM to 20 FF.<ref name="Book Review of ''Morts d'inanition: Famine et exclusions en France sous l'Occupation''">{{cite web| url=http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/111.5/br_161.html| title="Book Review of ''Morts d'inanition: Famine et exclusions en France sous l'Occupation''"| author=The American Historical Association| accessdate=2007-12-15}}</ref> This allowed German requisitions and purchases to be made into a form of organised [[plunder]] and resulted in endemic food shortages and [[malnutrition]], particularly amongst children, the elderly, and the more vulnerable sections of French society such as the working urban class of the cities.<ref name="Effects of War on French children">{{cite web| url=http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/reprint/5/3/266.pdf| title=Effects of War on French children| author=Marie Helen Mercier and J. Louise Despert| access-date=15 December 2007}}</ref>
# The disorganisation of transport, except for the railway system which relied on French domestic coal supplies.
# The cutting off of international trade and the Allied [[blockade]], restricting imports into the country.
# The extreme shortage of petrol and diesel fuel. France had no indigenous oil production and all imports had stopped.
# Labour shortages, particularly in the countryside, due to the large number of [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French prisoners of war held in Germany]], and the [[Service du travail obligatoire]].
[[File:Tickets de rationnement.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|Rationing tickets for the French population, July 1944.]]
[[Ersatz]], or makeshift substitutes, took the place of many products that were in short supply; [[wood gas generator]]s on trucks and automobiles burned charcoal or wood pellets as a substitute to gasoline, and wooden soles for shoes were used instead of leather. Soap was rare and made in some households from fats and [[caustic soda]]. Coffee was replaced by toasted [[barley]] mixed with [[chicory]], and sugar with [[saccharin]].
The Germans seized about 80 percent of the [[French food]] production, which caused severe disruption to the household economy of the [[French people]].<ref>E. M. Collingham, ''The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food'' (2011)</ref> French farm production fell in half because of lack of fuel, fertilizer and workers; even so the Germans seized half the meat, 20 percent of the produce, and 80 percent of the [[Champagne]].<ref>Kenneth Mouré, "Food Rationing and the Black Market in France (1940-1944)", ''French History'', June 2010, Vol. 24 Issue 2,  pp. 272-273</ref> Supply problems quickly affected French stores which lacked most items.
Faced with these difficulties in everyday life, the government answered by [[rationing]], and creating food charts and tickets which were to be exchanged for bread, meat, butter and cooking oil. The rationing system was stringent but badly managed, leading to malnourishment, [[Black market in wartime France|black market]]s, and hostility to state management of the food supply. The official ration provided starvation level diets of 1,300 or fewer [[calories]] a day, supplemented by home gardens and, especially, black market purchases.<ref>Mouré, "Food Rationing and the Black Market in France (1940-1944)" pp 262-282,</ref>
Hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops. In the absence of meat and other foods including potatoes, people ate unusual vegetables, such as [[Rutabaga|Swedish turnip]] and [[Jerusalem artichoke]]. Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. In the more remote country villages, however, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of [[milk]] products permitted better survival.
Some people benefited from the [[black market]], where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Farmers diverted especially meat to the black market, which meant that much less for the open market. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and [[barter]] against [[Smoking in France|cigarettes]] were also frequent practices during this period. These activities were strictly forbidden, however, and thus carried out at the risk of confiscation and fines.
