3rd Birthday Party Twins

The German occupation of France (1940-1944)

Some parts of my introductory page of this book are:

In the four years of German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, is interlocutor of the occupant of the Vichy government, whose head of state is the Marshal Philippe Petain. To have a French organization, though limited, as it directly controls just under half of the country, affects the German occupation of France and save ruthless, as were those that the Nazis had put in place in other occupied countries.

Vichy was able to reduce the sometimes overbearing pretensions of the winner, with passive resistance, or the issue of courageous protest laws that undermined its effectiveness. The Germans, in fact, many times, they were forced to mitigate the toughest positions that were putting in place against individuals or the whole population.

France had more than a million and a half of soldiers and prisoners will be just that this truce will allow representatives of the French mitigate the harsh life in the camps of these their compatriots.

The examination of these four years of occupation is clearly not easy. There is the everyday life of French citizens still dealing with the struggle for survival, the daily search for food that is becoming more scarce. Sadness touches then thousands of families who have prisoners in Germany. We try to organize for them, even with the help of the Vichy government, sending the little you can find.

Then there are the minority of French people who side. Are those of active and passive resistance that will try to fight the Germans boycotting, or with more bloody attacks that will be transformed in recent months employment in 1944, also in open clashes with guerrillas. On the other hand, there he enlisted in the "Légion des Volontaires Français" who fought alongside the Germans on the Russian front and that will eventually form the French division of the SS "Charlemagne", which will be the last to stand in defense of the Reichstag in Berlin. On the domestic front, the militia was formed to maintain order and fight the partisans, this force will have about 30,000 men.

On 29 August 1944, with the liberation of Paris, the Petain government ends its existence. Four years had passed since it was installed. For over sixty years of this historical experience, I think it's interesting to be able to study and examine some impartiality, based mainly on historical facts and Passoni policies that were alive at that time.