The most quickly felt impact of German occupation was general shortage. All products of value were seized by the Germans, and French citizens received ration cards for just about everything. Coal and fuel were difficult to get, so people were freezing in winter time, made their own clothes, and mostly used bicycles. Food shortage was most felt in cities : meat, coffee, fruit, sugar, almost everything was scarce. As rutabagas and Jerusalem artichokes became staple diets, there was immediately a thriving black market. Wholesale dealers of “butter, eggs and cheese” made fortunes buying restricted products from farmers.
The French population did not have that much contact with the German soldiers and officials, as the Vichy government served as a willing intermediary. The Germans paraded daily on the Champs Elysées, signs in German were placed everywhere, hotels and public buildings were seized to establish “Kommandanturs” (Gestapo headquarters) in every sizeable locality. Because of the Vichy puppet state, Germans were generally not violent to the French unless they had a specific reason.
There were indeed atrocities such as the massacre of the entire village of Oradour sur Glane, but it was more of an exception, considering that such deeds were commonplace in occupied Poland, Yugoslavia or Soviet Union. However, if a German was shot or missing, it could trigger retaliation on a whole community, and several collective execution of hostages occurred, mostly after the landing.
Most French avoided and feared the Germans, but had to deal with them. The Germans were entertained, as they could not be denied entry to restaurants, music halls or theatres. Prostitutes of course accepted them, but a number of love affairs happened too, as most soldiers were young and wholesome, and appeared to be the winners. As in other occupied countries, women who engaged in that were shaven publicly on Liberation. There was a massive birthrate drop after the invasion, slowly reversing in 1943 and booming afterwards.
The shock of defeat had granted the Vichy régime general support in the first two years. As the régime became increasingly oppressive, things reversed after 1942. Many French people had radios, and would listen secretly to the news in French broadcast from London, as they did not expect the official media to tell the truth about the reality at the front. Pétain was elderly, and it was his henchman Pierre Laval who made the decrees, especially after 1942. The first Allied victories in the Mediterranenan ended the division of the country, which was totally occupied. The Italian occupation zone in the Southeast was extended for one year, then overtaken by the Germans.
Laval organized the round up of Jews in the summer of 1942, and one year later, young Frenchmen were all enrolled in compulsory labor in Germany (S.T.O), which boosted the Resistance movement, as many joined the “maquis” in remote areas. Even more feared than the Germans was Vichy’s police, the Milice. They were chasing resistance members who, if caught, would be tortured, executed or handed over to the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps. 10,000 out of 35,000 “miliciens” were executed without trial during the “Epuration”, at the Liberation. Several thousand Frenchmen enrolled in the “Legion of French Volunteers”, operating at home, or in the Waffen SS then deployed to the Eastern front.
Outside of food shortage, the most vivid memory left by the German occupation and the Vichy régime was a general climate of fear and suspicion. Immediately, the police received piles of anonymous letters denouncing illegal activities. There were so many of them in larger cities that they were barely even read, but in small towns, their effects could be devastating. A movie called “le Corbeau” (the crow), made in 1943, was dealing about the panic caused in a town by anonymous letters although it did not make explicit reference to the political situation.
Life of French citizens under Nazi control and Vichy régime left an ugly memory of shame, poverty, hatred and fear. Unlike World War One, there was not a whole generation butchered, nor such devastated regions. The most awful aspect was that France had a collaborationist government that oppressed and betrayed its own citizens, the only similar example would be Quisling’s Norway. France’s German occupation globally compares to Belgium, Netherlands or Denmark, and was not as openly barbaric as in Eastern Europe or Greece. If you look at what happened there, life in France in those years would look enviable. But it was more survival than life though, and many destinies were shattered or affected forever.
Those four years had a huge impact on collective memory, that was felt throughout the following decades, and the topic is still around today, since there are a few people old enough to remember, although most were quite young then. After the Liberation, the big shame was the past of collaboration in which millions were involved more or less directly. It was chosen to emphasize the Resistance movement instead, even though it had not been all that massive in the beginning.
In 1969, Marcel Ophuls made a four year long documentary called “le Chagrin et la Pitié” (the Sorrow and the Pity), interviewing all sorts of French people about the period : peasants, collaborationists, resistants, artists, political figures. It was banned from French National TV at the time, because the government was afraid it would divide the country and reopen wounds. It has been broadcast on TV several times since then. If you are interested in that period, maybe you should see it, it exists with English subtitles.
– François Chevallier
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.