During the day, numerous regulations, censorship and propaganda made the occupation increasingly unbearable. At night, inhabitants had to abide a [[curfew]] and it was forbidden to go out during the night without an ''[[Kennkarte|Ausweis]]''. They had to close their shutters or windows and turn off any light, to prevent Allied aircraft using city lights for navigation. The experience of the Occupation was a deeply psychologically disorienting one for the French as what was once familiar and safe suddenly become strange and threatening.<ref>Ousby, Ian ''Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944'', New York: CooperSquare Press, 2000 pages 157-159.</ref> Many Parisians could not get over the shock experienced when they first saw the huge swastika flags draped over the Hôtel de Ville and flying on top of the Eiffel Tower.<ref>Ousby, Ian ''Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944'', New York: CooperSquare Press, 2000 page 159.</ref> The British historian [[Ian Ousby]] wrote:
<blockquote>Even today, when people who are not French or did not live through the Occupation look at photos of German soldiers marching down the Champs Élysées or of Gothic-lettered German signposts outside the great landmarks of Paris, they can still feel a slight shock of disbelief. The scenes look not just unreal, but almost deliberately surreal, as if the unexpected conjunction of German and French, French and German, was the result of a Dada prank and not the sober record of history. This shock is merely a distant echo of what the French underwent in 1940: seeing a familiar landscape transformed by the addition of the unfamiliar, living among everyday sights suddenly made bizarre, no longer feeling at home in places they had known all their lives.<ref>Ousby, Ian ''Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944'', New York: CooperSquare Press, 2000 page 158.</ref></blockquote>
Ousby wrote that by the end of summer of 1940: "And so the alien presence, increasingly hated and feared in private, could seem so permanent that, in the public places where daily life went on, it was taken for granted".<ref>Ousby, Ian ''Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944'', New York: CooperSquare Press, 2000 page 170.</ref> At the same time France was also marked by disappearances as buildings were renamed, books banned, art was stolen to be taken to Germany and as time went on, people started to vanish.<ref>Ousby, Ian ''Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944'', New York: CooperSquare Press, 2000 pages 171, 18 & 187-189.</ref>
With nearly {{FORMATNUM:75000}} inhabitants killed and {{FORMATNUM:550000}} tons of bombs dropped, France was, after Germany, the second most severely bomb-devastated country on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front of World War II]].<ref>Centre d'études d'histoire de la défense, ''Les bombardements alliés sur la France durant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, Stratégies, bilans matériels et humains'', Conference of 6 June 2007, [http://www.cehd.sga.defense.gouv.fr/spip.php?article224 Defense.gouv.fr] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202005021/http://www.cehd.sga.defense.gouv.fr/spip.php?article224 |date=2 December 2008 }} retrieved 5 November 2009</ref> Allied bombings were particularly intense before and during [[Operation Overlord]] in 1944.
The Allies' [[Transport Plan|Transportation Plan]] aiming at the systematic destruction of French railway [[marshalling yard]]s and railway bridges, in 1944, also took a heavy toll on civilian lives. For example, the 26 May 1944 bombing hit railway targets in and around five cities in south-eastern France, causing over 2,500 civilian deaths.<ref>See French language Wikipedia article [[:fr:bombardement du 26 mai 1944]]</ref>
Crossing the ''ligne de démarcation'' between the north zone and the south zone also required an ''Ausweis'', which was difficult to acquire.<ref name="jackson247"/> People could write only to their family members, and this was only permissible using a pre-filled card where the sender checked off the appropriate words (e.g. 'in good health', 'wounded', 'dead', 'prisoner').<ref name="jackson247"/> The occupied zone was on German time, which was one hour ahead of the unoccupied zone.<ref name="jackson247"/> Other policies implemented in the occupied zone but not in the free zone were a [[curfew]] from 10 p.m to 5 a.m, a ban on American films, the suppression of displaying the [[French flag]] and singing the ''[[Marseillaise]]'', and the banning of Vichy paramilitary organizations and the Veterans' Legion.<ref name="jackson247"/>
Schoolchildren were made to sing ''"[[Maréchal, nous voilà !]]"'' ("Marshall, here we are!"). The portrait of Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]] adorned the walls of classrooms, thus creating a [[personality cult]]. Propaganda was present in education to train the young people with the [[Révolution nationale|ideas of the new Vichy regime]]. However, there was no resumption in ideology as in other occupied countries, for example [[occupied Poland|in Poland]], where the teaching elite was liquidated. Teachers were not imprisoned and the programs were not modified overall. In the private Catholic sector, many school directors hid [[Jewish people|Jewish]] children (thus saving their life) and provided education for them<!-- It more than *provided education for them*, it saved their life ! /FW --> until the Liberation.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}
=== Nightlife in Paris ===
{{see also|Paris in World War II}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-129-0480-25, Paris, deutsche Soldaten vor dem Moulin Rouge.jpg|thumb|German soldiers talking with French women by the [[Moulin Rouge]] in June 1940, shortly after the German occupation of Paris.]]
