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Regime of Petain The WWII became a bloody page of world history. It brought not only the tremendous destructions but also held a train of crippled humans lives. Many countries and nations suffered during the WWII. Among them Jews suffered a lot more due to the Final Solution. It was Nazi plan to totally exterminate the Jews of Europe. Between 1941 and 1945, about six million Jews were murdered throughout Europe; killed either near their homes by firing squads or transported to concentration camps where they were worked to death, or gassed. (Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning) As sad as it is, but France was no exclusion for this awful law.
Dont jump to the wrong conclusions. France we know doesnt exist in 1942 - 1945. This paper will contain facts about Marechal Philippe Petain, men primarily associated with Vichy and its policies. It will also, of course, about the Vichy regime that governed France, in name at least, between 1940 and 1944. It will also contain facts about the deportation of French Jews during WWII. Lets start from the biographical prelude.
Im strongly convinced that biography helps us a lot to understand ones man deeds. Henri Philippe Petain, (1856 - 1951), he was born in Cauchy-a-la-Tour in the family of peasant. He attended French military academy at St. Cyr and Ecole de Guerre, where he later taught. At the outbreak of World War I he was merely a colonel and near retirement. Also, he had attracted unfavorable attention because he rejected the army's official doctrine that furious infantry attacks would always overcome defensive resistance. (Richard Bienvenu) In November 1918 he was made marshal of France.
His diplomatic career developed greatly after the strangling of the rebellion of the Rifs in Morocco. Petain served as minister of war, as an ambassador to Spain in 1939 - 1940 and as vice president of the French general staff. Petain was deeply convinced that France must not wage offensive war, he supported the construction of the Maginot Line and neglected the new offensive weapons and tactics that were to defeat the lumbering, badly led French army in 1940 (Richard Bienvenu) French government moved to the Vichy, their Petain was voted to draft a new constitution and the very next day he declared himself "head of government and " head of state (Richard Bienvenu). The returning of former glory to France was a goal for new government. His government became a clear example of pluralistic dictatorship. The new regime was monocrat ic, i.
e. power was invested in a single individual. In other words Marechal represent all power by himself. The office of President was abolished. Coins, postage stamps and banknotes would carry the words Etat francais and a profile of Petain. New laws would begin with the declaration We, Philippe Petain, Marshall of France.
Petain had the full authority to nominate ministers, appoint all government officials, introduce new legislation, grant pardons and amnesties, command the armed forces and negotiate with other states. (The Vichy of the National Revolution) In his policy toward Germany Petain tried to collaborate, to play a cunning double game hoping in that way to protect France from Germany or at least to obtain a non punitive peace. Petain also dreamed of an internal "national revolution to transform France into a stable authoritarian order based on "work, family, fatherland. (Richard Bienvenu) However, all French offers were rejected. Hitler promised nothing to Petain because he knew that Petain was totally powerless. His was surrounded by advisors who assisted him on policy matters and speeches. The direction of French policy changed according to the new sack of ministries and advisors from the conservative (1940 - 40) to ultimately, openly fascist one (1942 - 44). As the war went on, Petain's power to appoint his own ministers found itself limited by demands from Nazi Germany.
Moreover, Petain constantly found himself struggling to improve Franco-German relations, which, by 1942, were deteriorating. In 1942 Petain recalled Laval, who was favored by the Nazis, and from that moment on lost much of his own authority and power. (The Vichy of the National Revolution) After the German occupation of all France Petain became a marionette serving Hitlers interests. French government had no power to decline harsh demands for money, materiel, workers, and, finally, Jews for slaughter. According to the The 3 rd Reich & the Holocaust Era, Jan 1933 -May 1945 With Frances defeat, about 750, 000 additional Jews, including about 400, 000 Jews in French North Africa, were swiftly trapped in the Nazi orbit Prime Minister Francois Darlan was convinced that France's best interests were served by an accord with Germany.
As a result the Vichy government fully cooperated in Nazi anti-Jewish measures and assisted with the deportations to death camps. Nazis methodically prepared the deportation of French Jewry. In March 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews from the occupied zones in France to the death camps. In July of that same year, they demanded that all Jews be rounded up in unoccupied France for deportation (The 3 rd Reich & the Holocaust Era). More than 15, 000 foreign Jews were handed by the Vichy government to the death camps. According to the The 3 rd Reich & the Holocaust Era On July 16 and 17, 12, 884 Jews were seized in Paris and crowded into the Veledrome d'Hiver with no food, water, or sanitary facilities.
Elsewhere Jews were also taken, and by way of France, 42, 500 were deported eastward. One third were from the unoccupied zone... last transports to the camps in the summer of 1944. Because of the French government 76, 000 Jews were deported from France. Only 2, 500 of the 76, 000 Jews survived. During the WWII half of Europe's Jewish population was murdered.
The most horrible thing is that Jews were killed for no other reason than the fact that they were Jews. Bibliography M. Larkin, France since the Popular Front: Government and People 1936 - 1986 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) Marcus, Michael R. The Holocaust in History. Hanover, N. H. : University of New England Press, 1987 Gutman, Yisrael, ed.
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1990, p. 20 Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning, < web > The 3 rd Reich & the Holocaust Era, Jan 1933 -May 1945, Murderous Racism and Antisemitism - Bureaucracy of Evil The Vichy of the National Revolution, < web > Richard Bienvenu, University of Missouri, Henri Philippe Petain, < web >
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