The Unfree French Life Under the Occupation by Richard Vinen 2006 376pg

 26/6/23   French POWs  and Civilians in Germany during the German occupation of France 1940 to 1945

Officers were kept in comfortable  Oflags where these old men blamed each other for the defeat. Soldiers were in Stalags some had been  German barracks or lunatic asylums and had to construct their own camps at short notice.  A person who worked in the post office recalls letters in 16 different languages that made up conscripts of the French army. North African and Vietnameses were kept in other camps and treated badly. Whereas the British soldiers knew it was their duty to escape the French were not encouraged by Vichy to do the same.

The Red Cross supplied parcels and gave prisoners information of their rights those in work Kommandos did not know this. The strong and less educated were sent to  Work Kommandos there was a big demand for farm peasants and farm worker in some cases got much freedom and were preferable to Industrial work that was dangerous. Kommandos usually got more food that in the Stalags.

Repatriation started immediately for example Renault needed its workers back to fulfill German work contracts. Medical workers not needed in the camps. Veterans of WW1 and fathers of 4 children and other bureaucrats that would be useful to the Germans back in France. Flemish speakers as the Germans though they would be hostile to French unity. Prisoners were always kept by the Germans in the illusion that a peace agreement would be signed and they would go home soon. In France they were always suspicious of those who returned.  Many well connected wealthy families got releases for their sons. The Germans were more likely to release the idle in Stalags than those serving the German economy in the Kommandos. Soldiers like Mitterrand wanting to escape could do it easier from a work party.

The Releve( relief) 1942 June Pierre Laval announced that for every 3 French workers who volunteered to work in Germany, a French prisoner would be  released." For German victory for without it Bolshevism would be installed everywhere." At total of 100, 000 were released. Vichy could choose between 15 to 20% of those released the remainder were designated by the Germans. Many who arrived home were sick and categories that should have been sent home with out. this scheme in any case. Many  were people the Germans had found difficult to work with, who stood up for prisoners rights. Some hommes de confiance refused liberation to carry on their good work. The releve quickly became unpopular with the prisoners, their families and the French population. They caused a fall in morale in the camps .

At some time or othe 2 and a half million French were held in Germany. In rural France they had more food and less contact with the German, than in the cities

Stolen Youth

1943 Service de Travail Obligatoire STO compulsory work service. This was an important Vichy policy and created an opposition to Vichy and resulted in younger men going into the Marquis. Students were allowed to delay this till after exams and farmers were exempted. It was mostly for army age but extended to older people and it was claimed to get the idle off the streets.  Volunteers were mostly lumpenproletariat many were foreigners or criminals and created problems in German factories. Those compelled to go in 1943 were mostly metal workers whose skills the Germans needed.  In many ways people could get out and the way French society rather than the French state pushed men to go to Germany was not taken into account.  Many communities and families encouraged young men to go, because they feared German reprisals. Hunting down young men to be taken to Germany often ment searching cinemas, cafes, racecourses where idlers would hang out.

. About 20,000 bourgeois young men became coal miners, including sons of coal mine owners. This happened especially when student exemption from STO was abolished. Some Polytechniciens were spending a relatively short week underground and continued studying. Some schools came to an arrangement with the coalmines for their students. Professional miners objected as less production per person meant lower bonuses. The Germans knew about this but because of the shortage of coal in France never objected.  Bank clerks and other lower middle class jobs the workers were sent as they seemed more dispensable. The French post office transferred a large number of employees directly to the German postal service to replace those conscripted into the Wehrmacht.

Vichy and German authorities threatened sanctions against French doctors who gave out too many exception certificates and German or collaborationist doctors were brought or medical examination were conducted on German premices. There was a shortage of labour in France but men fleeing STO could be got for just board and lodging but their food could only come from the black market as they could not get ration cards. Families in the black market had the power to protect their sons. Agents of the state could be bribed by black marketeers.especially in rural areas where they got their supplies.

Most of the workers went under compulsion. Those recruited as volunteers with contracts later lost the right to return especially after 1943 when it started becoming clear that Frances future was more to do with what was happening in |London, Algiers and the woods in France and those in Germany were passive spectators of history. Initially volunteers were let home when their contracts expired but then the Germans stopped volunteers going home  when they realized how few were returning.

French Civilians in Germany: Best off were those who managed to pursue careers they had begun in France. Many civilian ended working alongside French POWs. POWs were usually about 10 years older than STO recruits. Catholicism created a bond between French men and the local population. About 200 priest and a small number of nuns went to work as missionaries. French workers in France were given discreet help by German priests and by lay German Catholics..

Transformes :  In 1943 The Vichy government encouraged French POWs to become civilians this way they could work for the German war effort , they got greater freedom , better  pay and easier correspondence. However they lost Geneva Convention protection. Some volunteered but many were not given the choice amongst those who were already in work Kommandos. They idea of being placed in armaments' factories was unpleasant. Men posted on farms where wages were low had little to gain from becoming civilians. Many were not given civilian clothes to replace their uniforms especially those working of fortification on the Eastern Front. They also had no organisation to protect them.

Women : Half the POWs were married men and Vichy made it illegal for wifes at home to live with other men. Those prisoners who did lose contact with their wives  asked the police to investigate as the were more worried about food parcels , the state of their property and children than fidelity. Many women volunteered for work in Germany because they had been abandoned by the fathers of their children. Young girls abused by stepfathers were open to this. French Prostitutes increased and were harassed by the police, pimps and local councils and so some went to Germany.

The Liberation:  France underwent not one but many different liberations. Some French citizen in Germany liberated by the Soviets did not get back for months even years. Cities like Saint -Lo was bombed by the Americans. La Rochelle was surrendered with negotiations with free French forces. De Gaul claimed that Paris liberated itself with the help of France while ignoring the presence of thousands of Allied Forces. Dances that had been forbidden under Vichy began and young people started meeting again especially those who avoided STO and  fled to the hills or from public places to avoid German forced labour. 