One month after the occupation, the bi-monthly soldiers' magazine ''{{ill|Der Deutsche Wegleiter für Paris|fr}}'' (''The German Guide to Paris'') was first published by the Paris ''Kommandantur'', and became a success.<ref name ="L'Express">{{cite web | first1=Emmanuel | last1=Hetch | title=Le Guide du soldat allemand à Paris, ou comment occuper Fritz | work=[[L'Express]] | date= October 2013 | url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/le-guide-du-soldat-allemand-comment-occuper-fritz_1293448.html?xtmc=Der_Deutsche_Wegleiter_f%FCr_Paris&xtcr=1#4ygQU2BpCE8RQ27K.99 | access-date=23 October 2013 | language=fr}}</ref> Further guides, such as the ''Guide aryien'', counted e.g. the [[Moulin Rouge]] among the must-see locations in Paris.<ref name= we>''[https://www.routledge.com/Emotion-in-Motion-Tourism-Affect-and-Transformation/Robinson-Picard/p/book/9781409421337 Emotion in Motion: Tourism, Affect and Transformation]'', Dr David Picard, Professor Mike Robinson, Ashgate Publishing, 2012, {{ISBN|978-14094-2133-7}}</ref> Famous clubs such as the [[Folies-Belleville]] or [[Bobino]] were also among the sought-after venues. A wide array of German units were rotated to France to rest and refit; the Germans used the motto ''"Jeder einmal in Paris"'' ("everyone once in Paris") and provided {{clarify span|"recreational visits"|Clarify if this is 1) a quotation from the source, 2) already quote-marked in the source (possibly using [sic]), or 3) if scare-quotes added here, then remove the punct.|date=August 2020}} to the city for their troops.<ref>''Paris under the occupation'', [[Gilles Perrault]]; [[Jean-Pierre Azéma]] London : Deutsch, 1989, {{ISBN|978-0-233-98511-4}}.</ref> Various famous artists, such as [[Yves Montand]] or later [[Les Compagnons de la chanson]], started their careers during the occupation. [[Edith Piaf]] lived above [[L'Étoile de Kléber]], a famous bordello on the Rue Lauriston, which was near the [[Carlingue]] headquarters and was often frequented by German troops. The [[curfew]] in Paris was not enforced as strictly as in other cities.
The [[Django Reinhardt]] song "[[Nuages]]", performed by Reinhardt and the [[Quintet of the Hot Club of France]] in the [[Salle Pleyel]], gained notoriety among both French and German fans. [[Jean Reinhardt]]  was even invited to play for the {{Lang|de|[[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht]]|italic=no}}.<ref>Michael Dregni: ''Django – The Life and Music of a Gipsy Legend''. p.344, Oxford University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-01951-6752-8}}</ref> The use and abuse of Paris in the visitations of German forces during the Second World War led to a backlash; the intensive prostitution during the occupation made way for the ''Loi de [[Marthe Richard]]'' in 1946, which closed the bordellos and reduced raunchy stage shows to mere dancing events.
===Oppression===
During the German occupation, a forced labour policy, called ''[[Service du Travail Obligatoire]]'' ("Obligatory work service, STO"), consisted of the requisition and transfer of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Germany against their will, for the German war effort.  In addition to work camps for factories, agriculture, and railroads, [[forced labour]] was used for [[V-1 flying bomb (facilities)|V-1 launch sites]] and other military facilities targeted by the Allies in [[Operation Crossbow]]. Beginning in 1942, many refused to be drafted to factories and farms in Germany by the STO, going underground to avoid imprisonment and subsequent deportation to Germany. For the most part, those "work dodgers" (''réfractaires'') became [[Maquis (World War II)|''maquisards'']].