Operation Torch in North Africa began the liberation. Algeria was not a colony but part of France. The American approached Henri Giraud a French General who had escaped Germany. He was meant to be the leader but missed the submarine in Gibraltar. American forces landed and Admiral Dahlan ordered the French to resist. After the death of 453 Allied and 1368 french troops a ceasefire was arranged. The American suggested that Dahlan lead the French forces. He accepted as he had been squeezed out of power from Vichy by Laval's return. He was denounced by Petain but it was suggested that Petain was not a free agent. The Cremieux decree of  1870 had given Algerian Jews French citizenship and this had been abolished by Vichy. Jews only regained this 6 months after the Americans arrived. De Gaul met Roosevelt at the Casa Blanca summit and Roosevelt didn't trust De Gaulle but De Gaulle was impressed that Roosevelt could conduct a conversation in French. 

1942 De Gaulle had 50,000 troops under his command 2 years later he had 550,000  Punishment of collaborators and Pertainist in North African had a dramatic effect on mainland France. Vichy leaders  in absence had been sentenced to death sending Frenchmen to fight in the German Army.. German army in Corsica was evicted in November 1943. Corsica had been occupied by Italy till Mussolini withdrew and 40,000 Germans were left there. Once Sardinia had fallen the Germans were surrounded. The invasion in the south of France was mostly French soldiers. More than half of these troops were from French colonies. The Germans put up very little fight in the south and many just melted away. Marseilles was taken over by the Resistance. 

The British and Americans had planned the Normandy landing without DeGaul knowing, as the French could not keep secrets. It was finally agreed that the Allies would not impose a civilian government on France and would permit Free French amongst the Normandy landings. De Gaul was shaken by Petains April 1944 visit to Paris and warm welcome there. 

The  1944 June 6 D day Normandy landing, by the end of August allies had 2 million troops and ports to support the invasion. It also caused the plot to kill Hitler on 20th July 1944.  Frenchmen generally did not fight the British and American as Petain reminded them that France was neutral. The American were the most numerous of the allies and came with great technical skills and set up enormous camps naming them after US cigarettes. The French had best contact with Canadians from Quebec. The American brought more food to France than they took unlike the Germans. They were very protective of women and children. The  US Army refused to accept that their troops would frequent prostitution and put these places out of bounds.. Whereas the Germans had allocated bordellos for their troops and were more worried about diseases. Prostitution was getting back into working order however.  American troops had basic French lessons in the army newspaper and could speak some to women.

Black soldier were not automatically thrown out of bars as in the US but the American authorities were obsessed with the need to prevent contact between black soldiers and white girls. Any complaint was treated harshly and 21 men were executed for rape only 3 of them were white.

 Milice was formed in Vichy who became increaseingly fanatic and were  to keep order and they wiped out the Resistance, they were savage in their treatment of Jews. Petain belatedly tried to distance himself from it.  Many of these ended up joining the French Foreign legion after the war to escape retribution.

 During  the Liberation de Gaulle ceased to  be a radio voice and became a Right wing individual that was cool towards the Resistance fighters. There was now a division between De Gaulle and the Resistance which the Communists dominated over the Communist enemies. There was a division between the Communist leadership that had supported the Hitler Stalin pact and the party membership that dropped away sharply at this stage. The party became strong in rural areas as part of the anti - Fascist struggle after 1943.  Leaders had had  very little contact with the new members as some leaders were in London, Algeria and even Buchenwald. The Resistance only became a mass movement in 1944 because the leaders allowed it to assume such a role towards the Normandy landings. With the liberation came  purges. Lists of collaborators were printed and many of them moved to where German troops could provide protection, by June 1944 the Resistance had assassinated 2,500 people.

The memory of liberation was associated with the warmer weather, which made it easier to abandon homes and flee into the countryside now they were moving away from the bombing. Autumn of 1944 returned some students to their studies, there was still a shortage of food and fuel. Christmas trees that year were decorated by tin foil dropped as chaff by allied bomber to distort the German radar. Almost 2 million French men could not join the happy reunions as they were in Germany.

During Liberation Germans often snatched up workers. The remaining Vichy members went to Germany as political refugees. The presence of colaborator refugees in Germany meant that French could not express anti German sentiments. Food became scarce and Allied bombing increased in Germany and foreign workers were often denied entrance to bomb shelters. Red Cross had to bring the mail now which took months.

In Austria and East Germany Frenchmen were liberated by the Red Army and they witnessed the raping by Russian  or Mongolian troops many of whom were drunk. Those prisoner in big camps were okey but those in work Kommandos were regarded as German civilians and their watches were immediately stolen. About 300,000 French were liberated before the American arrived but were sent home via Odessa or other ways and eventually by train across German and reach their homes a year after liberation. This experience  had made them  very anti Communist and all the philosophy in involved.

Only a tiny minority of Jews returned. Others returning had to be checked if they had been traitors or Nazi sympathisers.

Many had been away 5 years.One wife said  a young man left her and she was reluctant to welcome back a prematurely aged man who felt a stranger to his children. The women had taken active lives while these men had had passive roles as prisoners and their masculinity was challenged.

Vichy did vanish, few people expressed loyalty to it after 1943 and by 1944 it had no authority

End: Many who returned to their normal lives and never talked about their experiences but on retiring wrote their memoirs in the 1980 to justify what had happened for their children and grandchildren.

 Soldiers memory of WW1 was unifying whereas there was no unifying state experience in WW2. When the village of Roussillon  wanted to cash in on Becketts wartime sojourn they had to return  his house to the type of amenities available in during the occupation.