There were German reprisals against civilians in occupied countries; in France, the Nazis built an execution chamber in the cellars of the former Ministry of Aviation building in Paris.<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205194365
|title = NAZI PERSECUTION
|publisher =  Imperial War Museum
|year =  2011
|access-date = 18 April 2012}}</ref>
Many Jews were victims of [[the Holocaust in France]]. Approximately 49 [[Concentration camps in France|concentration camps]] were in use in France during the occupation, the largest of them at [[Drancy internment camp|Drancy]]. In the occupied zone, as of 1942, Jews were required to wear the [[yellow badge]] and were only allowed to ride in the last carriage of the [[Paris Métro]]. 13,152 Jews residing in the Paris region were victims of a mass arrest by pro-Nazi French authorities on 16 and 17 July 1942, known as the [[Vel' d'Hiv Roundup]], and were transported to [[Auschwitz]] where they were killed.<ref>[http://www.massviolence.org/The-Vel-d-Hiv-round-up Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence: ''Case Study: The Vélodrome d'Hiver Round-up: July 16 and 17, 1942'']</ref>
Overall, according to a detailed count drawn under [[Serge Klarsfeld]], slightly below 77,500 of the Jews residing in France died during the war, overwhelmingly after being deported to [[Extermination camp|death camps]].<ref>[[:fr:Shoah#Les victimes françaises|Summary from data compiled by the Association des Fils et Filles des déportés juifs de France, 1985.]]</ref><ref>Azéma, Jean-Pierre and Bédarida, François (dir.), ''La France des années noires'', 2 vol., Paris, Seuil, 1993 [rééd. Seuil, 2000 (Points Histoire)]</ref> Out of a Jewish population in France in 1940 of 350,000, this means that somewhat less than a quarter died. While horrific, the mortality rate was lower than in other occupied countries (e.g. 75 percent in the Netherlands) and, because the majority of the Jews were recent immigrants to France (mostly exiles from Germany), more Jews lived in France at the end of the occupation than did approximately 10 years earlier when Hitler formally came to power.<ref>François Delpech, ''Historiens et Géographes'', no 273, mai–juin 1979, {{ISSN|0046-757X}}</ref>
<gallery>
File:Juif.JPG|The [[Yellow badge|yellow]] [[Star of David]] made mandatory by the [[Vichy regime]] in France.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S59096, Plakat im Fenster eines französischen Restaurants.jpg|"[[Jewish people|Jews]] not admitted here". Sign outside a restaurant in Paris, rue de Choiseul.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B21356, Paris, Französinen mit Judenstern.jpg|French Jewish women wearing the [[yellow badge]].
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101II-MW-1019-07, Frankreich, Brest, Soldatenbordell.jpg|German soldiers entering a [[synagogue]] in [[Brest, France|Brest]] that has been converted into a ''Soldatenbordell'' (military [[brothel]] → [[German military brothels in World War II#German brothels in occupied France|German brothels in occupied France]]).
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H28708, Paris, Eifelturm, Besuch Adolf Hitler.jpg|[[Adolf Hitler]] strolling in front of the [[Eiffel Tower]] in Paris, 23 June 1940.
File:Execution chamber in the cellars of the former Ministry of Aviation building in Paris.jpg|Execution chamber inspected by a Parisian policeman and members of the [[French Forces of the Interior|FFI]] after the liberation.
File:Musee-de-lArmee-IMG 1058.jpg|German road signs in [[History of Paris#Occupied Paris and the Liberation (1940–1945)|occupied Paris]]. The ''[[Feldgendarmerie]]'' was responsible for military traffic..
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J27289, Frankreich, Festnahme von Franzosen.jpg|German soldiers and captured [[communist]]s, July 1944.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-074-2852-36A, Bordeaux, Platzkonzert der Wehrmacht.jpg|German [[Military band|army band]] in [[Bordeaux]], 1942.
</gallery>
==Aftermath==
The [[Liberation of France]] was the result of the Allied operations [[operation Overlord|''Overlord'']] and [[operation Dragoon|''Dragoon'']] in the summer of 1944. Most of France was liberated by September 1944. Some of the heavily fortified [[Submarine pen#France|French Atlantic coast submarine bases]] remained [[Atlantic pockets|stay-behind "fortresses"]] until the German capitulation in May 1945. The [[free France|Free French exile government]] declared the establishment of a [[GPRF|provisional French Republic]], ensuring continuity with the defunct Third Republic. It set about raising new troops to participate in the [[Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine|advance to the Rhine]] and the [[Western Allied invasion of Germany|invasion of Germany]], using the [[French Forces of the Interior]] as [[En cadre|military cadre]]s and manpower pools of experienced fighters to allow a very large and rapid expansion of the French Liberation Army (''Armée française de la Libération''). Thanks to [[Lend-Lease]], it was well equipped and well supplied despite the economic disruption brought by the occupation, and it grew from 500,000 men in the summer of 1944 to more than 1.3&nbsp;million by [[V-E day]], making it the fourth largest Allied army in Europe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Talbot|first1=C. Imlay|last2=Duffy Toft|first2=Monica|title=The Fog of Peace and War Planning: Military and Strategic Planning Under Uncertainty|publisher=Routledge, 2007|isbn=9781134210886|page=227|date=24 January 2007}}</ref>
[[File:Serment de Koufra 2 mars 1941.JPG|thumb|right|A plaque commemorating the [[Oath of Kufra]] near [[Strasbourg Cathedral|the cathedral]] of [[Strasbourg]], the capital of [[Alsace]] and [[Elsaß-Lothringen]], and after the war, [[European Parliament#History|a capital of Europe]] as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.]]
The [[French 2nd Armored Division]], tip of the spear of the [[Free French]] forces that had participated in the [[Normandy Campaign]] and had [[liberation of Paris|liberated Paris]] on 25 August 1944, went on to [[French 2nd Armoured Division#Alsace & Lorraine|liberate Strasbourg]] on 22 November 1944, thus fulfilling the [[Oath of Kufra]] made by General [[Philippe Leclerc|Leclerc]] almost four years earlier. The unit under his command, barely above [[Company (military unit)|company]]-size when it had captured the Italian fort, had grown into a full-strength armoured [[division (military)|division]].
The spearhead of the Free [[French First Army]], that had [[Operation Dragoon|landed in Provence]] on 15 August 1944, was the [[1 Army Corps (France)#World War 2|I Corps]]. Its leading unit, the [[French 1st Armored Division]], was the first Western Allied unit to reach the [[Rhône]] (25 August 1944), the [[Rhine]] (19 November 1944) and the [[Danube]] (21 April 1945). On 22 April 1945, it captured the [[Sigmaringen enclave]] in [[Baden-Württemberg]], where the last Vichy regime exiles, including Marshal Pétain, were hosted by the Germans in one of the ancestral castles of the [[Hohenzollern]] dynasty.
Collaborators were put on trial in legal purges (''[[épuration légale]]''), and a number were executed for [[high treason]], among them [[Pierre Laval]], Vichy's prime minister in 1942–44. Marshal Pétain, "Chief of the French State" and [[battle of Verdun|Verdun]] hero, was also condemned to death (14 August 1945), but his sentence was commuted to life three days later.<ref>by de Gaulle, then leader of the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]]</ref>
Thousands of collaborators were [[summary execution|summarily executed]] by local Resistance forces in so-called "savage purges" (''[[Pursuit of Nazi collaborators#France|épuration sauvage]]'').
==See also==
* [[Hôtel Terminus]]
* [[Paris in World War II]]
* [[Collaborationism in France during the Second World War]], book by Bertram M. Gordon
== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* [[Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen]], (ed) (2005). ''"Morts d'inanition": Famine et exclusions en France sous l'Occupation''. Rennes: [[Presses Universitaires de Rennes]]. {{ISBN|2-7535-0136-X}}
* {{cite book |author=Philippe Burrin |title=France Under the Germans: Collaboration and Compromise |publisher=New Press |location=New York |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-56584-439-1 |author-link=:fr:Philippe Burrin |url=https://archive.org/details/franceundergerma00phil }}
* [[Robert Gildea]] (2002). ''Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation 1940–1945''. London: Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-0-333-78230-9}}
* [[Gerhard Hirschfeld]] & Patrick Marsh  (eds) (1989). ''Collaboration in France: Politics and Culture during the Nazi Occupation 1940-1944''. Berg Pub, {{ISBN|978-0854962372}}
* [[Julian T. Jackson]] (2001). ''France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-19-820706-9}}
* Shtasel, Rebecca. "Workers’ resilience in occupied France: workers in Le Havre, 1941–1942." ''French History'' 34.2 (2020): 235-252.
==External links==
{{Wikisource|Convention d’armistice du 22 juin 1940|Convention d’armistice du {{nobr|22 juin 1940}}}}
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Appeal to the French People on the Entry of German Troops into Unoccupied France}}
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Complete German Occupation of France}}
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Letter to Marshal Petain Announcing Decision to Occupy Toulon}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091210021826/http://icp.ge.ch/po/cliotexte/la-seconde-guerre-mondiale/collaboration.resistance.html Cliotexte: sources on collaboration and resistance] {{in lang|fr}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091210032328/http://icp.ge.ch/po/cliotexte/la-seconde-guerre-mondiale/avortement.occupation.html Cliotexte: daily life under occupation] {{in lang|fr}}
* [http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/camp/eur/ger/dip/nd40m.html NAZI diplomacy: Vichy, 1940]
* [http://parisindepth.com/unwelcome An Unwelcome Visitor is a webpage relating Hitler's triumphal tour of Paris.]
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